In the last few years, Netflix has produced some really popular true crime documentaries. So for lovers of true crime, the streaming platform also has several crime documentaries that revolve around some of the most infamous serial killers of recent times; they recently released a chilling watch based on serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer called Dahmer and a docuseries that details his crimes and conversations with him called Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes.
The series became very popular, even surpassing Bridgerton. For people that enjoyed watching the Dahmer series, this article lists similar spine-chilling documentaries you can stream on Netflix right now.
1. American Murder: The Family Next Door
In 2018, a typical American family living in Colorado was torn apart as thirty-three year-old Chris Watts was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife Shanann, thirty-four, and their two daughters Bella, four, and Celeste, three.
This feature-length documentary is pieced together in a found-footage style using intriguing home video and police body cam footage, including interviews with suspicious friends and neighbours to describe the aftermath of a heinous event where a man kills his own family and tries to cover it up in vain. Social media posts and text messages from the late Shanann also shed a light on the circumstances preceding her murder, suggesting that her marriage wasn’t as perfect as it seemed.
2. Tinder Swindler
While true-crime documentaries are exciting, they can also be heartbreaking and the Tinder Swindler is no different.
The Tinder Swindler tells the story of Simon Leviev (born Shimon Hayut), a conman who pretended to be the rich heir of an Israeli diamond tycoon to seduce women on Tinder. Once they became involved with him, he started to ask them for money–up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The victims were left in debt and heartbroken, but their stories tell a fascinating true-crime story.
3. Conversations with a killer; John Wayne Gacy Tapes
John Wayne Gacy gained notoriety for being both a professional clown and serial killer before his legal execution in 1994. With at least thirty- three murders to his name, Gacy’s story has been told repeatedly through both documentaries and scripted media.
In 2022, Netflix brings a three-part series titled; Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes, which features never-before-heard audio along with archival videos and interviews. For those who’ve never heard of Gacy or have yet to hear the whole story, this documentary is a chance to settle in for some horrific and chilling tales of murder.
4. Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer
Night Stalker is a 2021 documentary series that revolves around the serial killings that happened in Los Angeles during the mid-1980s. The four-part docuseries, giving a comprehensive view of the whole case, focuses on the terrifying incidents and how they affected the whole city.
The series focuses on the fear and anxiety that spread through Los Angeles when the killer was on the loose. After a year of police hunts, the killer was finally identified as Richard Ramirez and was arrested on August 31, 1985.
5. Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting An Internet Killer
Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer is one of the most talked about true crime documentaries in the last few years. The three-part docuseries records an online search for actions of animal cruelty that led to a murderer.
After videos showing a man torturing kittens were uploaded to YouTube in 2010 and 2011, a group of animal lovers got together to punish the man for his actions. The internet detectives created groups on Facebook, conducted an investigation, and identified him as Luka Magnotta. However, it was later found that Magnotta’s acts of cruelty did not merely involve animals. The documentary shows a comprehensive timeline of the incidents and how Magnotta was finally apprehended.
6. Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes
This is another documentary that created a lot of hype when it was released on Netflix. The docuseries has four extensive episodes that give a comprehensive timeline and it shines a light on one of the most infamous serial killers, Ted Bundy, who had more than 30 victims.
The documentary features over 100 hours of interviews with Bundy and archival footage paired with interviews from his family, friends, surviving victims and involved law enforcement officers.
7. Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel
This Netflix series focuses on the 2013 death of Canadian student Elisa Lam but it also touches upon some of the other cases.
The hotel located on Skid Row a neighborhood in downtown LA, established in 1924 and since has been the home to many murders and crimes. The hotel manager, Amy Price is interviewed in the series and she says there were around eighty deaths during the ten-years she served.
8. Crime Scene: Times Square Killer
Following the release of Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel, the second season titled Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer centers on a series of murders of which took place in New York in the 70s and 80s.
Split into three episodes, it focuses on the Times Square murders committed by serial killer Richard Cottingham between 1967 and 1980. Nicknamed the Times Square Torso Ripper, records state that Cottingham officially murdered eleven people over thirteen years across New York and New Jersey. However, Cottingham claims to have actually committed between eighty-five and 100 murders, and he’s currently still in prison in New Jersey.
Crime Scene has also officially been renewed for a third and fourth season.
9. Girl in the Picture
This true-crime documentary is among the documentaries to be released on Netflix this year.
It tells the emotional story of a young woman who was found dead by the side of the road, only for her son to then be kidnapped. It’s a harrowing tale that reopens a mystery that has been unsolved for two decades.
10. When They See Us
This is a heartbreaking story of the Central Park 5 Jogger case of 1989. It follows the story of a female jogger who is brutally murdered and the investigation and trial of five black and brown men who are wrongly accused of the crimes.
The Show is a four-part mini-series directed by Ava Duverney with a cast of Jharrel Jerome, Asante Blackk, Freddy Miyares, Vera Farmiga, Brett Gray, Caleel Harris, Marquis Rodriguez and Niecy Nash.
11. House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths
House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths is one of the most unsettling and overwhelming crime documentaries on Netflix.
It takes us through the 2018 case where a joint family of eleven people committed group suicide in the home leaving no answers behind. This case shocked the entire nation of India to its core as no one was able to comprehend how such an act could be committed.
12. Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan
In 1977, twenty-two year-old Billy Milligan was arrested for the kidnapping, robbery, and rape of three women around the Ohio State campus area and was imprisoned for the crimes. But during a psychiatric evaluation, Milligan revealed that he hadn’t committed any crimes at all—it was Ragen that had stolen the money and Adalana who had raped the women.
Continued evaluation revealed eight additional alternate personalities and in 1978, Milligan was found not guilty by reason of insanity on nine criminal charges. The docuseries Monsters Inside documents his highly publicised, turbulent life. Milligan died in 1988, at the age of 61.
13. My Lover, My Killer
The documentary unpicks six different historical criminal cases that all revolve around relationships that have gone seriously wrong. Each episode details the victims who were centred in abusive relationships and how badly they all ended.
Like most true-crime series, the show includes contributions from detectives, criminal investigators and forensic psychologists to help tell the story of the victims and explore why they commit such heinous crimes. They also examine how the killers were caught and brought to justice.
All the trailers are available on Youtube.
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