"True Crime" is such an addictive genre that it even transcends media: If you love podcasts like My Favorite Murder and The Last Podcast on the Left, then you're probably also reading books like I'll Be Gone in the Dark and Mindhunter. If you're a true fan, you've already watched Abducted in Plain Sight and The Mind of Aaron Hernandez, and every other true crime doc on Netflix, and your family members have politely expressed concern about your psychological health.
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We're here to feed that addiction with a bunch of amazing true crime documentaries you've probably never heard of. Everything listed below (and ing gallery above) require a special investment outside your normal, monthly streaming service bill -- but they’re also completely worth it, and bona fide “must-sees” for anyone who gets a thrill from the more messed up parts of history.
Though he was active in the late 70s and early 80s, Joseph James DeAngelo didn't receive the nickname "The Golden State Killer" until a 2013 article by true-crime writer Michelle McNamara. Once he finally had a nickname, interest in his capture renewed, and he was caught just five years later -- shortly after the airing of HLN's documentary Unmasking a Killer: The Golden State Killer.
The result is a documentary that unfolds in two distinct parts: first the five episodes that details the case right up until the moment of his capture, executed while the killer's identity was unknown. Then, as a kind of epilogue, a two part conclusion that explains how the renewed public interest led directly to the monster's capture.
It's a fascinating perspective on one of the most brutal killers in California history, since the Golden State Killer's M.O. is unlike anything else you've ever heard of
When the police entered Dahmer’s home in 1991 they found four severed heads, seven skulls, and a collection of frozen or refrigerated body parts and organs, including two human hearts that Dahmer had been preparing to eat. “It was more like dismantling a museum,” the chief medical examiner said, “than an actual crime scene.”
Combining re-enactments with interviews in an utterly unique way, The Jeffrey Dahmer Files juxtaposes an eerily convincing portrayal of Dahmer (by Andrew Swant) with intense interviews with the detective who discovered Dahmer’s crimes and the medical examiner who explored the killer's home.
The Jeffrey Dahmer Files is available for rent on Amazon Prime for $3.99, or free with a subscription to IFC.
In 2015, when The Jinx was airing on HBO, Robert Durst had been charged with murder three times, but never convicted. The night before the airing of the final episode, its subject was arrested due to “key new evidence” found by the filmmakers.
The Jinx is probably the most direct example of a documentary film influencing the investigation it covered. If you’re lucky enough to have missed this story when it aired on HBO, you are in for a moment of television history unlike anything you’ve seen before, or are likely to see again.
The Jinx is available to rent on Amazon Prime for $2.99 per episode, or free with a subscription to HBO.
In 1994, Jessie Misskelley, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin were arrested for the murders of three 8-year-old kids. The evidence and testimonies that convicted them, however, were flimsy, and after 18 years of fighting they were finally released.
The case received a lot of attention from celebrities like Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) and the members of Metallica, and so far four documentaries have been made about them. The first three, Paradise Lost (1996), Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000), and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2011) follow the convicted’s fight for exoneration from nearly the beginning, and allow you to watch events unfold in real time.
However, the Peter Jackson-produced West of Memphis (2012) covers the entire story from beginning to end and implicates Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the young victims. As Roger Ebert wrote in his review: “Do we need a fourth film? Yes, I think we do. If you only see one of them, this is the one to choose, because it has the benefit of hindsight.”
In 1979, Randall Adams was convicted of the murder of police officer Robert Wood. In 1989, one year after the release of The Thin Blue Line, Adams’ conviction was overturned and he was set free. Like The Jinx, this documentary was instrumental in changing the course of history and bringing a real killer to justice.
In 1964, the New York Times published the headline “37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police” in a piece about the murder of 28 year-old Kitty Genovese. The story became symbolic of the callous nature of people in big cities, and human beings in general. The Witness, a 2015 documentary starring Kitty’s brother William, investigates the events and discovers that things might not have actually unfolded the way everyone thinks.
For its work to resurrect Kitty Genovese as a person and not just a victim, The Witness received rave reviews and was short-listed for the 89th Academy Awards.
The Witness is available to rent on Amazon Prime for $4.99, or free with a subscription to IFC.
The “Slenderman” is a simple internet ghost story, created in 2009, simple and sorta dumb in all the ways that internet ghost stories are: Slenderman is a tall, gangly monster man wearing a black suit who terrorizes people. There's no overarching narrative to his mythology, just a few grainy pictures and anecdotes that were designed to exist for amusement on internet forums. For five years, that's all it was.
Then, in 2014, two 12 year-old girls lured a friend into the woods and stabbed her 19 times in an effort to appease the Slenderman, and keep him from killing their families.
This HBO documentary explores the trial, and how a young girl came to think that she was being hunted by a monster from the internet.
Beware the Slenderman is available to rent on Amazon Prime for $3.99, or free with a subscription to HBO.