Gruesome tales of grisly murder.
Horror stories of kids in cults.
False confessions and authentic admissions.
Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal
One things for certain: theres no lack of contenders twisted tales dripping with blood.
Both of those serial killers [Gacy and Bundy] were very unreliable narrators.
So, you had to separate the truth from the bravado and the false information.
Unfortunately, serial killing is part of the human condition, he says.
Doing bad things to other people is part of the human condition.
Of course, you have to do it responsibly.
You have to think about the victims.
So, why do we say we cant tell these kinds of stories?
Its part of who we are, unfortunately.
Nason says true crime resonates with audiences in part because of the violent nature of American society.
Everyone can relate to it unfortunately, with these mass shootings, et cetera, she says.
I think thats why true crime is so reliable as a medium of entertainment in the documentary golden age.
To me, it has always been a story about the malleability and fallibility of memory, Wang says.
And we look at how false memory formed and what it takes to change peoples minds.
During an argument outside a Speedway station, he soaked her with gasoline and set her ablaze.
It was a longshot because it had never been done.
One of the thriving sub-genres within true crime focuses on cults and cult-like institutions.
Jeffs himself took at least 78 wives, two dozen of them under the age of 17.
Warren Jeffs is our president; he was the prophet.
And how could you place a human over god?
In 2010, Larry Ray, recently released from prison, moved into his daughters dorm at Sarah Lawrence.
Ray convinced one his roomies that she had engaged in an elaborate poisoning scheme.
Ray filmed many of his encounters with his vulnerable charges, during which they admitted their supposed misdeeds.
He gave the videos to Heinzerling, believing they established his innocence.
He labeled them as confessions.
Mega-hitTiger Kingtwo years later earned six Emmy nominations but won zero.
Many true crime films and series get no Emmy love at all.
Its difficult for true crime stuff to get nominated, Carr acknowledged at the time.
And I hope that that changes.
Whether it has changed will become more evident once this years Emmy nominees have been revealed.
A lot of these true crimes have uncovered huge amounts of injustice, she says.
