Episodios

  • Trailer
    Apr 27 2023

    When the body of a young, gay, Black man, Gemmel Moore, was pulled out of the West Hollywood apartment of Ed Buck - a white, millionaire donor to the Democratic party - the coroner called it an accidental overdose. The police didn’t arrest Buck. And the media refused to report on it.

    But just 18 months later, when a second Black man, Timothy Dean, was found dead in the same apartment from the same drug, the police still didn’t arrest Buck, sparking a series of terrifying questions. Why was Buck still free when two men had died in his home surrounded by drugs? How much were his wealth and political connections protecting him? And how many more men might have been harmed in that apartment?

    In White Smoke: America’s Chemsex Killer, investigative journalist Patrick Strudwick uncovers the secret world behind this explosive Hollywood scandal. Through original reporting, we discover how a cocktail of power, racism, sexual exploitation, and drug abuse had been detonating in Buck’s apartment for years. And how it’s connected to a wider chemsex scene playing out in queer communities all around the world - one that provides the perfect hunting ground for predators.

    But those communities are fighting back. In this series, we meet the men who lived a nightmare inside Buck’s apartment, the friends of the men who died, and the activists who triggered a movement to get Buck off the streets.

    White Smoke: America's Chemsex Killer is a Whistledown Production for Audible.

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    4 mins
  • Episode 1: Escape
    May 4 2023
    Los Angeles, 2019. When a drugged Black man escapes the home of Ed Buck — a white, gay millionaire donor to the Democratic party — his only thought is survival. But by fleeing and phoning 911, the man sets in motion a dramatic chain of events that uncovers many more victims and an entire secret world of sex, meth, and racist predators.
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    34 mins
  • Episode 2: Gemmel
    May 4 2023
    The first man to die in Ed Buck’s apartment from a meth overdose was a 26-year-old gay Black man named Gemmel Moore. But Buck was not arrested and the media didn’t pay much attention. His friends and family feared that Gemmel’s race, sexuality and class meant that no one in power would care — and that the wealth, whiteness and political influence of Buck was stopping the police from investigating. So they launched a protest movement that makes Ed Buck an international news story.
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    1 h
  • Episode 3: Timothy
    May 4 2023
    When a second man’s body is pulled out of Ed Buck’s apartment, a pattern begins to form, as other victims come forward. But in Tim’s death there lies a mystery: the very man who had warned his friends not to go over to Buck’s place, did exactly that. What forces led a 55-year-old man with a good job, close friends and family, to meet the man he called ‘the devil’?
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    48 mins
  • Episode 4: Dane
    May 4 2023
    The man who escaped and phoned 911 reveals how he came to live in that apartment, the horrors that took place there over the summer of 2019 and what happened when he finally went to the police.
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    51 mins
  • Episode 5: Phoenix
    May 4 2023
    In the 1980s, Ed Buck became a famous anti-racism campaigner, who led the campaign to recall Arizona’s new racist governor. But the signs of who Buck would eventually become began to show. Those who knew him best from that period, including his ex lover, describe the clues and key moments that never should have been ignored.
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    55 mins
  • Episode 6: WeHo
    May 4 2023
    Retired at just 32, the wealthy Ed Buck moved to West Hollywood, where the previous warning bells about his behavior eventually turned into sirens. His attempts to reignite his political power were now fueled by money. And his sex life became fueled by meth, and a desire to control. A new victim, who has never spoken before, reveals what he had to do to survive dozens of chemsex sessions at Buck’s apartment.
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    1 h
  • Episode 7: Media
    May 4 2023
    The dominant narrative about Ed Buck, formed by activists and journalists, describes him as a rich, powerful white man who preyed on poor, vulnerable Black men. That narrative served a purpose. But the complexities were ignored – along with some of the other victims, who had never been heard — until now.
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    1 h y 4 mins