Crime Writers On...True Crime Review

In 2004, Dateline NBC rolled out a new segment. “To Catch a Predator" was a bait-and-switch operation where producers chatted online with men looking for sex with a minor, then lured them to a home where reporter Chris Hansen would confront them on camera. The undercover segments were billed as helpful to both police and victims, as America watched the would-be predators squirm in shame before getting arrested. But its legacy is co...

In 2016, Truman State University was rocked when two fraternity members died by suicide within weeks of each other. But officials were troubled that both students had close ties to Brandon Grossheim, the person who found each of their bodies. Grossheim called himself “The Peacemaker,” someone students could turn to in times of crisis. But as more deaths occurred, and his behavior grew more peculiar, those around him wondered if Gro...

Financier Marissa Irvine discovers her son’s playdate was just an elaborate kidnapping. With the search underway, Marissa faces judgement from family and the press for Milo’s disappearance. Meanwhile, Jenny Kaminski struggles with her guilt for hiring the nanny who abducted the child. While police search for the nanny, tensions within the Irvine family grow, as secrets and resentments come to the surface. And loved ones turn on eac...

Jeremy Bamber was convicted of killing his parents, sister, and nephews in 1985. The Whitehouse Farm murders became England’s most sinister case, cementing Bamber as the nation’s most infamous criminal. And to this day, many remain convinced he is the cold‑blooded killer behind the massacre. But New Yorker reporter Heidi Blake looked into why police turned away from their original theory that the deaths were a murder-suicide at the...

There was something for everyone on TV in 2025. Some shows shattered conventions, others re‑examined true crime classics as dramatic adaptations, and still others were returning favorites. But which TV shows and documentaries we reviewed truly stood out? We’ll hear from crime writers as they share their top ten picks for 2025.

Lara's picks for best TV of 2025

1. Adolescence
2. The Quilters
3. Shiny Happy People: A Teenage Holy War
4. Unknown N...

2025 was a solid year for podcasts. There were multiple investigative series, retrospectives on the history you thought you knew, and even some light‑hearted fare that was quirky and entertaining. But which titles truly stood out? We’ll hear from crime writers as they share their top 10 podcasts we reviewed in 2025.

Lara's top 10 podcasts:

1. Spotlight: Snitch City
2. Liberty Lost  
3. The Preventionist
4. The Retrievals season 2
5. Not a Very Goo...

When the body of 18-year-old Sarah Zuber was found outside her home in 2019, the evidence suggested a variety of competing theories. Was it a murder, a hit and run, or Sarah’s own intoxicated misadventure?  Her parents believed authorities bungled the case and are hiding information. Community members organized on Facebook pages and in action groups, spouting their own theories and suspects. The Zuber case also spawned a political ...

Alex Murdaugh was part of a South Carolina legal dynasty, but the attorney was hiding secrets. He had been embezzling from his family’s law firm to maintain a lavish lifestyle and his addiction to pills. Things start to unravel when his younger son Paul is involved in a fatal boating accident. A reporter turns up evidence of suspicious deaths and apparent corruption by members of the Murdaugh family. As his marriage falls apart and...

Author Aggie Wiggs finds herself at odds with her new neighbor: wealthy property developer Nile Jarvis, who’s been living under suspicion since the disappearance of his first wife. But when the man who killed Aggie’s son in a drunk driving accident also vanishes, she wonders if Jarvis had a hand in it. Desperate for cash and encouraged by Jarvis, Aggie agrees to write about him. As he gives her more access into his life, Aggie is d...

Straight-A student Paul Fisher dropped out of college to try his hand as a male gigolo in L.A. After a chance encounter with a mobster flush with cash, Fisher moved to New York and opened his own modeling agency to compete with the titans of the industry. The so-called “model war” changed the way stars are born in the fashion industry. But along the way, Fisher struggled with the excesses of the 80s, pushback from the old guard, an...

After writing his latest exposé about the family of a gubernatorial candidate, journalist, used book seller, and self-styled “truthstorian” Lee Raybon learns that Donald Washberg’s brother has shot himself. But notes from Dale Washberg, tucked into paperbacks, lead Lee to suspect things are not as they seem. With the help of his eccentric acquaintances, Lee searches for a connection between Washberg, a group of skinheads, a cabal o...

Attorney Steven Donziger spent his whole career on one case: suing an oil company for polluting villages in the Amazon rainforest. When he obtained a $9 billion judgment against Chevron, it was considered a win for the environment, for corporate accountability, and for Donziger himself. But Chevron never paid the judgement and shifted its legal strategy. They targeted Donziger and his propensity for pushing the limits of the law. I...

An official in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley made a troubling discovery about the county’s Office of Youth Services. Workers were taking action against a large number of families based on the diagnosis of a hospital specialist…diagnoses that were frequently proven wrong. He argued money was wasted and lives were destroyed by an overabundance of caution from one doctor. Dr. Debra Jenssen made a career in multiple states finding signs...

In 1988, postal officials intercepted a package of heroin from China being sent to New York. DEA Agents followed the shipment to the door of a young mother living in Chinatown. Tina Wong told them she was paid by a high school friend to receive packages and pass them along to a street gang. Officials learned women in local mahjong parlors were being recruited to take part in a massive drug trafficking operation. Prosecutors leaned ...

For decades, David "Skull" Schulman ran The Rainbow Room in Nashville, a club known for its edgy mix of country music, burlesque shows, and other illicit activity. But the city was shocked in 1998 when the colorful 81-year-old local icon was murdered in his empty nightclub, his French poodle the only witness to the crime.

Authorities suspected someone was after the wad of cash Skull always kept in the bib of his Hee Haw overalls. De...

With the sudden death of the President, Ambassador to the UK Kate Wyler is passed over as Vice-President. Grace Penn instead selects Kate’s husband, Hal, to join her in the White House. The move forces Kate to choose between going to Washington with Hal as his Second Lady or staying in London as a diplomat. As the Wyler’s marital relationship dissolves, so does the diplomatic relationship between the nations, as the US’s role in th...

Podcasters Charles, Oliver and Mabel are shocked to find a severed finger in a platter of shrimp cocktail! Is it connected to the suspicious death of their doorman? Or their search for a missing dry-cleaning mobster? The investigation takes a turn when they uncover a secret casino hidden beneath the Arconia. The gaming room contains a card table with a cleaver-shaped gash and is frequented by a trio of billionaires, one who’s missi...

Returning to work after a family tragedy, FBI Agent Tom Brandis is put in charge of a task force to find who has been robbing drug stash houses run by the ruthless Darkhearts motorcycle gang. Robbie Prendergrast is out for revenge since the bikers killed his brother for sleeping with a leader’s wife. But when a holdup turns deadly, Robbie leaves with the eight-year-old son of the people they just killed. Now both the bikers and law...

British Columbia police were stumped by the 2017 murder of Jessie James, an avid “dirtbag” rock climber, campground philosopher, and shit-posting online troll who lived out of his truck. After years of dead ends, investigators learned the victim had been using an alias, after walking away from a checkered past in the US. Reporter and local climber Steven Chua dug into the story of this con artist who was among the first to harness ...