Lin Newborn in a "Smash Racism" t-shirt

26 Years Later

It’s been 26 years since Lin “Spit” Newborn and Daniel Shersty were killed in the desert outside Las Vegas after being drawn out there under false pretenses by a group of neo-Nazi skinheads. It’s been 26 years since parents lost their sons, a child lost his father, and a community lost one of its guiding […]

A white man in glasses stands in front of an old theater marquee.

A quick production update as we head into spring

If things have seemed quiet around here since our last update following our December filming dates, that’s because the work that’s been happening on Murdered on the Fourth of July since then (following a little holiday break) has been less visible but very important, including: Ingesting, syncing, and transcribing filmed interviews Creating a “paper edit” […]

Four people filming an interview for a documentary outside of a shopping center

Las Vegas filming, week 1

Last week, we assembled our Murdered on the Fourth of July team–director/producer Pj Perez, co-producer Roudi Boroumand and cinematographer Winston Moon–in Las Vegas for a whirlwind three days of filming, with the aid of sound mixer Ty Peterson and production assistant Mario Martin. We crisscrossed the Las Vegas Valley to film interviews with five subjects […]

Pj Perez behind the camera

Our first crowdfunding campaign was a success!

Our crowdfunding campaign to kickstart production on Murdered on the Fourth of July ended this morning with a “Green Light” from Seed&Spark, having raised a total of $11,100–only 8% shy of our $12,000 total goal–thanks to the contributions of 92 generous supporters. That is incredible. It demonstrates how important this project is to so many […]

Pj Perez, Margaret Newborn, Harry Fagel

Remembering Spit and Dan on KNPR’s ‘State of Nevada’

On the October 24, 2023 episode of Nevada Public Radio’s “State of Nevada,” host Joe Schoenmann spoke with Murdered on the Fourth of July director/producer Pj Perez, Margaret Newborn (Lin Newborn’s sister), and retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police captain Harry Fagel about the circumstances that led to the murders of Lin Newborn and Daniel Shersty, and […]

Murdered on the Fourth of July campaign page at 65 percent funded

Curious about our crowdfunding campaign? We have answers.

As we zoom into the third leg of our crowdfunding campaign to kickstart production on Murdered on the Fourth of July, we wanted to take a moment to answer some questions that have come up over the last few weeks from both current and potential supporters and provide a more thorough reminder of what this […]

Winston Moon

Getting to Know Cinematographer Winston Moon

Cinematographer Winston Moon joined the Murdered on the Fourth of July team this summer, bringing not only his camera, lighting and visual storytelling talents to the project, but also his approach to being “an authentic human.” “I’m blessed to have an intuitive relationship with story and images and am very much led by my heart […]

Roudi Boroumand in front of a bookshelf

In Their Own Words: Co-Producer Roudi Boroumand

1 It was the Summer of 2009. I was sitting in a corner at Dead Poet Books in Las Vegas, reading from a pile of books, magazines, and binders of clippings that the store owner had introduced for my research. I was looking for the biographies of the artists that have died young to write […]

Pj Perez sitting and pointing with both hands.

In Their Own Words: Director and Producer Pj Perez

I don’t remember the first time I met Lin “Spit” Newborn. I know that it was at the Torrey Pines Discount Cinema, home in the early 1990s to Friday and Saturday midnight screenings of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Spit was just one of the dozens of regular “freaks” who came to “watch” Rocky every weekend. […]