What’s the true-crime documentary, book, or podcast you’re constantly recommending to others, to the point where your friends can lip-sync your commentary along with you?
Y’all know the ones I refer to over and over again — The Cases That Haunt Us (Douglas), Popular Crime (James), The Imposter — but what you might not know is that I talked not one but two fellow patrons at a vegetarian sandwich joint in Springfield, IL to download Final Vision to their Kindles, and I regret nothing. Lately When They See Us is the one I’m nigh-on ordering people to watch.
What’s yours? (Non-U.S. readers, I’m particularly interested to see what you guys rec.)
Popular Crime for sure. The Skies Belong to Us (Brendan Koerner) and While the City Slept (Eli Sanders) didn't get nearly the attention they should have, so I recommend both frequently. And for people who enjoyed the Netflix series Unbelievable, I've sung the praises the book on which it is based, A False Report. The great failure of my life is that I missed the opportunity to download Final Vision before it disappeared.
Crazy Love about Burt Pugach and Linda Riss. I always caution people not to look up the case in advance as going in without any info is the best possible way.
Bad Blood audiobook to a wide array of people, true crime fans and not.
Also have walked up to the line of full-on lecturing people about how they must watch When They See Us. I understand the reluctance but it’s important and so well done. That last episode stuck with me more than almost anything I watched last year.
I often rec the doc "Dear Zachary" with a giant DO NOT GOOGLE warning. Seriously, DO NOT GOOGLE. Also stanning hard for the podcast "You're Wrong About" these days, which, while not de jure true crime, is a de facto entry in the genre.
Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst, an Australian documentary about a woman with a shadowy past who became an acclaimed interior designer and was murdered. It's got everything! I also recommend Sarah Marshall's Ted Bundy article in the Believer all the time. Dan Davies' book on financial fraud, Lying for Money, is so so so good I bang on about it incessantly. There's a graphic novel memoir about the Green River Killer which IMHO was one of the best texts on dismantling the 1990s serial killer mystique. And I dunno if it counts but there's a novel called Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins based on a real life crime that I'm constantly pushing, it's a masterpiece.
This is an older book that I never hear discussed in the true crime genre, maybe because it is more sweeping non-fiction than just the crime part. I always recommend Peter Matthiessen’s ‘In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse’, about the Leonard Peltier case, AIM, FBI abuses, and the history of the Lakota tribe. It’s so beautifully written that it’s the book that showed me that non- fiction writing about these topics can be every bit as artful as good fiction writing.
I'd be the best person for that museum heist podcast one. I know museums since I work at one. And well, it'd be an excuse to go inside and see how they run it.
Murder on a Sunday Morning...Waco:The Rules Of Engagement....The Jinx(Especially when it was airing...b4 a lot of people knew the story...I had been following the story from a far since Durst was originally caught in Pennsylvania)
oh..."Incident at Olglala"is another doc i often recommend....along with "The Staircase"...I see people talking about "Dear Zachary" below...that doc is so dark I'm selective about who i recommend it to...same w/the new doc "Don't Fuck w/Cats"...I also really liked the recent doc about Patty Hurst based on Toobin's book...however Sarah & I have different opinions on Patty's culpability 🤷🏻♂️
Lately, I’ve been recommending “The Butcher of Paris,” all over the place. It’s a true crime comic book (not many of those!) about a case I’d never heard of: a serial killer on the loose in occupied France. The book does an excellent job of contrasting the approaches of the Nazi and French cops looking for the killer, and it’s a comic, so it reads quickly. The third issue (of 5) just came out, so still plenty of time to jump on (or wait three months for the collection).
In the Dark!
Popular Crime for sure. The Skies Belong to Us (Brendan Koerner) and While the City Slept (Eli Sanders) didn't get nearly the attention they should have, so I recommend both frequently. And for people who enjoyed the Netflix series Unbelievable, I've sung the praises the book on which it is based, A False Report. The great failure of my life is that I missed the opportunity to download Final Vision before it disappeared.
Crazy Love about Burt Pugach and Linda Riss. I always caution people not to look up the case in advance as going in without any info is the best possible way.
podcast: Missing & Murdered: Finding Cleo
book: House of Secrets by Lowell Cauffiel
documentary: There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane
series: The Keepers (which is about my high school)
Bad Blood audiobook to a wide array of people, true crime fans and not.
Also have walked up to the line of full-on lecturing people about how they must watch When They See Us. I understand the reluctance but it’s important and so well done. That last episode stuck with me more than almost anything I watched last year.
I often rec the doc "Dear Zachary" with a giant DO NOT GOOGLE warning. Seriously, DO NOT GOOGLE. Also stanning hard for the podcast "You're Wrong About" these days, which, while not de jure true crime, is a de facto entry in the genre.
Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst, an Australian documentary about a woman with a shadowy past who became an acclaimed interior designer and was murdered. It's got everything! I also recommend Sarah Marshall's Ted Bundy article in the Believer all the time. Dan Davies' book on financial fraud, Lying for Money, is so so so good I bang on about it incessantly. There's a graphic novel memoir about the Green River Killer which IMHO was one of the best texts on dismantling the 1990s serial killer mystique. And I dunno if it counts but there's a novel called Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins based on a real life crime that I'm constantly pushing, it's a masterpiece.
This is an older book that I never hear discussed in the true crime genre, maybe because it is more sweeping non-fiction than just the crime part. I always recommend Peter Matthiessen’s ‘In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse’, about the Leonard Peltier case, AIM, FBI abuses, and the history of the Lakota tribe. It’s so beautifully written that it’s the book that showed me that non- fiction writing about these topics can be every bit as artful as good fiction writing.
Book: Feather Thief
Podcast: among many, true crime bullshit
Doc: smartest guys in the room
I'd be the best person for that museum heist podcast one. I know museums since I work at one. And well, it'd be an excuse to go inside and see how they run it.
Murder on a Sunday Morning...Waco:The Rules Of Engagement....The Jinx(Especially when it was airing...b4 a lot of people knew the story...I had been following the story from a far since Durst was originally caught in Pennsylvania)
oh..."Incident at Olglala"is another doc i often recommend....along with "The Staircase"...I see people talking about "Dear Zachary" below...that doc is so dark I'm selective about who i recommend it to...same w/the new doc "Don't Fuck w/Cats"...I also really liked the recent doc about Patty Hurst based on Toobin's book...however Sarah & I have different opinions on Patty's culpability 🤷🏻♂️
Lately, I’ve been recommending “The Butcher of Paris,” all over the place. It’s a true crime comic book (not many of those!) about a case I’d never heard of: a serial killer on the loose in occupied France. The book does an excellent job of contrasting the approaches of the Nazi and French cops looking for the killer, and it’s a comic, so it reads quickly. The third issue (of 5) just came out, so still plenty of time to jump on (or wait three months for the collection).