Best of True Crime Binges 2020
Forget about the other events of the year for a moment — all True Crime, all the time
Taking a look back at the best reads, listens and watches in the year that saw many of us consuming more content than ever. And whilst it may be uncertain what we’ll find in 2021, there are reasons to be hopeful and always stories to be told. So, while we wait for new True Crime to devour, check out anything you may have missed last year.
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📚 Books 📚
The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy, Updated and Expanded Edition — Elizabeth Kendall
Originally published in 1981, this memoir from Bundy’s ex-partner, details her time with the notorious killer. This edition includes a new chapter by Kendall’s daughter (not Bundy’s) who lived with Bundy as well. There’s also new photos and introduction. If you’ve never read it, there’s never a better time to dive in to a rare first-hand account of life with a serial killer. Buy it here.
We Keep the Dead Close — Becky Cooper
I recommended this book a month or so ago and it seems to be regularly making the Best True Crime Books of 2020 lists. It’s an exhaustively investigated story of a long-forgotten murder in the hallowed halls of ivory-league university, Harvard. The 1969 unsolved murder of Jane Britton was brutal and had ritualistic undertones, Cooper does a great job of uncovering all the elements of great mystery. Buy it here.
Somebody's Mother, Somebody's Daughter: True Stories from Victims and Survivors of the Yorkshire Ripper — Carol Ann Lee
Peter Sutcliffe AKA The Yorkshire Ripper’s death this year from Covid-19 re-ignited interest in the serial killer. Though he is one of the UK’s most prolific, brutal and notorious — Sutcliffe’s victims rarely get recognised. Police have since been forced to apologise for their dismissal and use of language around sex workers Sutcliffe killed. The recent Netflix documentary was also heavily criticised for including continuation of this treatment in the interviews with those involved in the case. Technically published last year This book aims to write those wrongs a little by gathering the stories of those who lost their loved ones and few who survived encounters with him. Rare & moving accounts from first-hand and definitely worth reading. Buy it here.
Notes on a Silencing: A Memoir — Lacy Crawford
Author Crawford attended an elite school in WASPy New England, a place where parents send their children to help them get the best start in life. Instead, Crawford was sexually assaulted by two older students, she reported the crime to the school only to be dismissed and ignored. Years later, Crawford unravels the devastating effect both the assault and her subsequent treatment had with such raw intensity you cannot help but be stunned at the handling of the case. Buy it here.
Gorilla Killer: A True Story of Betrayal, Brutality and Butchery — Ryan Green
Earle Nelson spent two years travelling across the United States, but this wasn’t the kind of road trip you’d want to join Nelson on. In the span of those two years Nelson strangled and assaulted 20 women across the country. He became one of the country’s first known serial killers, it was the 1920s. Nelson was brutal and depraved, in this compelling account Ryan Green follows the killer on his treacherous journey in crimes that changed the country. Buy it here.
Signs of Murder: A small town in Scotland, a miscarriage of justice and the search for the truth — David Wilson
David Wilson is the UK’s pre-eminent criminologist, regularly featuring in True Crime documentaries, assisting police and teaching criminology students at Birmingham City University. He specialises in serial killers, but here, he travels back to his small Scottish home town to look at a case that has haunted the community for decades. The murder of Margaret McLaughlin was supposedly solved shortly after it occurred but in this investigative book Wilson finds wrongful convictions and many hidden secrets. Told with the deft of an accomplished crime writer and personal attachment of a home town boy. Buy it here.
18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics — Bruce Goldfarb
An unsung hero of modern forensics, despite never having a degree or formal training — Frances Glessner Lee had an extraordinary effect on the way forensic investigations developed. In 18 Tiny Deaths, Bruce Goldfarb weaves Lee's remarkable story with the advances in forensics made in her lifetime to tell the tale of the birth of modern forensics. Buy it here.
🎧 Podcasts 🎧
21-year-old University of Texas student, Jennifer Cave went out one evening in 2005 and never returned. Her body was found at an apartment complex not far from the University campus. What transpired was a portrait of a grim murder, an innocent girl with plenty of ambition and a disturbed killer.
From RTÉ in Ireland and Third Ear in Denmark, this podcast delves into the claims of a homeless vagrant, who by his own account would be a prolific serial killer if his claims were proven. While Kieran Patrick Kelly was certainly a dangerous and menacing man who killed at least one victim — how many others did he kill? The team behind this podcast did an exhaustive amount of research and investigation to uncover the truth behind the man.
Hedley Thomas who brought us Teacher’s Pet delves into the cold case of Janine Vaughan, a young woman who disappeared more than 19 years ago in the country town of Bathurst, NSW, Australia. But the investigation isn’t limited to Vaughan’s case, a number of other women have gone missing from the same area and potentially ominous characters loom large over the investigation. One to pay close attention to.
David Rudolf, best known as the lawyer involved in the infamous Staircase case, teams up with award-winning journalist and criminal defence attorney, Sonya Pfeiffer — the two also happen to be married. Each episode covers a case where there is a worrying problem with the evidence used to convict someone or evidence has been manipulated in order to fit the prime suspect. Some are still fighting for their freedom and others who now own their freedom, live with the stigma of being convicted. Fascinating stories.
The Canadian Uncover series delivers again in this look at an injustice. Uncover: Dead Wrong covers the case of Glen Assoun, who spent more than 17 years in prison for the murder of Brenda Way, a crime he did not commit. The podcast takes us on the journey of Assoun’s conviction, the investigation and internal fight within law enforcement, as well as the possibility Way was in fact the victim of a serial killer.
The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron
Author Vikki Petraitis co-wrote The Phillip Island Murder, a book on the murder of Beth Barnard and subsequent disappearance of prime suspect Vivienne Cameron with journalist Paul Daley. Although the book is out of print, this podcast dives into everything Petratis & Daley discovered as well as renewed insights as to what happened. Produced & presented in conjunction with the Casefile team, the podcast is compelling and haunting.
Technically this podcast came out at the tail end of 2019 but that’s also why you might have missed it. 30-year-old Swedish national Annie Börjesson moved to Edinburgh in 2004 to study English. Just over a year later she was due to fly back to Sweden. Annie was captured on CCTV entering Prestwick airport but after spending less than five minutes in the building, she left suddenly, without ever checking in for her flight. Less than 24 hours later, her body was discovered by a dog walker on nearby Prestwick beach. Ruled a suicide, despite there being no autopsy and a disturbing number of clues point to something other than taking her own life. Shocking and well produced.
Forgotten: Women of Juarez
Interwoven stories of border crime. The missing & murdered women of Juarez, just over the border in Mexico are an unseen part of the brutal battles that exist between international drug cartels, sex trafficking & people smuggling. This podcasts attempts to tell the stories behind a different kind of pandemic that has long been plaguing this corner of the world.
Somewhat controversial but no-less hard-hitting, Where the Bodies are Buried sees serial killer profiler Phil Chalmers interview killers who are already behind bars. The podcast, which leans to the dramatic is most definitely different to other podcasts out there — in currently released episodes you’ll hear from notorious serial killer Son of Sam AKA David Berkowitz amongst others. If you’re interested in the psychology of a killer and what drives them to do what they do, you’ll find this one hard to miss.
📺 Streaming/TV 📺
Much lauded (including by me) Murder on Middle Beach shifted the way True Crime documentaries are made. Deeply personal, moving and adept at taking the viewer through a gamut of suspects, Murder on Middle Beach was everything you want from a True Crime documentary and much, much more. Made by the murder victims own son, Madison Hamburg, you’re unlikely to have seen anything like it. Essential viewing. Available across multiple regions & streaming platforms.
David Tennant shines as British serial killer Dennis Nilsen in this dramatisation of the case. It follows Nilsen’s arrest, investigation and criminal case against him — including the internal battles police had with how many murders to charge the serial killer with. Based on the book Killing for Company by Brian Masters Des is a fascinating look at an incredibly complex killer. Available across multiple regions & streaming platforms.
When the estranged brother of North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un was murdered in a crowded Malaysian airport, two unlikely killers emerged. The two young women at the centre of the crime made for surprising assassins — this documentary explores the real lives behind the headlines and the political minefield they found themselves in. Riveting. Available on demand now.
American Murder: The Family Next Door
Like Murder on Middle Beach, The Family Next Door is an intimate portrait of a horrendous murder and the murderer at the centre of it. Shannan Watts went missing mysteriously from her Colorado home in 2018. This documentary follows the investigation first-hand, with police body cam footage, interviews and portraits of the relationship between Chris Watts and his victims Shannan and their two children. Harrowing and memorable. Available on Netflix now.
There is so much ground to cover in The Golden State Killer case, numerous podcasts, documentaries and books have explored it. This anthology documentary views the case through the investigative lens of the late Michelle McNamara. McNamara, a citizen detective and writer, became obsessed with the then unsolved case and wrote I’ll Be Gone in the Dark as her extensive research pulled together disparate clues and stories of the victims. Following McNamara’s own trail, the documentary picks up where she left off. Available across multiple regions & streaming platforms.
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