Don’t warn your enemy

I can’t keep track of how many films I’ve seen that feature where someone has either just escaped the bad guy’s clutches, or has uncovered nefarious activities that need to be exposed. But instead of being smart about things, the good guy/girl, perhaps in the dizzying aftermath of freedom or discovery, almost always makes the same fatal mistake. They tell the bad guy what they’re going to do and/or what they hope happens to them once they do it.

I want to yell at the screen, “Keep your mouth shut. Don’t tell this person what you’re going to do.” The bad guy then knows the good guy’s plan. It never ends well for the good guy, who never seems to last very long after that kind of confrontation.

That’s film and television. But it’s also real life. Just ask Marilyn Monroe, Dorothy Kilgallen, Francis Boyle, Mary Pinchot Meyer, Gary Underhill, Kim Porter, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and John Barnett, to name a few.

Word to the wise: If you get damning information about someone or something, don’t tell them.