This week, Netflix aired a sinister new look into the crimes of one of America's most notorious serial killers with Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. It comes 30 years after the anniversary of his execution, and features never before heard audio from the hours of interviews in which he confessed to murdering more than 30 women in the 70s.
Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes / Photo Credit: Netflix
This month also sees the Sundance premiere of new Ted Bundy biopic Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile starring Zac Efron. Meanwhile, here are seven other shocking true crime series on Netflix that you need to get stuck into.
The Innocent Man
Based on John Grisham's best-selling book The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, this six-part documentary series explores two murders in Ada, Oklahoma in the 1980s, and the wrongful conviction and life-sentencing of Ron Williamson for the crimes. The series aired in December 2018, and features interviews with friends and relatives of the victims, locals, journalists as well as Grisham himself.
Witness Murder Files
A limited series that originally aired on Channel 5, this looks at some of the most high-profile murders in Britain in recent memory featuring interviews with the victims' families and police detectives assigned to the various cases. There may not be many episodes to get stuck into, but it's unlikely you'll be able to stomach too much of this grisly murder bonanza.
Making a Murderer
Filmed over a period of more than 10 years, this series follows the story of Stephen Avery; a man who was exonerated through DNA testing of a murder after spending 18 years in prison, but was arrested for another murder just two years later while in the process of filing a civil suit for wrongful conviction and imprisonment. It's an ongoing case, with the second season of the series having aired in October 2018.
Inside the Criminal Mind
A little different in that we're not just looking at murderers, but various criminal types and the psychology behind these horrific acts. Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Josef Fritzl and Pablo Escobar are among just a few of the case studies in the show, and while it is another limited series, it's certainly a fascinating look into history's most corrupt minds.
The Staircase
Directed by Academy-award winner Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, this documentary series explores the case of Michael Peterson; a crime novelist who was arrested in 2001 for killing his wife after she was found lifeless at the bottom of the stairs in their home. Over the next 16 years, he appealed the judge's decision to imprison him for homicide, with the case eventually ending after he submitted an Alford plea in 2017 to reduce the charge to manslaughter with time served.
Deadly Women
Each episode of this series details three murderesses who have all murdered in similar circumstances, complete with gritty dramatisations. It started as a mini-series on the Discovery Channel in 2005, but was re-done from 2008 as a long-running series for Investigation Discovery. Currently there's only the first season from the 2008 reboot on Netflix at the moment, but that's still 40 episodes.
The Keepers
Few things are more disconcerting than an unsolved murder case. This seven-part documentary series details the disappearance of a nun and Catholic school teacher named Sister Cathy Cesnik in Baltimore in 1969. Her body was found two months after she went missing, but to this day her murder remains unsolved. Disturbingly, it was only in the 90s when it came to light that she may have confronted a school chaplain about allegations of sexual abuse ahead of her death, after two former students opened up about their ordeals.
Tagged in Netflix True Crime