‘The Many Lives of Benjaman Kyle’ May Be Even Crazier Than ‘The Curious Case of Natalia Grace’
Shannon and Eric Evangelista (The Curious Case of Natalia Grace) spent 11 years filming what would become The Many Lives of Benjaman Kyle. As the title says, Kyle has lived a cat-esque number of lives — the process of unraveling them has probably taken a few years off the Evangelistas’ lives.
Thus far, the decade-plus effort has netted four hours of television for Investigation Discovery (but you’ll watch it on HBO Max). The husband-and-wife documentarian team believes you’ll see more soon.
“It lends itself to another season,” Shannon Evangelista told The Hollywood Reporter. “It all sets a stage for a new part where we sit him down and say, ‘Hey, what’s going on?'”
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There’s a lot going on, and the Evangelistas have not turned off their cameras since they went up in 2014.
The “him” here is “Benjaman Kyle,” a now-77-year-old man who has claims to suffer from an especially curious case of amnesia, one which erased all of his memories from 1983-2004 and selectively targeted any clues that could uncover his former identity. I hate when that happens, though maybe not as much as Eric Evangelista does.
“This amnesia doesn’t exist,” he told THR. “It’s like you’re watching General Hospital with your grandma in 1986, and you’re like, ‘Oh, OK, yeah, I’ve seen this story before — it’s bullshit.'”
It sure is, and that’s just one of their many findings. The bullshit really piles up with this one. As it turns out, “Benjaman Kyle” is really William Powell of Lafayette, Indiana, and Bill Powell is a dangerous man.
In August 2004, “Kyle” was found naked behind a Burger King in rural Georgia. (He chose the initials “B.K.” because he woke up behind a… B.K. Have it your way, I suppose.) A media circus, including an appearance on The Dr. Phil Show, followed, but no one could link Kyle to his previous existence. The Evangelistas wanted to help — now, they probably wish they never met the man.
Shortly after Shannon and Eric find out Kyle is Powell, they find out Powell has a violent and shady past linking him to a powerful Midwestern crime family. All sorts of threats demanding they stop production followed. They did no such thing (though they made the choice to bleep out the crime family’s name throughout the series). Instead, the Evangelistas, a former attorney (Shannon) and journalist (Eric) hired retired FBI special agent Ken Maxwell to head their personal security; Maxwell becomes invaluable in the continued search for truth.
The filmmakers say they can prove Kyle knew he was Powell this whole time. Evidence lifted from a computer used by Kyle shows he Googled his own (real) identity in an attempt to reconnect to Social Security benefits and receive a legitimate ID as this forgetful character he created. Those efforts failed. Shannon says they also discovered “like seven different versions” of Kyle’s list of 23 vague memories that he (insincerely) provided to the media in the past.
The amnesia gimmick was to convince the crime family that anything Powell may have had on them has been lost to time (and a supposed head injury). The reason he sought media attention was was an attempt to secure the safety that can come with being a public figure. Secret organizations don’t like their murders to make the news if they can avoid it.
“He’s a genius,” Shannon said. “It’s brilliant what he did.”
Slow down with all that — the man misspelled “Benjamin.”
Season one of The Many Lives of Benjaman Kyle ends somewhat abruptly, and with footage that spans quite a few years. The doc’s two camera crews had split a long time ago, one following the Evangelistas and their continued search for answers, and the other with Kyle/Powell. It’s a jarring finish — less so when you get the sense that a second season is inevitable.
“All we really did in [season] one was we solved motive,” Shannon said.
Though there has been no announcement regarding the future of the docuseries, everything points to a renewal: The Curious Case of Natalia Grace has expanded into a literal ID franchise. In a (probably not) hypothetical second season, viewers would see Powell “facing his own demons,” in Shannon’s words, including that “gnarly” final interview in which the filmmakers confront Powell with some serious criminal accusations, including the one the statute of limitations never runs out on: murder.
“We were transparent, and he got violent at one point,” Shannon said.
Maxwell described the contentious December 2016 interview as as “three successive nights of… disclosing to him what we had found out about him, and basically saying, ‘Hey, Benjaman, we know what you’ve been involved in, and here are the facts.”
Powell didn’t like that.
“He’s a control freak. He wants to run the room, [he thinks he’s] the smartest guy in the room,” Maxwell continued. “He reacted in a variety of ways, the last of which was getting very angry and violent, throwing off his mic, and you know, leaving the room.”
I asked Maxwell, who has investigated the worst of the worst and “been threatened by the best of them,” how dangerous Powell is at his advanced age.
Powell is “still robust physically,” Maxwell said, but “he smokes too much. He doesn’t follow a healthy regimen in his lifestyle.
“But, you know, anybody that’s still on the face of the Earth and has the mindset to lash out— it is always possible,” Maxwell continued. “Anytime you’re dealing with people who have a nefarious background… you have to be practical about it and you take reasonable steps.”
After he (probably) ruined their mic pack, Powell has ghosted the filmmakers — including Maxwell’s cheery annual holiday phone call. He can run (well, he probably can’t run) but he can’t hide. Powell lives in the exact same apartment Natalia Grace lived in while the Evangelistas were investigating her story. They, ah, know the address well. Again, perhaps we’re throwing that word “genius” around a bit too loosely, Shannon.
Shannon says she has already “mapped out” a second season and provided a “full episode breakdown” to ID.
“A lot of the crazy stuff we found out was after Benjamin stopped speaking to us,” she said.
So now, they’re enlisting your help.
“You reach a plateau level where you may want to go out and elicit the help of the public,” Maxwell said. “We’re at that point in the investigation. Let’s get, get out there, let’s let people know what we’re involved in.”
Eric believes when the season airs, they’ll be “flooded” with new tips. Production on this thing may never end.
The Many Lives of Benjaman Kyle aired Monday and Tuesday from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET on Investigation Discovery. The two-night event is now available to stream on HBO Max.
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