Pondering a steamy city of colliding cultures and corruption, Marcus looks out upon the water.
Marcus meets with Antoine Saacks. The former Marine officer describes how an angry sniper named Mark Essex had the entire police force running in circles as he turned the downtown Howard Johnson’s hotel into a killing field.
On New Year’s Eve, 1972, an ex-Navy cadet named Mark Essex declared a terror war on New Orleans. Here, Marcus meets with former Black Panther party member and Essex acquaintance, Malik Rahim, who describes the “glare of rage” he saw in Mark’s eyes.
Marcus comes to New Orleans to chase down its demons and his own fears. Here, Marcus braves getting attacked by a police dog.
The police dogs are sweet animals who have a job to do. Marcus calls a truce with his "attacker."
Marcus cannot even fathom how someone like Madame LaLaurie could get away with the horrifying cruelties she imposed on her slaves.
To learn more about the voodoo religion practiced by the slaves, Marcus meets with priestess Miriam Chamani and asks her for a blessing. She provides him with much more. She reads his life with such accuracy, it shatters his skepticism.
While in New Orleans Marcus volunteers his time with Project Homecoming, an organization who rebuilds homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
Two days after Hurricane Katrina, police -- responding to an alleged firefight on New Orleans’s Danziger Bridge -- shot and killed innocent civilians. Here, Marcus meets with Warren Riley, the former superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department at the time of the killings to hear the full story.
Exploring the post-Katrina violence, Marcus talks to New Orleans resident Hal Clark. Over gumbo at Lil’ Dizzy’s in the storied Treme neighborhood, Clark recounts the victims of the Danziger Bridge shootings.
Marcus then heads to Tulane University to sit in on Dr. Peter Scharf's criminology class. The class has a discussion about the police and their actions in the Danziger Bridge shootings.
