(Photo Credits: Screengrab from Rachel Mason’s Official Facebook Account)

A new true crime documentary is drawing attention for doing what decades of investigation could not—solving the 1990 murder of a gay adult film performer. My Brother’s Killer, directed by Rachel Mason, revisits the killing of Billy London, born William Arnold Newton, whose death shocked Los Angeles’ LGBTQ community and then faded into one of many unresolved cases of the era.

Newton was a young performer in the gay adult film industry when he was killed. Reportedly, only his head and feet were discovered in a Hollywood dumpster; the rest of his body was never found. At the time, the case was often compared to sensationalized unsolved crimes and even referred to by some as the “gay Black Dahlia,” a label that reflected the brutality of the crime. For more than three decades, the case remained cold.

Mason did not initially set out to solve a murder. While working with archival materials from the gay adult film world, she became intrigued by Newton’s story and began digging deeper. What started as a documentary project evolved into something far more consequential. “Initially, my goal was to make a film which would humanize and memorialize Billy so he would be known not just as the victim of a murder, in the hopes that when the film would come out, it could help spark leads for the investigation,” she said in a statement. “I absolutely hoped that my efforts would help, but I couldn’t have imagined that we would solve it while making the film.”

The film’s most striking contribution lies in its use of archival footage as evidence. Old recordings from industry events—once considered cultural artifacts—became potential clues. In one instance, Mason described seeing a figure in the background of a decades-old tape who would later emerge as a key suspect. “There’s a videotape of a memorial award show from the gay adult industry in the early ’90s. It’s basically a time capsule of that era. And in that footage you see someone who later became the suspected killer actually walk on stage. It’s chilling,” she said.

The documentary ultimately led to a recorded confession from DarraLynn Madden, a transgender woman who admitted involvement in the killing during an on-camera prison interview, according to multiple reports.

Mason also emphasized the unexpected role that adult film archives played in reconstructing the past. “I started realizing that gay porn is actually a form of history. Before the 1980s you didn’t see gay lives represented on television,” she noted. “Porn was one of the only places where those lives existed visually. So I started thinking: there must be incredible stories buried in that world. Billy’s story turned out to be one of them.”

The documentary premiered at the South by Southwest (SXSW) in March 2026, where it quickly became one of the most talked-about entries. My Brother’s Killer is expected to reach wider audiences through streaming platforms later this year. For more information, click here and here.

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