Top 10 True Crime Series You Need To Binge

The Golden State Killer’s reign of terror lasted through the 70s and 80s, but it took another thirty years for the FBI to finally catch him; in 2018 he finally confessed to over a dozen murders and many more serious offenses. But one woman named Michelle McNamara spent those decades investigating the crimes herself, eventually writing a book that became the documentary “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” in 2020. McNamara died in 2016, two years before the killer, Joseph James DeAngelo, was brought to justice. Featuring talking heads from McNamara’s husband – iconic comedian Patton Oswalt – the criminal’s victims, and the cops who worked the case, this series is as phenomenal as it is tragic.

He’s one of the most famous serial killers in history, but – as the documentary’s stars say – it’s a story desperately in need of a female point of view. This is a series on Ted Bundy from the perspective of the women in his life, primarily his girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall. The five episodes chronicle how his crimes impacted not only those he killed, but those who survived his attacks, those who investigated him, and those who spent years living in fear before he was caught. It’s a new, refreshing take on a story you’ve heard before, which is why you won’t be able to stop watching.

A bank heist like no other, this four-part series is the story of Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong and the robbery she masterminded. In rural Pennsylvania in 2003, a man named Brian Wells robbed a bank for a few thousand dollars, equipped with a home-made shotgun and collar bomb. Tragically, local police and the bomb squad weren’t able to defuse the bomb, which detonated and killed Wells before the latter arrived. This documentary charts the circumstances behind the crime, why it was done, how it was carried out, whether Wells himself had anything to do with it, and who Diehl-Armstrong herself was. One of the weirdest crimes in American history, the twists don’t stop coming in “Evil Genius”.

Coming just at the start of the global lockdown in March 2020, there are very few people who haven’t seen “Tiger King” – and those who haven’t almost certainly know what it is anyway. But it was so wildly popular for a reason, and there’s never been a better time to settle in for a rewatch or to finally see what all the fuss is about. It charts the story of Joe Exotic, owner of a zoo and a big cat collector, and his long-time feud with Carole Baskin, owner of a big cat sanctuary. The cats themselves aren’t the focus though, Exotic’s life is – along with allegations that Baskin is a murderer. It’s a wild ride from start to finish.

Close to 50,000 different cases were found to be compromised when two different chemists working in separate crime labs independently of one other were found to have tampered with evidence. Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan were both arrested for their crimes in Massachusetts just a few months apart, revealing flaws in America’s justice system and leading to tens of thousands of convictions being overturned. Dookhan was falsifying evidence, leading to wrongful convictions, to make herself look like a model staff member, while Farak, a long-term addict, was using the narcotics she was supposed to be testing. This documentary chronicles both sensational stories concurrently.

If you’re getting a little worn out from all the dark and violent crimes that have received the documentary treatment, “McMillions” is something of a palette cleanser. This miniseries follows the fraud case involving the chief of security of the agency that McDonald’s was using to promote their Monopoly game. Between 1989 and the early 2000s, Simon Marketing’s Jerry Jacobson was able to get his hands on winning stickers, stealing them and selling them on to a nationwide network that eventually got the attention of the mafia – who wanted a share of the profits. For over a decade, Jacobson’s scam flourished, until finally gaining the attention of the FBI. It’s FBI agent Doug Matthews, an incredibly enthusiastic figure who went undercover to catch the culprits that makes “McMillions” one of the most entertaining docu-series out there.

We all know to be wary of catfishes online, but this is catfishing like you’ve never seen before. It follows the life and times of con-artist Richard Scott Smith. Smith’s MO was seducing women online, even marrying some of them, and defrauding them of huge amounts of money. With many women adding their stories about Smith to the narrative, and the documentarians themselves actually putting up money for the investigation, it’s one of the most intriguing shows out there. “Love Fraud” will keep pulling you in with the allure of being a real, ongoing case at the time it was filmed, not to mention being a solid documentary anyway.

David Fincher’s critically acclaimed drama charts the rise of modern criminal psychology, as the field was developed by a small FBI department, the BSU, that studied the behavior of serial killers and offenders. The three leads may only be loosely inspired by real people, but the killers they interview are some of America’s most notorious. Among those encountered are the Co-ed Killer Ed Kemper, Charles Manson, and the BTK Killer, Dennis Rader, while season 2 focuses on Wayne Williams, the killer convicted of the Atlanta murders, but also features other criminals like the Son of Sam, aka David Berkowitz,. And if you want an even more detailed look at Williams, the 2020 documentary “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children” will tell you all you need to know.

A far more personal documentary than many others, “Murder on Middle Beach” is about one man’s attempts to solve his own mother’s murder. Barbara Beach Hamburg was killed outside her own house in 2010, with the police making little-to-no headway in the investigation. So, her son Madison took matters into his own hands, fighting with law enforcement to get access to the vital information they didn’t share. The murder remains unsolved to this day, but the story is gripping and will keep you engaged. It’s clear that nothing is as it seems on Middle Beach, with Barbara’s friends and family still struggling to reconcile with what happened.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few Honorable Mentions:

“The Ripper” (2020)
This Series Sheds a Light on One of England’s Most Infamous Modern Murderers

“Quiz” (2020)
An Ex-Army Major & His Wife Tried to Scam Their Way to a Million-Pound Jackpot

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (2018)
Season 2 of the Ryan Murphy-Executive-Produced Drama Focuses on the Iconic Fashion Designer’s Killing

“Making a Murderer” (2015-18)
The Debate Around Whether Convicted Murder Steven Avery Was Innocent Still Rages

“Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich” (2020)
Get the Story of How Epstein Got Away with It for So Long from His Victims Themselves

This Netflix series is a deep dive into people who have been sent to prison for crimes they didn’t commit and how they eventually got their convictions overturned. Following some of the most prominent cases from the US’s long-running Innocence Project, it’s a harrowing look at miscarriages of justice. Many of the people the show follows were convicted of violent crimes, some of them at very young ages - by what the series’ consulting execs describe as “governments’ reliance on junk science, discredited and suggestive eyewitness identification procedures, and prosecutors who engage in misconduct to win at any cost.” Since multiple incidents, rather than one sprawling case taking up a whole season, are explored throughout the episodes, it’s easy to binge-watch this attention-grabbing and important series.