Petitions Signed

Joe Hunt’s family members call the 1987 Billionaire Boys Club TV Miniseries sensationalized, inaccurate

“The 1987 made-for-TV miniseries ‘Billionaire Boys Club’ was biased against Joe before his trials were even complete, full of sensationalized hype, with blatant disregard for the documented facts in the case,” said Joe Hunt’s brother-in-law Michael Olivier. “Fictional storytelling is one thing, but this is a real person’s life. It’s irresponsible to mix the two in a way that negatively impacts our entire family.”

The miniseries’ factual inaccuracies include:

  • The second half of the movie presents the situation involving Hedayat Eslaminia as if law enforcement’s version of his death was proven at trial. Actually, the prosecutors dismissed their case against all four defendants, including Joe Hunt, after Joe established to the satisfaction of a majority of his jury that Dean Karny, the State’s star witness, was solely responsible for Hedayat’s death.
  • A jury in 1988 rejected the State’s theory that Jim Pittman shot Ron Levin, voting 10-2 to acquit Pittman.
  • Excluding the general background facts related to the BBC, the miniseries is almost entirely based upon the testimony of a single witness, Dean Karny. Yet, neither Dean Karny nor any other prosecution witness has ever claimed they personally witnessed the death of Ron Levin. Ignored by the producers of the NBC miniseries are eight witnesses with no ties to Joe who came forward with their encounters with Ron Levin after he absconded from Beverly Hills in 1984.

Free Joe Hunt

If you believe in hope, justice, and rehabilitation, join our cause, and give hope not only to Joe Hunt, but to prisoners everywhere sentenced to life without parole -- "the other death penalty."