The last days of August contained some explicit and upsetting material involving sexuality, assault, and self-harm.It may not be suitable for all audiences.
And so we set about trying to find someone who was in the room that day with August and Marcus Dupree.
Marcos, the photographer, said that August must have been exaggerating what happened, because she was mentally ill, or a millennial, or whipped up by Kevin, or some combination.But he hadn't been in the room.
We approach Marcos Dupree several times through an interview, and he texts us a one-word reply.No.And then, finally, success.
As I told Lena, I just want to be identified as someone who was close to production, who was there that day, and someone who has known August for a while.
Sure, that's fine.I'm happy with that stipulation.So, you were in the room that day.
So, obviously you saw everything that happened.
It's quite brave of Paul, I'll call him Paul, to do this interview, because it could put his job at risk.As he texted us, quote, I have a livelihood and peace of mind to concern myself with, but I want justice for August.
I've been seeing shoots for a very long time.If you're going to rate things from 1 to 10, 10 being the most extreme, 1 being a very tame vanilla scene, this probably fell somewhere around 5, maybe 6 tops.
From my perspective, there was nothing there that would indicate that there was a problem on her end.
In her texts, she said she was looking at the sound man with help me eyes and he was looking back at her with I'm sorry eyes.
Okay, that I couldn't be aware of.I didn't see any of that.
So when did you first realize that there was a problem?
It was the following day.It was indicated by the people I work with that her husband had called them saying something along the lines of, do you allow this type of behavior on one of your sets?
And as a result, they called down and they were asking questions and probing and everyone collectively on the crew was very confused by the whole situation.
Paul said August was fine that day, but when she got home Kevin must have provoked her into turning it into a drama.That's what he meant when he said he wanted justice for August.
For Paul, justice means exposing Kevin, not exposing what happened in Las Vegas, which he says was nothing.
Everyone was kind of looking at the marriage between her and Kevin as odd.She indicated that in January, which would have been a month after she died, when her visa went through, she was going to leave and divorce Kevin.
That's what she had told me in a conversation.I've never met the guy.I've only heard things.The guy seemed to be a real reactionary, a lot of negativity in his head. It seemed that he flipped out more than she had an issue with.
And in turn, she broke down to him.Could have been the dynamic of their relationship.It was more of an overreaction on his end.
Paul says he knows all of this because while Kevin was complaining to the office up in Montreal, August and the director were secretly texting each other.
Please give me a minute here.OK. It goes like this.Hey, Kevin is throwing a fit to my bosses.They are all up in arms about the shoot yesterday.She says, I know, with a, I don't know if that looks like an unhappy emoji.It's not really an emoji.
It was really rough.I just did the scene because I wanted it over and done with, but it was way too out of hand for me.I was uncomfortable.Just the slamming the head down on the desk and dragging, choking me with my panties.
I'm not upset with you by any means.More like myself for not seeing anything, but I was undressing and Kevin saw my bruises and called me out.I like to keep it together on set, but I wasn't happy working with Marcus.
Great attitude, but too rough and annoyed me.Response was, I wish you said something.I would have reeled him in a bit if I knew you were not having it.I always want you to be comfortable.
Her response, I was trying to say help with my eyes at times, but yeah, I just bit my lip because I wanted it over with.Thanks, happy emoji.And I didn't want to make anything awkward for the day, so I was just positive.
Response was, whatever you can do to calm Kevin down will help in the end, but just know you can always speak up around me, especially when we are rolling. Anything you can do on your end to help calm things down a bit will help all of us.
Her response, it was just a bad day for me.I'm sorry Kevin yelled at your boss and made a huge thing out of it.It's not that big of a deal.I'm having the day off so I get to relax.End of conversation.
Paul says this wasn't the last text exchange that August had with the crew.
She sent them some small talk texts, too, about how she was hanging out with her friend Emma Hicks, and how she just got a new kitten, and she was planning to spend that Christmas in Canada with her brother James.
There was further conversations, I guess really up until a week before her suicide, I would say.
As it happens, I already knew that August had been planning to spend Christmas with James in Canada.James had told me back when we met in that hotel room in Hinton.
I contacted her and she did not sound happy, like she sounded fucking off.And that was after Marcus Dupree roughed her up.So I said, I want you to come home with me and I want you to spend Christmas with me.
And I heard him getting angry in the background. Yelling, and she's like, I gotta go, I gotta go, hangs up the phone, right?
Yelling like, I don't want you to go to Canada.
I don't want you to go, I don't want you, yeah, yeah, more or less, I don't want you to, you're not going, I don't want you to go, for like, be gone for the holidays and shit like that, right?
So this was all, I didn't know about Marcus Dupree, I didn't know about her being emotionally upset, I didn't know about that. And I just heard it in her voice, so then I asked her to come.
And so he was probably thinking, OK, well, she's not fucking doing scenes.Now she's going to go see her brother in Canada.He's going to see what she's like.She's not going to come back.
Anyway, back to my conversation with Paul.So she said in her text, I was uncomfortable just the slamming the head down on the desk and dragging and choking with my panties.So that that happened, right?
Yes, that happened when rolling in a scene that was 20, 25 minutes long.But if it was really bad, she would have called cut.She has called cut in previous scenes too, I need to note as well.
At the end of it all, we want everyone to come back and be happy and have a good experience.And because all that does is keep everyone employed.
Those things, the slamming the head down, the dragging and the choking.Did any of those things happen when the photo shoot was happening?
No, no, because photos are more of a dry run rehearsal.
It sounds to me that she was just really considerate.Even though she's the one who went through that terrible experience, what was at the forefront of her mind was that the men in the room shouldn't feel bad.
I got that as well, which was why I think everyone on our crew was blindsided with the shitstorm that Kevin was creating the following day.And it didn't seem like any of us were really surprised about it based on the reputation that this guy has had.
I think you sort of slightly misunderstood one thing I said just then when I said that in her text exchange she was working so hard to not make anybody feel bad about what happened.
It's just very sad that she'd been through this terrible experience and what was at the top of her mind was telling other people not to worry.
Well, I'm kind of reminded a little bit.Do you know the play An Inspector Calls?
It's a British post-war play written by J.B.Priestley.
A police officer comes to a house and says that a working-class girl has committed suicide and no one in the house knows who she is and then one by one they all realize that there was just a tiny thing that they did that weighed her down.
During the weeks that follow, we reignite our search for Kevin's mysterious former wife, Shazia Sahari.
He was also married to Shazia Sahari.She disappeared all of a sudden from the business and from what I understand that she's in a mental institution.
It's a little fishy how two girls in his life have seemed to have gone, like, I'm not going to say August has gone crazy, but I just mean like it just, something clicked in their head where they're just like, I'm so done with this, you know?
Shazia Sahari is proving impossible to find.We have no leads at all.When you're gone from porn, you're gone.
My name is Shazia Sahari.
Although we do manage to track down Pierre Woodman, the man who interviewed her for this Casting Couch video.
How do you see the future?
My true passion is in ethnographic research and writing.
Do you remember doing a Casting Couch interview with Shazia Sahari?Who?
Shazia Sahari. Chassiatari.No, I don't know his name.The other girl was dead.The other girl was dead.No, no, she's not dead.
Okay, how do you spell it?S-H-A-Z-I-A.S-H-A-Z-I-A.
Finally, Pierre consults his database.
Yes, yes, Chassiatari.I feel shame because now, after what you said to me, I have to type your name. You know, I'm so sorry, I have sex with more than 5,500 girls, so I'm so sorry.
And so Pierre has no idea how we might find Shazia.But it turns out that by coincidence, he once had an unrelated run-in with Kevin. It was in 2015, and Pierre blogged about it at the time.Quote, End quote.
The reason why this feels important is because Kevin has always denied controlling August's no-list.In fact, he made a big deal about it during a speech at the AVN Awards.
Who you work with is up to you.It's your body, it's your choice.
If Kevin is being misleading about this, then why?
Porn director Axel Braun had told me that Shazia once worked with the legendary porn star Lexington Steele, who agrees to meet me in the back seat of his Porsche in the parking lot of a Whole Foods in the valley.
I know that you shot a scene with a particular woman that we're interested in, Shazia Sahari. What was your name again?
Shazia Sahari.Was I with her in one of Axl's movies?Yes.Okay, so she was the Asian girl?Yes.Kind of tall, leaf, model-like, runway model-like. She seemed to be about 5'9", 5'10", as I remember, short haircut.Very exotic.
I enjoyed working with her and from what I can recall, it was a good scene and I'm sure both of us would do it again.
There's something I need to tell you about how we arranged this interview because it becomes important later.
With every other person we interviewed, we explained in advance that we were telling the story of August Ames and Kevin Moore and Kevin's previous relationships.But with Lexington, we didn't get a chance to.
He agreed to the interview right away and half an hour later we're here in his car.So I thought I would just explain it to him face to face.What we know is that her husband was called Kevin Moore.Do you remember him?
Oh yeah, Kevin's a good friend of mine.
Oh.Literally, we actually have a company together.Oh.We're partners on Eolangel Media. He's the squarest dude I've ever known.And I don't mean square like as in a nerd, if you will, in that terminology.I mean square like as in fair dealing.
I mean, I'd never known a dude to lose his temper.Shoot, it's too bad because he really loved August.
So is there anything I should remember about Shazia? No.
It was just another day at work.
And that's basically my meeting with Lexington Steel.It seemed to go well.We part on good terms and I have no idea what this interview will soon unleash.I had distanced myself from Kevin for a few months while we tried to learn what we could.
But Kevin's world was about to come to us. A few nights after my meeting with Lexington, I'm drifting off to sleep when something happens.My iPhone pings.It's a DM from the porn star Lisa Ann.The message says, yo, urgent, can you call me?
It can't wait until tomorrow. I haven't spoken to Lisa-Anne in a year since I interviewed her for season one of our Butterfly Effect podcast, and so this is unexpected.
Although I do know that she's friends and business colleagues with Kevin, both of them working with the production company Evil Angel. Oh, can you hear me?
On the phone, Lisa-Anne tells me that it's been brought to her attention that I am doing a story on, quote, all the girls who died last year.
It's a strange start to the conversation because we aren't telling the story of all the girls who died last year and we haven't told anybody that we are. were telling August's story.
She says that three of the girls who died last year were represented by the English agent Derek Hay.
And I think a reason for this call is that she wants to persuade me to investigate their deaths and not August's, because she and Derek Hay have a history of business and personal disputes. The phone call gets heated.
Lisa Ann says that I'm putting people on the spot.She means Lexington Steel.I'm making the industry feel very uncomfortable.
And if I interview one person in LA, by the end of the day they've contacted 10 people, who've told 20 other people, and everyone is getting scared to answer their phones in case it's me or Lena.She says we're causing mass panic in the industry.
And she asks me why I'm even doing this story, given that August is already dead.
Lisa-Anne replies that she doesn't think what I'm doing is appropriate.She says she knows it's journalism.
but I'm going to run her business through the mud and make porn performers seem like horrible people, just like journalists always do.And I'm going to shame August's family, who are mourning her death.
And because of our reporting, more girls are going to kill themselves.Although I don't understand what she means by that.I'm finding the phone call overwhelming, and so I do something that I don't think I've ever done before.
Lisa-Anne, it's late at night.Listen, I have great respect for you, but I'm going to hang up the phone because this is not an appropriate conversation.Okay, so I'm going to hang up.
If you want to speak, we'll speak during the day, but not late at night.Okay, I'm hanging up the phone now.Okay, goodbye.
Hey, Lisa-Anne, it's John.Can you hear me?
Hey, I'm good.How are you?
Good.I hear you guys are getting a little bit more snow.I got to see some last week when I was in the city.
It's a few weeks later.Lisa Ryan is at her home studio in Los Angeles.I'm in a studio in New York.It's nice that we're back to being pleasant, but inevitably it doesn't last long.
So you contacted Kevin mainly because this was such a sensational story because everybody was talking about the potential that it could have been.
She was nudged, uh, maybe already in a dark place, but nudged over the edge by some social media interaction.
But, but what I don't understand is why The other five, we had five girls die with a very short period of time in the business.And no one reached out to their family or their significant others.And I understand August was an A-list girl.
So I understand this was more dynamic because of something that you're interested in, but no one else has talked about any of these other girls.
Sure.Well, look, I can only speak for myself and my own motives with that.I've written really a lot about online pylons.So during the process of me contacting some of the people who got involved that night and, you know, tweeted at August,
You know, people started saying things to me and it was... Well, they're going to defend themselves so they don't have to accept their own guilt and say sorry.
So I don't take any of the words of people who are guilty as people you should be asking for credible information.This would be like going into a gang and trying to get the truth about who the lead dealer is.
Well, look, this is where we are now.We're trying to sift through all of these things and try and work out exactly what the truth is, which is what we should be doing.
99.9 percent of what you're going to hear in this business is fucking bullshit.Everybody fucking lies.They are the most uneducated, shady, criminal fucking people I've ever engaged with.
Can I move on to asking you a bit about Kevin?
Sure.Let me tell you my history with Kevin.I met Kevin.He used to shoot me.We shot together a ton.I always enjoyed shooting for him.
Sure.I would like to talk a little bit about that night and the conversations you had with Kevin.Did he talk to you about the hotel, the Sheraton Hotel?
He didn't say whether or not he checked into a hotel that night?
No, we didn't talk about that.
We have heard from some people that Kevin could be controlling.
And did any of these people ever live with Kevin to see if he's controlling, or were they just assuming?It's kind of hard to say what goes on in a private relationship.
I'll give you one example, red carpet at the AVN.And this guy is in front of August and Kevin and he's like a good friend of August's.And he turns around and says, you know, hi.
And August is acting like completely differently to how she would normally act.
And the red carpet is so stressful, though.I got to tell you, when those girls are on there and they've had their makeup done and they're in their dress and they're waiting in line and everyone's prodding at them, it's not it's very awkward.
I've actually been in situations where I haven't been pleasant to people.That's why I don't want to do the red carpet anymore.Um, I don't know.It's so much anxiety, that whole trade show.Everyone's kind of edgy.
OK, one of the stories that I heard is that August and a friend were like sort of chatting in the room and, you know, having fun and laughing.
And then Kevin came in and then, you know, the atmosphere like completely changed and they both felt like they had to kind of fall silent because, you know.
Was this because one of the girls had drugs and Kevin knew it because he didn't really like August doing drugs and a lot of the girls would do drugs?
very could be, you know, those are things that it's good for a young girl to have a man that's protective of her in this business because there's so many elements that shouldn't be involved that are involved.
Again, none of this is going to bring her back to life.None of this is going to make Kevin's life easier.And none of us are perfect. At this point, we lost a very valuable person in the industry.
We have an example that's poorly set for losing five girls in a month's period of time.They're all gone now, and we can't bring any of them back.
And prodding at the animals in the cage and trying to find out what you learn from a bunch of people who don't even know the fucking truth.These are people that don't even know their own truth.You're talking to people who do drugs on the regular.
People who do drugs and the gray matter in their mind and the things that it affects and the clarity that they don't have are not respectable people to give their opinion on the facts of a death of another human being that they probably weren't good to, weren't close with, didn't care about, and now they're willing to talk about it.
It's telling stories about tragedies that create moralities.It's telling these stories that make people realize that they have to behave differently to the people who are still alive.
OK, well, let me just put it to you this way.Seventy five percent of the business is on the edge enough to commit suicide at any time.That's the way you have to look at it.
I've interacted sexually with more people that are no longer here than probably anybody in this world. It's not that much of a story with one girl.
The story is the forward thinking future of not gossiping, not bringing up darkness, trying to look towards the light and trying to instill a positive mindset and try and create groups.
You can't say that this piece of yours is working towards the future.You're not going to save anybody.They're already dead.
You're only going to make more people get closer to the edge and we'll have more deaths after this comes out because everyone's going to feel so guilty about the lies that they've told.
The end result for you is you want to blame Kevin for August's suicide, right?Is that what you're doing?No.You're using our industry and the weakness of our industry and the fear involved to create a story for yourself.
I've seen this too many times before.That's exactly what you're doing.You're using the dummies.
I have to ignore some of the things that Lisa Ann said to me.I can't quit this story because of her theoretical warning that people might kill themselves because they'll feel guilty about lying to me.That feels like emotional blackmail.
Plus, there were Lisa Ann's repeated warnings that if I looked into August's death, I would be dragging her industry through the mud. And of course I've been worrying about that.
But it feels like double standards that she frequently mentions the other girls who died, those who had been represented by a business enemy. But what about Lisa Anne's other criticisms?
To be honest, I have had anxiety all year about the ethics of digging into Kevin's life.A grieving husband whose behaviour has triggered rumours is still a grieving husband.
It's been spinning around my head so much, I can't tell if the worries are justified or if I'm just fixating. But here are the reasons why I've carried on.
First, I'd never have embarked on this had Kevin not politicised the tragedy in the weeks after August died, releasing a statement that laid much of the blame on Jessica Drake.
Also, August's death was unthinkably terrible and it didn't happen for no reason. Now we'd stumbled into this.Not pursuing it feels worse than pursuing it.Lisa-Anne had said that we were, quote, using the dummies.
And maybe some of our interviewees will turn out to have said unreliable things, but it's our job to try and get to the truth.
We just need to remember to always do it with balance, fairness and compassion, but still follow the story wherever it takes us.
I just want to point out, you were right.What?You told me it would be a hand grenade.You were right.I didn't listen to you.
And now I'm visiting Kevin at his home out in Camarillo.Kevin's hand grenade comment relates to something we'd talked about back in January, when this was still a story about social media bullying.
Kevin was about to release his statement, and although it wasn't my place to say, I had offered him a warning. It's going to be like setting off a hand grenade.And is that definitely the right thing to do?
Yeah, I think the business might need a hand grenade.
It was a hand grenade in a slightly different way to the way that I anticipated.
Oh, it was the hand grenade I anticipated.
That people would come after you.
Yeah, I knew it.Yeah 100% I knew it because I know this business I've been doing it 20 years.
I thought the hand grenade would be Everybody would sort of just pile in on Jessica Drake and Jackson Wheeler When you said hand grenade, I totally thought differently.
I knew internally It would be more than a hand grenade.It would be like going to war That's what happened
Why?Why is the business like that?
You don't get into this if you're a well-adjusted human being.If everyone was, like, sane and level, we'd all have different jobs.We can't function like adults.We just can't, like, be real with each other.Instead, it's just this nastiness.
Our relationship with Kevin these past months has inevitably not been easy.When we began hearing the rumours, we distanced ourselves from him.But once in a while, he would telephone us.
I find it ironic the two of you are together.Why ironic?
Every day, when I start to feel better, I got to hear your fucking name. Trying to find out something.Who the fuck are you?
Here's the bottom line, John.There's no story.
But today Kevin says I can ask him anything I like.We're sitting on the sofa underneath a big framed portrait of August.Her ashes are in the bedroom.I can see a lit candle next to them.Her bedroom is purple and covered in stuffed animals.
I start by asking Kevin about his childhood.
I can remember being a kid and one day we're given two options.We go play soccer outside or we could go do home ec.The guys all went outside to play with the ball.And I'm like, why would I wanna hang out with a bunch of dudes?All the girls are here.
I heard that at one point you were gonna go into a seminary and become a priest.
When I was a kid, I wanted to, yeah.Yeah, as an altar boy, I was real into it. It was, you know, at a time it was sort of cool.And then there's sort of the realization, well, this might all be built on a lie.
You know what other world is all built on a lie as well as the church?
Absolutely.You went from one lie to another.Yeah.
I should describe what this conversation looks like.Lina, Kevin and I are sitting on Kevin's sofa.
I have my laptop open and on my laptop is a list of questions like, why didn't you mention that you checked into a Sheraton the night August went missing?And are you controlling?It's a strange and uncomfortable situation for us all.
OK, let me get to my questions.
The Last Days of August was written by me, John Ronson.It was produced by Lina Misitsis.The music is by Joel Ronson.The sound engineer is Paul Schneider.
Thanks to Eric Newsom, Colin Campbell, Jonathan Kurland, Vanessa Harris, Rosa Oh, Jose Acevedo, Elaine Ronson, and David Bloom.
If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal urges or ideation, you can phone the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1800 273 8255.
