‘The Real Manhunter’ Recap: ‘The Dream City Cinema Fire’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Seven of ‘The Real Manhunter’.
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When we think of the crimes that are committed in our modern world, we often think about complex schemes that are generated in the mind of twisted individuals. Whose only goal is to sow chaos and teach mankind a lesson and we think of those things, because that is how crime is presented in television and film. For movies love to have complex killers and television shows are all about intricate crimes and how they come to fruition and well, while that definitely makes for solid entertainment and offers fascinating insight on the act of murder, it is not a true representation of how crime happens in our world. 
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Because sometimes, ugly crimes are committed when a lover is jilted or there are substances involved that motivate someone to cross a line. Or they happen by way of a bad or angry decision, and that last reason for a crime to be committed is of concern today, because that served as the focus of the next episode of The Real Manhunter. For ‘The Dream City Cinema Fire’ revolved around a harrowing case for Colin Sutton and his team. One where an anger fueled decision, led to a horrific fire at an unlicensed pornographic theater, the kind that ended up taking the lives of eleven men and what was fascinating about this particular case… was that it didn’t seem as though angry human influence was involved in the slightest.

For the Dream City Cinema operated off the books and sold memberships under the table and because it wasn’t a licensed city business… it wasn’t subject to all the fire regulations that other theaters had to abide by. Which made it seem as first, as though negligence was the key to this fire. For with no regulations in place, layers of paint and flammable materials were stacked upon one another. Which in turn allowed for the fire to spread quickly once it took hold. But a little forensic work, is what brought about the discovery of the crime in question. Because as investigators dug through the rubble… they uncovered something quite alarming; a melted gas can. Which in turn immediately made it clear that someone set this blaze intentionally and that put everyone on the hunt for the arsonist and oddly enough, it didn’t take them that long to find him.

Because eyewitness accounts and CCTV helped the police to learn that a man named David Lauwers set the fire, because of an angry misunderstanding. One where Lauwers struggled to comprehend that the theater was showing a type of movie that he might find offensive, and and the disconnect likely came about because David is deaf. And the frustration and anger that boiled over in that moment, motivated him to just get a gas can and light everyone in the place ablaze. Which was a stunning revelation to say the least and thankfully, Lauwers realized the impact of his horrible decision and eventually turned himself in and was given a life sentence. But while those facts help us to better understand how crimes are sometimes committed on a moment’s notice, what also makes this case of note, is how the press and police handled it back in 1994.

Because this is a story that was unfortunately glazed over and pushed aside, because the pornographic film that was shown on that night, was homosexual in nature. Which meant that the men that died were part of the LGBTQ+ community and rather than highlight their struggles and stories, because of how attitudes were toward LGBTQ+ individuals in the 90s, it was swept under the proverbial rug to not bring forth any controversy and that was just a wrong decision then, plain and simple. Because we’re talking about eleven lives, brutally murdered from a poor decision and their stories should have been told. But at least this series made an effort to right that wrong, and well… in the end, this really was perhaps… the darkest chapter in this documentary series to date. Simply because it put our genuine cruelty and anger on display and there is little in this world, more frightening than that. Until next time.  

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