27 Documentary Series on Netflix Inspired by True Crimes
Documentary series inspired by true crimes are increasingly popular, especially on Netflix. But which ones are worth watching? We have collected the best series here.
An obsession with stories inspired by true crimes
People have always been fascinated by court documentaries and horror stories. Interest in these documentaries even tends to increase when society feels “vulnerable,” says author and true crime expert Diane Fanning. It is therefore not surprising that with the pandemic, we are witnessing a notable increase in general interest in legal documentaries. The pandemic has also meant that many people who did not watch television before are now television viewers.
William Phelps, true crime expert and author of 45 books that focus on true crime stories, has produced numerous television programs and several podcasts about true crimes. He explains that streaming services such as Netflix have been doing their best to meet the ever-increasing demand. With the veritable glut of true crime documentaries that have been airing lately, it can now be difficult to know which ones are worth watching. We have therefore concocted a small list of the best documentary series available on Netflix, inspired by true crimes.
The best documentary series on Netflix, inspired by true crimes
To make sure our list of the best true-crime documentary series available on Netflix is as well-crafted as possible, we relied on a range of empirical evidence. We started by using an algorithm to weed out any movie that had a review rating of less than 70%. Then we whittled this list down, using both professional reviews and viewers' comments, to a top 25. Finally, we added a few movies that we felt, for one reason or another, could captivate your audience. interest. Here are the best documentary series available on Netflix, inspired by true crimes.
Killer Word (2019)
Serial killer Henry Lee Lucas is famous for committing three murders in particular, for which he was convicted. However, he claims to have committed no less than 600 during his life. Although no clue links him to these atrocious murders, he convinces the police of his involvement by saying he is able to draw the victims. Word of a killer invites you to reflect on the very imperfect American criminal justice system. Henry Lee Lucas died of natural causes in a Texas jail cell in 2001. Killer's Word features testimonies from law enforcement, attorneys and journalists, many of whom witnessed the tragic descent into hell of Lucas. This five-part documentary series uses archival footage of the killer when he confesses to his crimes.
Remastered: The Double Murder of Sam Cooke (2019)
In 1964, singer-songwriter Sam Cooke, the "father of modern soul music", was shot dead at the age of 33. With thoughtful narration, this documentary honors him and celebrates his talents and unfulfilled aspirations. Remastered, however, is much more than just a documentary about a tragic act of violence! Sam Cooke was more than just a talented musician; he strongly opposed segregation and has long challenged performing in venues separate from whites. Cooke's murder was never solved, and the circumstances surrounding it bring to light many racial and civil rights issues that were taboo at the time. Even the title of the work is sobering, the double murder, because it refers to the fact that Cooke not only lost more of his life and his promising future, but he also lost his reputation.
Team USA: Scandal in the world of gymnastics (2020)
Larry Nassar was a team doctor for the USA Gymnastics organization for 18 years. He took advantage of his position of authority to sexually assault hundreds of patients, both women and girls. In 2016, two women publicly accused Larry Nassar of sexual abuse. Although this was not his first accusation, this time Nassar was charged and convicted. What's particularly poignant about watching this documentary today – knowing that the #MeToo movement has gone global since 2006 – is that it takes you back to a time not so long ago when victims of sexual abuse were still discouraged from seeking justice. In this documentary, we notably meet an athlete, victim of Nasser. She says she's grateful to gymnasts who have stood up to America's "abusive gymnastics culture for decades."
The Tinder Scammer (2022)
Disclaimer: The Tinder Scammer will now urge you to monitor any interactions you have online or on dating apps, with a high degree of caution. This is a cautionary tale about dating in the age of apps that will grab your attention from the start. Anyone using a dating app can easily put themselves in the victim's shoes, whether it's about the love — or the betrayal — they've already felt. This is the story of three women who simply tried to find the right person… However, this “right person” defrauded them by pretending to be the son of a wealthy tycoon. The Tinder Scammer , a hit documentary, has been rocking the internet since its release in February 2022.
Confessions on file (2017 and 2019)
Confessions on File is different from other true-crime documentaries in that it is not about a single crime or murderer. Rather, it's an 11-episode anthology series that examines true crimes, in which law enforcement, in the absence of physical evidence, coerced suspects into confessing to a crime they didn't know. had not committed. Confessions on File looks at false confessions. Each episode of this series uses testimony from investigators, lawyers as well as footage and/or audio recordings of the suspect's interviews with law enforcement. It is then up to you to judge whether it is justified to assert that his confession was obtained illegally.
Wild Wild Country (2018)
In 1981, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a spiritual leader, moved his commune from India to a ranch outside the small town of Antelope, Oregon. Over the next five years, Rajneeshpuram, the ranch that housed the cult of Rajneesh, was the center of continuous conflict with the people of Antelope. The ranch and its residents were accused of bioterrorism, election rigging, mass poisoning, illegal possession of firearms and attempted murders, including of government officials. Wild Wild Country is a six-part documentary about a crime that happened in 2018 that tells the story of the ranch, from the circumstances of its move from India to the United States until its disappearance in 1985. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who was then under investigation for immigration fraud, fled on a private jet, before being quickly apprehended by the authorities. Some devotees of this spiritual leader still denounce the “lies” told in this documentary.
The Keepers (2017)
Even though The Keepers is one of the best docu-series you'll see, it might frustrate you. Catherine Cesnik was a 26-year-old nun and teacher in Baltimore in 1960 when she was abducted and violently killed. Several decades later, some of his students – now adults – have decided to investigate the death of their beloved teacher. They eventually uncovered a history of abuse and corrupt staff that may have been the source of teacher Cesnik's murder. While mystery is at the center of the story, these women who have invested years to bring justice to their teacher are the most inspiring.
Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator (2019)
This documentary about Bikram Choudhury exposes the corrupt systems that allowed him to train yoga teachers while committing multiple murders. He will have exploited his position as the boss of a multi-million dollar company (at his peak) and the vision the world had of a spiritual leader to do the irreparable. Thanks to the testimonies of some of his former students, it emerges that this man famous for his hot yoga classes was a manipulator of excellence whose abuses varied according to the victim and the goal: money, physical security, dignity.
Surviving R. Kelly (2019)
As R. Kelly grew in popularity in the music world and sold over 75 million records, he had sex with underage girls. He even kept some of them prisoners for an alleged "sex cult". This six-part documentary series examines the allegations, which date back to the 1990s, against R. Kelly through the recollections and testimonies of more than 50 witnesses, victims and family members. What emerges from this documentary is not only the indictment of the singer's crimes, but also of the music industry presumably turning a blind eye.
Suspicions (2018)
When Kathleen Peterson, wife of novelist Michael Peterson, died in 2001 after falling down a flight of stairs in their home, all suspicion turned to her husband. The first eight episodes of the documentary Suspicions , which first aired in 2005, chronicle the arrest, trial and sentencing of Michael Peterson. The next five episodes were filmed between 2013 and 2018 in which investigators examine new evidence.
FYRE: The Best Festival That Never Happened (2019)
The Fyre Festival was a luxury music festival concept dreamed up by music producer Ja Rule and entrepreneur Billy McFarland. Whatever the intentions of the organizers, the failure of the festival reached criminal fraud. From the outset, the project was poorly conceived and poorly planned: every benefit was canceled and the accommodations were nothing more than disaster relief tents. Produced following the trial against Billy McFarland – which resulted in his conviction for electronic fraud – this documentary offers an incursion into the world of wealth.
Sophie: The Toscan du Plantier Affair (2021)
In December 1996, the French Sophie Toscan du Plantier, a 39-year-old film producer, was found bludgeoned to death, wearing only pajamas. She is right in front of her holiday home, in a remote and picturesque village in West Cork, Ireland. It is not the only documentary to delve into the du Plantier affair, but it is the only one that was made with the collaboration of the du Plantier family, which gives it enormous credibility.
Trial of an Executioner (2019)
Born in 1920, John Demjanjuk grew up in Soviet Russia before becoming a German prisoner of war in the 1940s and emigrating to the United States in 1952. In 1977, allegations were made that in Germany Demjanjuk was a Nazi known as the name of Ivan the Terrible, who supplied deadly gas to the death camps. The US Department of Justice then launched an investigation and charged Demjanjuk. The latter spent the rest of his life fighting the allegations before dying in prison in 2012. Trial of an executioner does not state with certainty that Demjanjuk is a war criminal. But the numerous archival images of the various trials and concentration camps and the many interviews with prosecutors, academics and Demjanjuk's family, make this documentary one of the most captivating.
The Pharmacist (2020)
In 1999, Danny Schneider was an aimless "good boy" when he was shot in the driver's side seat of his SUV as he stopped in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward to buy some crack cocaine. The seemingly tongue-in-cheek title of the documentary refers to Danny's father, Dan Schneider, a pharmacist who had no reason to believe his son was a drug addict. It is by going in search of his son's murderer that he opens his eyes to Purdue Pharma's role in the opioid epidemic. This four-part documentary is a gripping “David vs. Goliath” story, in which one man's personal tragedy turns into a crusade against the wealthy executives who encouraged Big Pharma to start its own cottage industry for drug addicts.
Mormon Crimes and Treason (2021)
Mark Hoffman was a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints who presented Church leaders with documents that threatened to "change everything" regarding the Mormon Church. However, as this documentary reveals, these documents turned out to be fake. Hoffman therefore begins to build and detonate bombs so that the truth about these documents does not come to light. He then presented himself at the hospital, alleging that he had been injured by the detonation of an explosive. This story of the genesis of the three bombings, their impact, and the eventual trial of Mark Hoffman is both complex and gripping.
Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal (2021)
You probably already know part of the story that Varsity Blues sets out to shed light on: Some absurdly wealthy white parents with a network of contacts the size of a phone book messed with the college admissions system. university to get their children into institutions of higher education in which they would never have been able to enter. As the story unfolds, a question arises: to what extent did some of the 750 families who filled out their children's college applications fully understand the fraud that was being perpetrated or the profound consequences of this fraud in the admissions process? Employing dramatic re-enactments, this documentary, while there is a tendency to blame ruthlessly competitive parenting, claims that the mastermind of this fraud was charismatic and seemingly remorseless genius Rick Singer.
The Night Stalker: California Manhunt (2021)
This documentary traces the actions of serial killer, rapist and kidnapper Richard Ramirez, who raged in the mid-1980s in Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley. This exciting case was particularly difficult to solve because Ramirez's criminal behavior was seemingly random, with no obvious pattern. Told using archival footage, photos and interviews, the tale of Nightstalker depicts the maddening efforts of a rookie detective, Gil Carillo, to prove to his more experienced partner (Frank Salerno) , that he is up to the investigation. He wants to prove to law enforcement and the media that the violent crimes were all committed by the same person. The four-episode documentary series is very captivating.
The Watts Case: Chronicle of a Family Murder (2020)
The Watts family was, by all appearances, a happy, normal family, as evidenced by their numerous social media posts. In 2018, pregnant Shanann and her two young daughters disappeared. Chris, the father of the two children, is quickly the main suspect of the investigators and is finally found guilty of the triple murder. Made with the cooperation of Shanann's family, this moving documentary is told through first-hand footage, illustrating how easily an organized social media presence is able to hide a darker reality of abuse, manipulation and murders.
Media Trials (2020)
Media Trials explores six different crimes that have been inextricably linked to their treatment by the media from start to finish. You are probably already familiar with most, if not all, of the cases, which in itself speaks to the effects of the media. These include the murder of a young man after his appearance on The Jenny Jones Show, the death of Amadou Diallo by police officers and the corruption trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Media trials arm the viewer with information, while raising a ton of sometimes unanswered questions. This is one of the reasons some reviewers feel the stories would have been better told in a single chapter.
Making a Murderer (2015 and 2018)
After spending 18 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, Steven Avery tried to start a new life. Less than two years later, he was arrested and convicted of murdering 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach. The first season of Making a Murderer delves into this case, as well as the hypothesis that it was the justice system that turned Avery into a murderer. Its second season, released three years later, focuses on Avery's initially successful appeal in the Halbach murder and how the United States Supreme Court ultimately upheld his conviction. Making a Murderer is certainly not the first true-crime documentary to be popular on Netflix, but the mere existence of the second season proves the success of the first. Avery's fate may hinge on flaws in the justice system, including what the documentary's producers seek to expose.
Jeffrey Epstein: Power, Money and Perversion (2020)
Jeffrey Epstein had powerful friends and associates and owned a private island in the US Virgin Islands. As revealed in 2019, following Epstein's arrest by federal authorities, the island was known as "pedophile island," and Jeffrey Epstein's network of associates instead began to look like a network of co-conspirators. Jeffrey Epstein died under suspicious circumstances in a prison cell in August 2019. But by then, Jeffrey Epstein: Power, Money and Perversion , had already been in the works for nine months, thanks to the discretion and cooperation of its producer and its participants. Much of the story is told by people who survived the abuse perpetrated by Epstein. The thrust of the four-episode docuseries is how money and power helped him carry out these wrongs without check.
Amanda Knox (2016)
Meredith Kercher, 21, was a young British student studying in Perugia, Italy. She was found by Amanda Knox, a 20-year-old American, her roommate. Someone brutally slit her throat and left her bleeding in the house she also shared with two other Italian flatmates. Quickly, the police are convinced that Amanda Knox and her boyfriend, Raffael Sollecito, are responsible for the crime. Except they weren't. After being convicted twice, Knox and her boyfriend are finally acquitted. Some time later, in a separate trial, a man named Rudy Guede, whose DNA was found at the crime scene, was ultimately convicted of Meredith's murder. After multiple trials and intensive media coverage related to this story, the documentary delivers a disturbing look at how “Italian media and law enforcement fed each other” to build a “bizarre – and most likely false "story behind the murder of Meredith Kercher", published Rolling Stone magazine.
On the Trail of the Yorkshire Ripper (2020)
The four-part documentary series, On the Trail of the Yorkshire Ripper , chronicles the biggest manhunt in British history: the Yorkshire Ripper murdered 13 sex workers in the north of England between 1975 and 1980. The name "Ripper" comes to him from journalists who noticed similarities between his crimes and those committed by Jack the Ripper, a century before. However, no suspect has been apprehended and convicted. The identity of the perpetrator of the crimes remains unknown. This documentary series will appeal to all true crime buffs and those who appreciate historical mysteries as the focus is on the Ripper crimes committed in the 1970s, an era of dramatic change.
Museum Robbery: The Biggest Heist in Art History (2021)
This documentary recalls the largest art theft in history – still unsolved. In 1990, millions of dollars worth of works of art – by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Manet, Degas and other luminaries in the world of art history – were stolen from the Isabella-Stewart-Gardner Museum in Boston. Although the crime appears to bear the clear signs of an inside job, Museum Robbery makes the case for an extremely complicated, organized crime-sponsored multiplayer setup.
The Accused: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (2018)
The “innocent man” at the center of this six-episode documentary is Ron Williamson, who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of a young woman. He served 11 years of his death prison sentence before being exonerated thanks to DNA evidence. The story caught the attention of author John Grisham, who went on to write a 2006 true crime book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town . If you're a John Grisham fan, you'll want to watch this docuseries, which he produced himself, all the more. Using interviews with friends and family of the victim, lawyers, journalists, John Grisham methodically chronicles the murder and the solving of the crime just five days before Ron Williamson's scheduled execution.
Why did you kill me? (2021)
Following the murder of her daughter in 2006, Belinda Lane took to social media in the somewhat desperate hope of finding whoever was responsible for the crime. Her daughter, Crystal Theobald, a 24-year-old Los Angeles resident and mother of two, was shot at close range as she sat in her car at an intersection. All the signs of an organized assassination were present. Two MySpace accounts and a decade later, Belinda Lane's research moved the case forward. The shooter was convicted, but it turns out that Crystal Theobald was probably not the intended target.
Interview with a Serial Killer (2008)
Arthur Shawcross was convicted of the 1972 murder of two children in his upstate New York hometown and served nearly 15 years of his life sentence before being released on parole. It was shortly after his release that the man, known by the nickname of the "Genessee river killer", killed nearly fifteen prostitutes. This chilling documentary reveals images of an interview filmed in prison with Arthur Shawcross, interspersed with testimonies from family members and law enforcement.
