Son explores mother’s ‘Murder on Middle Beach’ in HBO doc series
A mother is brutally murdered and her son investigates.
That is Madison Hamburg’s horrifying, true-crime story, which begins Sunday in his four-part HBO/HBO Max documentary series “Murder on Middle Beach.”
His mother, Barbara Hamburg, was murdered in 2010, bludgeoned and stabbed to death one morning on her front lawn in upper middle class Madison, Conn. She was covered with cushions, suggesting her killer knew her.
It was the very day she was to appear in court, finally successful in a bitter and ongoing fight with her wealthy ex-husband who for years had refused to pay child support and her living expenses.
Years passed and the case grew stagnant. Until Madison opted to investigate — even when the prime suspects included his older sister and his father.
Now 29, in 2013 Madison was at the Savannah College of Art and Design in a documentary class.
“We were grouped into three-person teams and when our first choice for a short documentary fell through, I told them what happened to my mom and then, you know, ‘Maybe we should look into this?’
“I didn’t really know why I was doing it at first. Other than there was this unresolved thing in my life and it was always going to be unresolved until I started asking questions about it.
“I didn’t know if I’d find the killer but I was dealing with a lot of grief at the time. And part of starting to ask questions revealed this other person that I didn’t know: my mom as a human being.
“Like, as a kid, she was always a superhero, protecting me from the stresses of her life. Those conflicts really shaped who she was as a human being.
“Digging into her past and what happened to her, I’ve grown closer in understanding who she was and in a roundabout way finding my own identity through that.”
In 2016, Madison returned to the investigation with a grant for a five-person investigative team. In 2019 HBO came aboard.
How did it feel for years to be recording and investigating, sometimes secretly, his immediate and extended family?
“I didn’t understand when I started this it was this seven-year- going on eightyeardouble life! It’s been incredibly nervewracking. I’ve been showing my family members and telling them what’s in the documentary, giving them a head’s up before it’s broadcast — and nobody’s had a notably adverse reaction.
“I think they all understand that we all have the same goal.
“My greatest fear is this is going to be exploitative. I’ve gone to great lengths to prevent that from happening.”