Criminally overlooked 1970s-era cases
the true crime that's worth your time
“We get that prestige scripted true crime about the seventies is tempting because the production designer can go off on the clothing and music,” Sarah slacked me yesterday, “but can we please do some different seventies crimes and stop going back to Candy/Bundy/Nixon?”
This rhetorical question was spurred by her jam-packed schedule of Love & Death and White House Plumbers screeners (the trailer from which made me hot for G. Gordon Liddy, I think?). I’m sure both those properties will find a reasonable audience, but, yes. As someone who was alive and reading newspapers in the 1970s — shout out to the Newark Star-Ledger, y’all — I can confirm that there were many other fascinating crimes during that decade besides what Sarah mentioned, the Son of Sam, the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, and John Wayne Gacy.
All true crime content creators need to do is hit the microfiche or, how about this, read the comments you all are about to leave. Because that’s today’s big question: What 1970s-era crimes need to get an documentary and adaptation time-out for a bit — and what crimes of that same period deserve an adaptation in their place? — EB