Jon Ronson, the creator of Audible Original The Butterfly Effect, delves into the pornography industry again as he unravels the never-before-told story of what caused a beloved 23-year-old actress’s untimely death. In December 2017, famed adult film star August Ames died by suicide in a park in the Conejo Valley. Her death came just a day after she’d been the victim of a social media pile-on by fellow porn professionals—punishment for her tweeting out something deemed homophobic. A month later, August’s husband and pornography producer Kevin Moore connected with journalist Jon Ronson to tell the story of how cyberbullying via Twitter killed his wife. Neither of them could predict the rumors and secrets that Ronson would soon hear, revelations that hinted at a very different story—something mysterious and unexpected and terrible.
The last days of August contain some explicit and upsetting material involving sexuality, assault, and self harm.
It may not be suitable for all audiences.
It's February 2 months since August died.
The porn community has been hearing the same rumors that I have, that Twitter bullying may not have been the reason for her death.
And so speculation is running wild.
Some porn people are taking matters into their own hands and becoming amateur detectives.
I remember when I heard August Einstein.
I text a couple of my friends.
I just jokingly say, like, oh, I'm sure he murdered her.
And all three of them say, like, yeah, that's what I think too.
That was an old work colleague of Kevin's, Yoshi Obayashi.
And here's the porn director, Axel Bron.
I mean, it's not like I'm a conspiracy theorist, you know?
She weighed 114 pounds.
I think it's 50 miles an hour wind, and you have to climb up a tree.
I don't know that you can climb on that tree with that huge trunk and just go up there and put the finger on your neck and then fall down and calculate how long this thing is gonna be so that when you fall down, you're not hitting the floor.
I mean, it's not an easy thing.
And here's a makeup artist who worked with August often and didn't want to be identified.
When I first found out, the first thought that came into my mind was, she was murdered.
She was murdered.