‘S-Town’ Trial Could Be Happening This Fall

Big news, S-Town fans.

A theft trial featuring many “characters” of S-Town may be held in the fall, according to Tuscaloosa News.

The extraordinarily popular podcast, produced by the This American Life and Serial team, is hosted by TAL’s Brian Reed and focuses on a man named John B. McLemore who asks Reed to investigate his town of Woodstock, Alabama.

“[McLemore] asks Brian to investigate the son of a wealthy family who’s allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder,” the podcast’s website says. “But then someone else ends up dead, and the search for the truth leads to a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man’s life.”

S-Town garnered a staggering 16 million downloads in the week following its March 28 release. By comparison, it took Serial eight weeks to hit the same mark.

The prosecutor, Bryan Jones, moved to continue the trial from its June date to the fall because of the issues raised upon review of the podcast.

"The state of Alabama needs more time to prepare for trial because some of the discovery issues have not been resolved," said Jones’s motion.

S-Town is named for the introductory email Reed received from McLemore, which had the subject line: “John B McLemore lives in Shittown Alabama.”

The case itself centers on x, a friend of McLemore’s, and it charges that Goodson stole property from McLemore after his 2015 death.

Goodson claims McLemore promised him land and custody of his mother, if anything happened to him, but McLemore never left an actual will, so his estate turned over to his mother. Despite legal warnings, Goodson returned repeatedly to McLemore’s property and took items with him.

Goodson was first charged with several counts of theft of property, forgery, trespassing, and more.

But in June, because of the podcast, a new indictment will come down as a replacement, removing the criminal trespass charges, changing the forgery charges to possession of a forgery instrument, and would make McLemore’s mother, McLemore himself, and his heirs victims.

"That podcast is going to be very important because it's the only way of proving that the burglaries occurred," says Jones.