The best true crime dramas of 2024
As we reach the end of the first Year in Review (Best Evidence’s fourth annual, I should note), I’m already overwhelmed by all the remarkable best true crime...
The best true crime documentaries of 2024
Welcome to day four of Best Evidence’s fourth annual Year in Review, in which we celebrate the best true crime properties, complain about the worst, and spin...
The best true crime longreads of 2024
Welcome to day three of Best Evidence's fourth annual Year in Review, in which we celebrate the best true crime properties, complain about the worst, and...
The best true crime podcasts of 2024
Welcome to day two of Best Evidence's fourth annual Year in Review, in which we celebrate the best true crime properties, complain about the worst, and spin...
The best true crime books of 2024
Welcome to Best Evidence's fourth annual Year in Review, in which we celebrate the best true crime properties, complain about the worst, and spin hopeful...
The Elissas: Crimoir and compromise
The crimeBroadly, the Troubled Teen Industry – unregulated at best, fraudulent and abusive at worst. Specifically, the untimely death of author Samantha...
Making Manson: We're still listening to his name
The crimeI assume I don't have to go over the particulars of August 8-10, 1969 yet again. We do apparently have some reason to doubt the culpability of...
V13: Chronicle of a Trial struggles to make sense of the 2015 Paris massacre
On Friday November 13, 2015, a series of coordinated terror attacks throughout Paris killed 130 people, most of them young people attending a rock concert....
Jailbreak: Love on the Run is a prisoner of convention
The crimeIn late April of 2022, Alabama corrections officer Vicky White facilitated the escape of her incarcerated lover, Casey White, shocking her friends...
Is Double Indemnity true crime?
The crimeRuth Snyder married her older boss, Albert, in 1915, but a decade later, Ruth had tired of him – she liked to go out, he didn't; Albert didn't...
Fyre Festival II, the 13th Step harassment case, and more new true crime to know
Still from FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened. Credit: Netflix It’s been a while since Sarah and I cleaned out the doc on which we keep links to...
The best true crime of the year? The worst? We want to know.
Hello, Best Evidence readers, subscribers, and supporters! Somehow, we have staggered our way to the end of another year, which means it’s time for our...
The Al Pacino Best Evidence True-Crime Résumé Percentage
Working my way through a truly embarrassing backlog of magazines -- like, 2023 coverlines on a few of them -- I only last week came across the excerpt from...
December 2024 Bonus Review: The Taking of New York City
The crime/sNot specific crimes, but rather the reputation of New York City for unceasing mayhem in the 1970s. I think this is the book Rausch pitched…but is...
Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey and not-so-great expectations
The crimeThe murder of JonBenét Ramsey on Christmas night, 1996. The storyMy esteemed colleague Daniel Fienberg referred to Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét...
Can Say Nothing possibly improve on Patrick Radden Keefe's book?
The crimeThe abduction of 38-year-old mother of ten Jean McConville from her Belfast home in December of 1972 – as well as the myriad bombings, beatings,...
Read-Handed: Mommy-bloggers and murder ballads
just finished Not Just Evil: Murder, Hollywood, and California's First Insanity Plea, David Wilson // Stiff, overly grand prose; confusing zooms in and out...
The Apprentice: Killer means winner
Take your pick: fraud; extortion; attorney misconduct; sexual assault; '80s hair… [full review here, or grab a paid sub and get all editorial in your inbox...
October 2024 Bonus Review: Citizen X
The crimeAndrei “Red Ripper” Chikatilo’s surpassingly disgusting serial murders. The storyCitizen X, 1995's HBO movie on Soviet law enforcement's fits-and-...
This Is The Zodiac Speaking is worth hearing out
The crimeA series of unsolved murders in California in the 1960s; child endangerment. get the rest of SDB’s review straight to your inbox with a paid...
Read-Handed: The true-crime texts on our minds right now
Prison, Manson, Nixon and more in our longread log! (Keep reading here)
Hackers, Hoosiers, and the Black Dahlia
The crimeThe Black Dahlia case. The story"The Black Dahlia mystery: Wild theories, enduring myths and a long-overlooked suspect," by Christopher Goffard for...
The Docket 10.24.24: Fall Classics
Say it ain’t so, Joe. (Wikipedia) Heading into the 2024 World Series, we're championing (...sorry) the baseball/crime properties we recommend, from A-Rod to...
Woman Of The Hour: There are no winners here
The assaults and murders of at least seven, and possibly as many as 130, women and girls by Rodney Alcala. (Netflix) The storyAlcala is often called "the...
I'm Not A Monster: A "killer grandma" and the heart of darkness
The crime/sThe 2018 murder of David Riess by his wife, Lois, possibly catalyzed by frauds she'd committed against other family members; Lois's flight from...
The Docket 10.17.24: The Erin Lee Carr Reader
Long a favorite filmmaker of ours, documentarian Erin Lee Carr has two projects out this week -- I'm Not A Monster: The Lois Riess Murders and Fanatical: The...
Anatomy of Lies expertly explains the Elizabeth Finch scandal
Photo of Elizabeth Finch from Anatomy of Lies. Credit: Jennifer bayer/Peacock At its heart, new Peacock docuseries Anatomy of Lies is a con story, but not...
The Hunt For The Chameleon Killer takes too long
The crimeThe 1990 murder and dismemberment of bank employee Beverly McGowan – by, police suspected, her roommate of recent vintage, "Alice" – and the...
The Docket 10.10.24: Is Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal TOO out there?
The latest docuseries from the Duplasses, Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal, looks at various supernatural "cases" -- not just what really happened, but...
Making the case for The Menendez Brothers
The crimeAs noted in my review of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, "the 1989 murder of José and Kitty Menendez by their sons, Lyle and Erik…but...
The Docket 10.03.24: Joan and the art of the steal
American netlet The CW imported ITV's Joan as part of its...whatever it's doing now; EB and SDB don't understand what the six-part docudrama on legendary...
Unsolved Mysteries goes Full Spooky Season
Still from Unsolved Mysteries, Volume 5. Credit: Netflix "How does that work?" my husband asked me when I first told him about Netflix's 2020 revival of...
September 2024 Bonus Review: Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein
Juuuust in case the subject line doesn't imply it strongly enough: content warning. The crimeMultiple murders, as well as grave-robbing and desecration of...
The Docket 09.26.24: How (Not) To Get Rid Of A Body
Investigation Discovery's How (Not) To Get Rid Of A Body premiered a few weeks ago; we watched the first ep and had some thoughts. Should it have been called...
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and the sins of the sons
The crimeThe 1989 murder of José and Kitty Menendez by their sons, Lyle and Erik...but also possibly the rapes of Lyle and Erik by José, and maybe also by...
The Docket 09.19.24: Programming Anna
With Summer Of Scam "headliner" Anna Delvey joining Dancing With The Stars (NB: we recorded our ep the week before Delvey's debut, so we didn't know how it...
A Very Royal Scandal: Interview with the empire
The crime"Participation" by Prince Andrew, Duke of York in sexual activities with a minor. Allegedly. get this and our other full reviews in your inbox; grab...
American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez runs a predictable play
The crimeDepends on whether you mean what the late Patriots star Aaron Hernandez did, or what was done to him. The former: felony assault, attempted murder,...
Heartthrob Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein? Bananas or brilliant?
Best Evidence supporters get the full report in their inbox, while everyone else can click through to read. I've been thinking about Fifty Shades of Grey...
The Docket 09.12.24: Matthew Perry and the fame double standard
listen here! Matthew Perry's overdose death last year has resulted in a raft of charges against those alleged to have supplied and enabled the Friends star...
Unreliable narrators, or: What We Talk About When We Talk About Crime
While they’re not new – British criminologist Jennifer Fleetwood traces them back to 18th-century redemption stories – first-person narratives in true crime...
From the archives: Blotter Brief 4 on an Air McNair podcast
I reviewed Sports Illustrated’s podcast on McNair’s murder in 2018; now it’s on the Docket. - SDB
Michael Bay's Born Evil is a queasy mismatch of director and genre
The crimePer Max's promotional materials for Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Savior: "Meet Hadden Clark, the most vicious serial killer you've never...
August 2024 Bonus Review: The Murder of Air McNair
[CW: mentions of suicide; my review will also contain spoilers] Steve McNair’s gravesite. (Netflix) The crimeThe 2009 murder of former NFL quarterback Steve...
Killer Lies: Chasing A True-Crime Con Man is the best of both worlds
The crimeFraud, although Stéphane Bourgoin's retailing of himself as an expert on serial killers didn't qualify as a chargeable offense. get the whole review...
Only Murders In The Building Season 4: Back to the old house
[CW: may contain spoilers for the show's 4th season] Only Murders In The Building has returned to Hulu with its fourth-season premiere, and while I've...
Worst Ex Ever illustrates how domestic violence flummoxes the legal system
Production still from Worst Ex Ever. Credit: Netflix Netflix's Worst [Something] Ever franchise might be one of its best-kept true crime secrets. That's not...
Face to Face with Scott Peterson: “Well, then who else did it?”
The crimeApologies for cribbing from my own American Murder: Laci Peterson review, but: On or around December 24, 2002, Laci Peterson – eight months pregnant...
American Murder: Laci Peterson and what makes a true-crime case indelible
The crimeOn or around December 24, 2002, Laci Peterson – eight months pregnant with her and her husband Scott's first child, a son they'd already named...
August and September are boom times for true crimecrime
Note: Typically, we’re proud to send the entire Best evidence article to your inbox — but as today’s dispatch is heavy on the trailers, you might want to...