It opened like some cheap
CSI knock-off, and
60 Minutes‘ tell-all interview with
Gable Tostee certainly tried to paint the events of August 8, 2014 like they took place in some kind of salacious crime procedural.
The thing is, the details of Warriena Wright’s death and Tostee’s own statements about that night remain so horrific and bizarre that they’d probably never wind up on scripted television.
What 60 Minutes managed to show instead wasn’t exciting, even in the most morbid sense – it was just confusing and tragic in the same way this entire saga has been, and Tostee still appears deeply unknowable.
With a flat emotional affect, Tostee said “I’m pretty normal kind of guy” who believes his self-reported tally of 180 sexual partners is “not really a surprising figure.” He explained “I wouldn’t say [I am a] playboy, I mean, I like meeting girls.”
Warranted or not, the perception of Tostee as a womaniser didn’t exactly tweak public opinion in his favour during the trial, and Tostee seemed almost unable to contest that negative viewpoint during the interview.
When asked if he knew why people saw him as a “cruel, heartless bastard” for his actions after discovering Wright fell from his apartment balcony, he replied “when you put it that way… the media can make people think what the media wants people to think.”
Of course, it’s not just Tostee’s nigh-impenetrable inner workings that remain baffling after the interview. There is still no explanation for why Tostee decided to record audio of the night’s events on his smartphone other than for insurance.
“The question isn’t so much why did I do that, but why wouldn’t you do that?
Obviously I used to go out quite a lot drinking, I don’t have the best memory when I drink, and in this day and age recording your night out is as easy as pressing a button and leaving your phone in your pocket.”
The very same recording which was eventually used by his defence was played during the broadcast, including his almost-prescient statement “you’re lucky I haven’t thrown you off my balcony you psycho little bitch,” and Wright’s numerous cries of “no” as Tostee forced her onto the elevated outdoor area.
His explanation for that overtly threatening language, which seems damning in hindsight, was that he felt the need to scold the inebriated and allegedly disorderly Wright for making a mess of his apartment.
Tostee’s explanations for his actions after her fall – not calling the police nor an ambulance, not looking over the balcony, and heading downstairs before grabbing some pizza – were equally as baffling, and suggested the man acted in a deeply unusual way at every turn.
