Vanity Fair got it wrong.
Here it is, over a year after George disappeared. Nobody has been arrested, yet it is very clear that there are a number of people 'in the orbit of opportunity.' Most of them have been questioned, some of them have been brought before a grand jury in Connecticut, two of them continue to sail aboard various Royal Caribbean ships, and one of them has just $settled$ with Royal Caribbean. There's a shocker. In the past year we have seen George's story on the floor of congress, twice, and on the primetime shows practically ad infinitum. First Royal Caribbean was mum, but then they brought out the big pr guns and tried to reframe the conversation. It worked. After the Royal Caribbean communications folks dug themselves deeper and deeper, Lanny Davis came on and spun the conversation in a matter of hours. He successfully injected enough doubt into the debate that people watching along on tv couldn't tell which end was up. It boggles my mind that some people out there can look at the story of George Smith and conclude: yep, accident. Dude fell off the balcony, smoking a cigar. Vanity Fair's Bryan Burrough drank the Kool-Aid, folks. He phoned this one in and, unfortunately, a lot of people bought it - literally and figureatively. He missed the key interviews, never went on the ship, and didn't look into a few dark corners. I know because I have. And it's not pretty. My guess is that he was up against a deadline, realized the difficulty in getting the story correct, and erred on the side of caution. But come on, look at who is involved: three russian-american dudes, two of which live in the Brighton Beach area of New York (hint hint); a hot, young, flirty and drunken wife; a kid from California who, as with the Russians, had been present for a group sex romp on the ship just three days after George was murdered. Just a coincidence that they were also the ones to bring George back to his room? Then you have the two casino employees, Lloyd and Christian, who went to the disco with George and jennifer that night. And, drumroll...you have a corporation that is a convicted felon. Mix it all together, throw in some absinthe and money and sex and what do you get? Accident. NOT. Blood-in-the-room should tell anyone with half a brain that George didn't fall of that balcony. But let's humor Burrough and say, okay, maybe george did fall. He fell and bled on that awning. But what next? He slid off? Nope; that awning was too large and contrary to the spin, the seas were calm that night. Like glass. So, George would have to have fallen on the awning, got up (the fall was 21 feet) and repeated the error all over again. And what of the money in the safe? Where'd that go? It fell overboard with George, too? And how'd that blood get on the bed, on the floor, in the bathroom and in the hall. Yep, there was blood in hall, outside the door to the stateroom. And here are a few more things to consider: Jennifer went behind the Smith's back and settled with the cruise line. Why? Why did she go to her spa appointment two hours early, without George, without concern for George, in the same sundress she wore the night before? Why, by the way, was Jennifer not brought to the ship's DOCTOR when she was 'found' in the hallway - it is, afterall, ship protocol. Why does she deny kicking George in the groin that night in the disco? There are witnesses, end of story. And here's something you probably don't know: why were the Turkish investigators going to arrest her for murder? Next - the people in the orbit of opportunity all pled the fifth before the grand jury. Why? There's also a telling detail that many overlook - two people in the orbit of opportunity offer a different version of what happened that night. Josh says he went up to the disco with Lloyd and Christian, George, Jen, and one of the Russians. Lloyd says no, he and Christian went to the disco separately, and that they left early. Why the discrepancy? When someone tells a small lie, there's probably a bigger lie behind it. So who's the liar, here? Jen doesn't remember anything - how convenient. Maybe there's a reason she doesn't remember anything, and I'm not talking about the absinthe. Why did she fly home the NEXT day? Wouldn't you want to search and be present when the Greek cutters find your husband, especially if he is alive? Why did she back out of her scheduled interview with CBS 48 Hours at the last minute? Hmm, maybe she got wind of what they were going to ask her? Why did Royal Caribbean staffers take pictures of Smith's room that morning? And one other thing, why did Royal Caribbean clean up the blood that day, and scrub the room down for two days thereafter? What were they trying to clean up? Say, a murder? This is all a long way of saying that George Smith's death was no accident. This, btw, is just the beginning. Tell me where I am wrong.