Phoebe Judge

On the first day, the courtroom was packed.

One Polish newspaper wrote, Killing doesn't make much of an impression in the 21st century, but allegedly killing and then writing about it in a novel is front-page news.

What did the prosecution argue?

Christian was found guilty of planning and directing the murder.

There wasn't enough evidence to prove that he'd committed the murder himself.

He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

He later appealed.

In 2007, David Graham traveled to Poland to meet Christian.

David remembers Christian shook his hand, and as they walked to a table to sit down, Christian said, This whole thing is farce, like something out of Kafka.

While they were talking, Christian would occasionally point to David's notebook and say things like, put this down, or this is important.

David says at one point during their conversation, Christian accidentally said me instead of him when talking about the narrator, Chris.

there's any part of him that wrote the book because he wanted someone to figure out the puzzle.

After Christian was arrested, his book started selling out in bookstores all over Poland.

David Grand is the author of The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon.

And his article about Christian Bala is contained in his collection The Devil and Sherlock Holmes.

Criminal is created by Lauren Spohr and me.

Nadia Wilson is our senior producer.

Katie Bishop is our supervising producer.

Our producers are Susanna Robertson, Jackie Sajico, Lily Clark, Lena Sillison, and Megan Kinane.

Our engineer is Veronica Simonetti.