A family-owned newspaper and a corrupt sheriff’s department: the new documentary Kill. Bury. Print. takes viewers to rural Oklahoma, where a family searches for the truth, no matter the cost.
The true-crime doc from director Ben Klein follows newspaper publisher Bruce Willingham and his family as they report on, and fight against, law enforcement corruption in Idabel, Oklahoma.
This story of the McCurtain Gazette and the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Department begins in 2018. Reporter Chris Willingham, working for his family’s newspaper, writes a series of articles alleging department malfeasance under Sheriff Kevin Clardy. As his reporting digs into accusations of sexual affairs, drugs and violence within the sheriff’s department, Bruce Willingham and Chris Willingham find themselves in the department’s crosshairs.
Five years later, Clardy, Bruce Willingham and Chris Willingham are thrust into the media spotlight after Bruce Willingham releases secretly recorded audio of Clardy and county officials suggesting they kill and bury them.
Klein said he was rapt by the broader story of a small-town paper standing up to local law enforcement, but it was the Willingham family that inspired him to travel to Oklahoma to document the moment.
“The reason I felt like it could work was the family at the center of it, the Willingham family. Just this incredible family unit; you know, how much they preserved through all of this, how much they put on the line, how much they gave up. I just thought it was incredibly moving,” Klein said.
Rachel Maddow serves as a producer on the project. She told ABC Audio she kept tabs on what was happening in McCurtain County after the audio recording was released, then learned Klein was helming a documentary about the Willinghams and the McCurtain Gazette.
“The courage and the pluck of this family-run paper was so impressive to me, I just sort of couldn’t believe it,” Maddow said. “It really stuck with me, and I didn’t know how or when I’d go back to the story.”
Sensitive to the precariousness of their situation and the trust they were putting in him, Klein spent the next three and a half years trying to capture the Willinghams’ lives as they faced backlash and intimidation from the sheriff’s department. But he said Kill. Bury. Print. also explores community members’ experiences.
“I wanted to amplify their message, and I also wanted to meet many other people who were involved. This was not just some story that affected the Willingham family, this was the entire county. I can’t tell you how many people we spoke to who were affected by this story … [many of whom] weren’t willing to speak to us out of fear of retribution,” Klein said.
Kill. Bury. Print. is now streaming on Peacock. It will be awarded the 2026 David Carr Award for Truth in Non-Fiction Filmmaking during the Montclair Film Festival on Oct. 17.
