I'd never even heard of these crimes, probably because I was in grad school at the time.
Two guys who knew each other in the military when they served as MPs are now running a lawn service together and have decided to branch out into pin ball machine rental - and robbery and murder. Usually when this sort of thing happens it is a couple of two bit crooks who can't back down when around each other and end up doing horrible acts of violence - I think of the murder of the Clutter family by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith in this case. But the odd thing is that until the fall of 1985 these two guys -William Matix and Michael Platt - had no record of committing any crimes at all, and had honorable discharges from the military.
If one was the dominant one it was probably Platt, who seemed to be a loving husband and father around his family and turned hostile, sullen, and homicidal away from them. Matix was the opposite. He wanted to impress members of his church with his gentle nature, but was both emotionally and physically abusive to the women with whom he was involved when behind closed doors. Together, alone, they would kill without remorse, and rob without planning, with them walking away from a couple of robbery attempts with nothing to show.
The FBI in south Florida gets called in, and spends six months trying to figure out the duo's next move without knowing much about them other than they don't seem to do much in the way of planning and that they are bloodthirsty. There is pretty good character development of the agents, and it is interesting to see Ronny Cox play a good guy. His casting is especially odd since he played a homicidal executive in Robocop just the year before. Michael Gross did a great job with his role. There wasn't a hint of father figure Steven Keaton in his portrayal of the murderous sociopath William Matix.
Recommended as a good "true crime" film that resists the ham fisted dialog and situations of many made for TV movies of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, although some details have been changed or omitted for the purposes of dramatic license and focusing the plot. For example, the film mentions that Matix's previous wife was murdered, which she was, in 1983. It doesn't mention that Platt's wife's death a year later, from a shotgun blast, was ruled a suicide. Both of those cases were reopened after the crime spree. Neither was ever solved or resolved.
Two guys who knew each other in the military when they served as MPs are now running a lawn service together and have decided to branch out into pin ball machine rental - and robbery and murder. Usually when this sort of thing happens it is a couple of two bit crooks who can't back down when around each other and end up doing horrible acts of violence - I think of the murder of the Clutter family by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith in this case. But the odd thing is that until the fall of 1985 these two guys -William Matix and Michael Platt - had no record of committing any crimes at all, and had honorable discharges from the military.
If one was the dominant one it was probably Platt, who seemed to be a loving husband and father around his family and turned hostile, sullen, and homicidal away from them. Matix was the opposite. He wanted to impress members of his church with his gentle nature, but was both emotionally and physically abusive to the women with whom he was involved when behind closed doors. Together, alone, they would kill without remorse, and rob without planning, with them walking away from a couple of robbery attempts with nothing to show.
The FBI in south Florida gets called in, and spends six months trying to figure out the duo's next move without knowing much about them other than they don't seem to do much in the way of planning and that they are bloodthirsty. There is pretty good character development of the agents, and it is interesting to see Ronny Cox play a good guy. His casting is especially odd since he played a homicidal executive in Robocop just the year before. Michael Gross did a great job with his role. There wasn't a hint of father figure Steven Keaton in his portrayal of the murderous sociopath William Matix.
Recommended as a good "true crime" film that resists the ham fisted dialog and situations of many made for TV movies of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, although some details have been changed or omitted for the purposes of dramatic license and focusing the plot. For example, the film mentions that Matix's previous wife was murdered, which she was, in 1983. It doesn't mention that Platt's wife's death a year later, from a shotgun blast, was ruled a suicide. Both of those cases were reopened after the crime spree. Neither was ever solved or resolved.