It’s our last Friday discussion thread until 2021 (…!). Readers, lurkers, Best Evidentiary friends old and new, thanks for helping me and Eve get through 2020. Thinking about the true crime that’s worth your time helped, too.
So it’s time for ye olde best-of list: the best of the year in true crime, whether online longread, podcast, book, film and TV (those last two kind of got blurred together thanks to COVID). Highlights from my year in true-crime consumption:
My favorite books from 2020 included Notes on a Vanishing, The Third Rainbow Girl, The Cold Vanish, and works from two of my esteemed guests, Bob Kolker and Marcia Chatelain.
Films: American Murder: The Family Next Door, the Roy Cohn doc, Class Action Park, Miracle Fishing, Belly of the Beast, The Painter and the Thief, and Bad Education.
TV: So much to choose from here, so I’ll try to stick to properties everyone wasn’t talking about, or at least not as much, including Murder on Middle Beach, City So Real, Outcry, The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez, and Fear City. (Honorable mentions to the Unsolved Mysteries reboot; Dirty John: Amanda Peet 2024; and Love Fraud.) — SDB
Eve here! 2020 was a year in which my attention and time were limited and I rarely exercised. So, books and podcast consumption? Nothing to shout about. But I still found time for these projects:
Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country / Paid subscribers know from Sarah’s review of this book what Sierra Crane Murdoch’s North Dakota-set book is all about. She admits that she should have read it instead of listening to the audiobook version, but I think you’d be fine either way.
Onscreen, Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandezgave me the backstory I needed on this troubling case, and McMillions — while it could have been trimmed a bit — is such good, low-stakes fun, perfect for days when “real crime” feels like too much to bear. OK, back to Sarah! — EB
We encourage you to rummage around the archives for reviews and interviews related to all these titles, but first, tell us YOUR bests of the year — all the stuff we need to marinate in over the holiday break! (Up/down votes on recent Netflix releases would help me out a lot, I’m way behind.) — SDB
I rummaged, and while I still need to do a proper longform journalism accounting, Diana Moskovitz's revisit to Edna Buchanan's legacy stands out (https://popula.com/2020/06/25/edna-buchanan-american-crime-story/); I really enjoyed Love Fraud and the rejigged Unsolved Mysteries, You're Wrong About continued to ace it; and I think Welcome to Chechnya was the best single true crime documentary of 2020. While I read some great books, none of them were very new- the newest release was a little title about media cover-ups and sexual assault by an unknown author called Ronan Farrow. Pretty obscure, you probably haven't heard of it.
There's definitely room for a sub-category called The Best Commentary on True Crime which beyond the excellent work of SDB & EB has been very strong this year.
Thank you for these best-of lists and ALL the great Best Evidence content in 2020. Y'all (Sarah, Eve, and all the commenters and contributors here) helped drag my ass through this shithell of a year and for that I am grateful! Here are some of my faves from this year:
Books: Among the best books I read are two canon-worthy additions to the "crime-oir" genre, Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey and Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford. I also really liked We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper (a great holiday break read-it's long, but moves at a satisfying pace) and Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby. A couple of other less-talked about true crime (or true crime adjacent) books from this year that I really enjoyed and deserved more attention were The Vapors by David Hill and Death in Mud Lick by Eric Eyre.
Films: An area where I didn't keep anywhere near the same pace as reading and have a lot of catching up to do, but I liked American Murder: The Family Next Door and Athlete A.
TV: Loved Murder on Middle Beach and Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult. Honorable mention to the "Death in Oslo" episode of Unsolved Mysteries. 2020 is also the year I started watching Dateline again (the delightful A Date with Dateline podcast got me through many runs and walks).
Stuff I want to catch up on/get to during the holiday break (and honestly this list is so long I'll be working through it well into 2021): Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta?, Bad Education, Trial by Media, Trial 4, The Murders at White House Farms, the new Heavens Gate documentary series on HBO Max, Fear City.
Finished "The Ripper" on Netflix in one sitting, even though I kept saying it was time to go to bed. This was an important deep dive for me, as, like many, I had assumed Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, targeted only the most vulnerable and least cared about, prostitutes. This series exposed the hubris and ineptitude of all the men involved at the top of this FIVE YEAR investigation, the inherent sexism and misogyny not to mention downright obstinacy when women, some of them Sutcliffe survivors, brought to attention of the men in charge that Sutcliffe's targets were WOMEN. Period. He went after opportunity, from a 14-year old school girl walking home after school, alone (she survived and reported it to the cops, who laughed it off; she was also a target/victim prior to Sutcliffe's string of prostitute killings) to housewives who had to turn to tricks in order to support their families. Really, really thoughtful and enlightening. Biggest crime of the year: that Sutcliffe died in prison without suffering as his victims did at his hands.
Murders at White House farm, we keep the dead close, the searcher (Tana French, fiction), murder in middle beach, the cold vanish, the less people know about us (I read it this year), long bright river (fiction), Tom browns body
Thank you so much for the old podcast and this excellent newsletter. Looking forward to continuing with you next year.
Long story short, I had a multitude of personal stuff going on this year, on top of the pandemic, so I didn't get to as much true crime as I would like, but I ended up reading/watching/listening to some great media despite it all.
In relation to books, shout out to Sarah Weinman's Unspeakable Acts.
TV: Murder on Middle Beach was incredibly compelling. The reboot of Unsolved Mysteries grabbed me and didn't let go; and while After the Night was flawed, I couldn't stop watching the bloody thing (and getting irate at the cops, per usual). McMillions (Doug!) and Love Fraud were also excellent.
Podcasts were few and far between for me this year, due to changes to my commute, but Doctor Death season 2 had me hanging out each week for the next episode, and I'm a sucker for all things Scientology so Leah Remini's Scientology: Fair Game has been an enjoyable listen (if sometimes repetitive).
Next year will be a better year personally so I will hopefully be able to catch up on the stuff I wanted to get to this year, as well as keep up with newer things as they come out.
I rummaged, and while I still need to do a proper longform journalism accounting, Diana Moskovitz's revisit to Edna Buchanan's legacy stands out (https://popula.com/2020/06/25/edna-buchanan-american-crime-story/); I really enjoyed Love Fraud and the rejigged Unsolved Mysteries, You're Wrong About continued to ace it; and I think Welcome to Chechnya was the best single true crime documentary of 2020. While I read some great books, none of them were very new- the newest release was a little title about media cover-ups and sexual assault by an unknown author called Ronan Farrow. Pretty obscure, you probably haven't heard of it.
There's definitely room for a sub-category called The Best Commentary on True Crime which beyond the excellent work of SDB & EB has been very strong this year.
Thank you for these best-of lists and ALL the great Best Evidence content in 2020. Y'all (Sarah, Eve, and all the commenters and contributors here) helped drag my ass through this shithell of a year and for that I am grateful! Here are some of my faves from this year:
Books: Among the best books I read are two canon-worthy additions to the "crime-oir" genre, Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey and Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford. I also really liked We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper (a great holiday break read-it's long, but moves at a satisfying pace) and Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby. A couple of other less-talked about true crime (or true crime adjacent) books from this year that I really enjoyed and deserved more attention were The Vapors by David Hill and Death in Mud Lick by Eric Eyre.
Films: An area where I didn't keep anywhere near the same pace as reading and have a lot of catching up to do, but I liked American Murder: The Family Next Door and Athlete A.
TV: Loved Murder on Middle Beach and Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult. Honorable mention to the "Death in Oslo" episode of Unsolved Mysteries. 2020 is also the year I started watching Dateline again (the delightful A Date with Dateline podcast got me through many runs and walks).
Stuff I want to catch up on/get to during the holiday break (and honestly this list is so long I'll be working through it well into 2021): Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta?, Bad Education, Trial by Media, Trial 4, The Murders at White House Farms, the new Heavens Gate documentary series on HBO Max, Fear City.
Finished "The Ripper" on Netflix in one sitting, even though I kept saying it was time to go to bed. This was an important deep dive for me, as, like many, I had assumed Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, targeted only the most vulnerable and least cared about, prostitutes. This series exposed the hubris and ineptitude of all the men involved at the top of this FIVE YEAR investigation, the inherent sexism and misogyny not to mention downright obstinacy when women, some of them Sutcliffe survivors, brought to attention of the men in charge that Sutcliffe's targets were WOMEN. Period. He went after opportunity, from a 14-year old school girl walking home after school, alone (she survived and reported it to the cops, who laughed it off; she was also a target/victim prior to Sutcliffe's string of prostitute killings) to housewives who had to turn to tricks in order to support their families. Really, really thoughtful and enlightening. Biggest crime of the year: that Sutcliffe died in prison without suffering as his victims did at his hands.
Murders at White House farm, we keep the dead close, the searcher (Tana French, fiction), murder in middle beach, the cold vanish, the less people know about us (I read it this year), long bright river (fiction), Tom browns body
Thank you so much for the old podcast and this excellent newsletter. Looking forward to continuing with you next year.
Long story short, I had a multitude of personal stuff going on this year, on top of the pandemic, so I didn't get to as much true crime as I would like, but I ended up reading/watching/listening to some great media despite it all.
In relation to books, shout out to Sarah Weinman's Unspeakable Acts.
TV: Murder on Middle Beach was incredibly compelling. The reboot of Unsolved Mysteries grabbed me and didn't let go; and while After the Night was flawed, I couldn't stop watching the bloody thing (and getting irate at the cops, per usual). McMillions (Doug!) and Love Fraud were also excellent.
Podcasts were few and far between for me this year, due to changes to my commute, but Doctor Death season 2 had me hanging out each week for the next episode, and I'm a sucker for all things Scientology so Leah Remini's Scientology: Fair Game has been an enjoyable listen (if sometimes repetitive).
Next year will be a better year personally so I will hopefully be able to catch up on the stuff I wanted to get to this year, as well as keep up with newer things as they come out.