Big Trouble At 11:35
the laid show
Mark Seal (thanks, Mark): A man waits in the darkness, watching what is left of his life slip away. His name is Robert Joel Halderman. At 51, he is a producer for the CBS true-crime series 48 Hours Mystery, the latest post for a battle-scarred newsman who has spent much of his life in war zones. He’s had two divorces, which have saddled him with crushing alimony payments, and his second wife recently sent him “reeling,” as he e-mailed colleagues, when she moved to Colorado with their 11-year-old son, Jimmy.
It’s late August 2009, and Halderman is keeping watch outside his modest house, in Norwalk, Connecticut, as a $100,000 electric Tesla sports car comes to a stop at the end of the road. In the passenger seat is his smart, attractive live-in girlfriend, Stephanie Birkitt, 34, being driven home from work by her boss, David Letterman, who lives 20 miles away on a 108-acre estate in Westchester.