EXCLUSIVE: On April 18th of this year, at a parole board hearing in New Hampshire, convicted murderer James Parker was granted parole for his role in the brutal 2001 stabbing murders of Half and Suzanne Zantop, a pair of married Dartmouth professors.
After acquiring rights to Judgment Ridge, a work of nonfiction detailing the chilly story of those murders, producers Randy and Steven Toll have enlisted Matthew Gentile (American Murderer) to direct a feature adaptation from his own script.
Written by Dick Lehr and Mitchell Zuckoff, Judgment Ridge evokes clear memories of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, as it delves deeply into the inexplicable behavior that led to these ruthless murders.
It was at age 16 that Parker conspired with his best friend to commit the murders of the Zantrops. He and co-conspirator Robert Tulloch came to commit the crime after plotting to put together the $10,000 they needed to move to Australia and leave their mundane lives in Chelsea, Vermont behind.
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