Between 1962 and 1966, sex murderer Jurgen Bartsch cruelly tortured and killed four children in an old air raid bunker in Germany. This documentary examines the personality of the killer who died in 1976 during voluntary castration surgery at the age of 30. Vilified by the press for his heinous crime, Bartsch also became a case study for famous found criminal psychologists like Alice Miller (who maintains that no one abuses without being abused as a child, and murderers tend to have their own childhood abuse denied by the adults around them). Bartsch never met his birth parents, he was raised in a clinic and later adopted by a cold, unaffectionate couple. By the age of 15, he tortured and killed his first child victim. This informative, fact-filled documentary provides enough details for viewers to come away with a broader understanding of the nature of the criminally insane and society's role in their formation.
Sydney, the early 1950's... a city in the grip of a deadly crime wave. In just over a year more than one hundred people were poisoned. Most of the killers were women. Recipe For Murder tells the true story of three notorious poisoners; Yvonne Fletcher, Caroline Grills and Veronica Monty. The 52 minute film combines gritty archive with stunning film noir re-enactments and interviews with witnesses. Narrated by Dan Wyllie in classic pulp crime style, the film dramatically reveals the unique ingredients that created a Recipe For Murder.
8-year-old Aaron Averhart was just a year shy of being able to move up from Cub Scout to Boy Scout when he received a special request from an admired Boy Scout leader, William (Bill) Sheehan. As Aaron rose up the Boy Scout ranks, he slowly became aware of Sheehan’s grooming techniques and began to realize he had much more sinister intentions in store for him. If Aaron’s parents had known that since the 1920s the Boy Scouts of America had been keeping hidden files on dangerous pedophiles in their ranks while failing to warn the public, the police, the scouts, their parents, or even fully removing them from the Boy Scouts program, they would have never allowed young Aaron to be part of such a complicit and corrupt organization.
In 1999, teen Rocío Wanninkhof is murdered. Her mother's ex-partner, Dolores Vázquez, is suspected. Did she do it? A second victim reveals the truth.
A feature-length documentary exploring the unsolved murder of French bicyclist Alain Malessard who was found dead in an Oregon Coast campground on Thanksgiving 1987.
A short mockumentary detailing the rise of intergenerational cosmetic theft through the eyes of an affected family.
On Nantucket island, on a frigid winter night in 1980, Dr. Margaret Kilcoyne disappeared without a trace. The film puts the pieces of the mystery together through research, interviews, and staying true to the timeline in which it happened. This island mystery will captivate and explore why so many questions were left unanswered.
Documentarian Jeffrey Morgan set out to the track one woman's search for the truth about her great-great-aunt's 1908 murder. But his film quickly became a fascinating study of racism, revenge and family secrets. In the process of uncovering information about her ancestor's violent death at the hands of an African-American suspect, the woman learns that her family tree might have also produced a few murderers.
Take a chilling tour through the twisted minds of some of the most violent serial killers including Jeffrey Dahmer and the BTK killer. What defines a serial killer? What makes them tick? These questions and more are answered in this horrific account of true events.
In the world of evil and deranged serial killers, there is no equal. Meet the Dark Lord of a murder castle who killed roughly 200 people in a self-made house of horrors who may have also been the notorious Jack the Ripper.
Occurring from the mid-1970s to 1981, the Ripper committed 13 murders. Viewed as ritualistic in nature, they were done with extreme brutality as he mocked the police during their desperate hunt for him. The victims were primiarly prostitutes or poor girls, with a few working girls tossed in. Generally he would hit a victim on the head with a hammer, sexually assault the lady, mutilate her, and then redress/re-arrangement the clothing and cover the corpse with her own coat.
Featuring interviews with his accomplices and victims alike, this deep dive explores how a master con man scammed French elites out of millions of euros.
Documentary shedding light on the emotional fallout of the murder of Sarah Payne, the eight-year-old girl who was kidnapped and killed in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex, in 2000. Two weeks after her disappearance, Sarah's body was found, and after a high profile police investigation, Roy Whiting was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Testimonies from friends, family, police officers, key witnesses and experts in criminology are combined with an interview with Sarah's mother, to illustrate the tragic toll the case took on those closest to the victim.
This stranger than fiction crime thriller tells the hidden story of the Horsemeat Scandal. With testimony from whistleblowers, the detectives who cracked the case and journalists who uncovered how horsemeat ended up in our high street stores, it’s an outlandish tale that changed what we eat forever.
On the 12th November 1976, Renee MacRae, a glamorous 36-year old mother of two and wife of a wealthy building firm owner, vanished after leaving her home in Inverness. Later that night, Renee’s burnt out BMW was found in a lay-by on the roadside of the A9. Neither she nor her three-year-old son Andrew have ever been seen again.
In 1980, the capture of the infamous serial killer Pedro Alonso López, also known as the Monster or the Strangler of the Andes, seemed to end his nearly decade-long reign of terror. However, Ecuadorian laws benefited the murderer by giving him a shorter sentence and even the option of leaving in less time. When the Monster's release draws near, a group of family members struggle to find ways to keep him in jail, while he, from the inside, searches through a series of letters to clear his name and unmask the real killer: Jorge Patiño. The problem is that Jorge Patiño exists only in his mind.
On 9 July 1996, three bodies were found in a little leafy copse beside a country lane in Chillenden, Kent. Dr Lin Russell, 45, and her two daughters, Megan, six and Josie, nine, had all suffered brutal head injuries caused by a blunt instrument. They had been tied up and their family dog, Lucy, was also found dead nearby.
Writings and social media posts help to reveal the secret life and troubles of Luigi Mangione, the man accused of the brazen murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and whom so many people are calling a hero.
A look at one of Scotland’s most high-profile murder trials, the brutal killing of Dr Brenda Page. It was part of the Scottish criminal justice system’s 45-year quest for answers.
The real story of wellness campaigner Belle Gibson's massive worldwide fraud and the famous interview that brought the con artist down.