November 19, 2010 - By MICHAEL D. McELWAIN (mmcelwain@reviewonline.com)
EAST LIVERPOOL - A documentary about the unsolved 1973 "Tweed Murders" that shocked the East Liverpool community will air this Saturday.
The documentary film "759 Dresden" is the result of more than two years of research and filmmaking, according to David Dunlap, the film's producer and director.
The documentary will air on WQED, the Pittsburgh-based PBS station at 10 p.m. Saturday as part of the "Filmmakers Corner" program hosted by Minette Seate.
"With interviews from the people that were there, previously unseen archival footage and a 3-D model of the crime scene, the facts and myths surrounding the murder are presented in the hope that new information will be brought forward from the viewing public," Dunlap said.
On a larger scale, Dunlap said the film is about more than the Tweed murders and is "also about the issue of unsolved murders in the Columbiana County area."
The headline on July 31, 1973, said it all.
"Police Hunt Slayer of Three" ran on the top of the front page of The Evening Review with a smaller headline underneath, "Man, Woman And Child Murdered."
The news rippled through the community concerning the July 30, 1973, brutal death of all three, one a prominent city businessman, the pregnant woman and her daughter. Law enforcement officers from all over descended upon East Liverpool attempting to catch the suspect. With a few witnesses and even fewer leads, the murderer was never apprehended.
For a city unaccustomed to such a heinous crime, the initial news and the follow-up investigation continued for weeks.
Dunlap said the project turned personal.
"I grew up in Calcutta. However when I was younger, we did most our shopping downtown. That was before all the stores that we have now in Calcutta," Dunlap said. "My mom would drop me off at the Carnegie Library while she shopped because I loved to read, especially history, so I knew about the Tweed case from a young age, and I always thought it was a tragedy that they couldn't solve that case."
Dunlap said he wanted to shoot a documentary that would give something back to the community and thought that if his team could shoot a documentary on the Tweed case, maybe it could engage the community to try and help solve the case or one of the other unsolved cases in Columbiana County.
"To me, Earl Tweed, and Linda and Angela Morris were not just faces in the newspaper, but these were people from our community ... people that had family that loved and missed them, and I felt that we needed, as a community, to give this case and the other unsolved cases our best effort," Dunlap said.
Several East Liverpool residents were interviewed including police officers, crime scene photographers and reporters working that day. Mayor Jim Swoger is seen in the introduction.
Former Review reporter Lucille Huston is interviewed and gives her account about what happened that day in 1973.
Current police officers on the East Liverpool force are also interviewed, and the case remains open.
"This film is about a community coming together to help our neighbors find some long-sought answers, and, maybe, find some closure after all these years," Dunlap said.
The documentary film "759 Dresden" is the result of more than two years of research and filmmaking, according to David Dunlap, the film's producer and director.
The documentary will air on WQED, the Pittsburgh-based PBS station at 10 p.m. Saturday as part of the "Filmmakers Corner" program hosted by Minette Seate.
"With interviews from the people that were there, previously unseen archival footage and a 3-D model of the crime scene, the facts and myths surrounding the murder are presented in the hope that new information will be brought forward from the viewing public," Dunlap said.
On a larger scale, Dunlap said the film is about more than the Tweed murders and is "also about the issue of unsolved murders in the Columbiana County area."
The headline on July 31, 1973, said it all.
"Police Hunt Slayer of Three" ran on the top of the front page of The Evening Review with a smaller headline underneath, "Man, Woman And Child Murdered."
The news rippled through the community concerning the July 30, 1973, brutal death of all three, one a prominent city businessman, the pregnant woman and her daughter. Law enforcement officers from all over descended upon East Liverpool attempting to catch the suspect. With a few witnesses and even fewer leads, the murderer was never apprehended.
For a city unaccustomed to such a heinous crime, the initial news and the follow-up investigation continued for weeks.
Dunlap said the project turned personal.
"I grew up in Calcutta. However when I was younger, we did most our shopping downtown. That was before all the stores that we have now in Calcutta," Dunlap said. "My mom would drop me off at the Carnegie Library while she shopped because I loved to read, especially history, so I knew about the Tweed case from a young age, and I always thought it was a tragedy that they couldn't solve that case."
Dunlap said he wanted to shoot a documentary that would give something back to the community and thought that if his team could shoot a documentary on the Tweed case, maybe it could engage the community to try and help solve the case or one of the other unsolved cases in Columbiana County.
"To me, Earl Tweed, and Linda and Angela Morris were not just faces in the newspaper, but these were people from our community ... people that had family that loved and missed them, and I felt that we needed, as a community, to give this case and the other unsolved cases our best effort," Dunlap said.
Several East Liverpool residents were interviewed including police officers, crime scene photographers and reporters working that day. Mayor Jim Swoger is seen in the introduction.
Former Review reporter Lucille Huston is interviewed and gives her account about what happened that day in 1973.
Current police officers on the East Liverpool force are also interviewed, and the case remains open.
"This film is about a community coming together to help our neighbors find some long-sought answers, and, maybe, find some closure after all these years," Dunlap said.
