Top 10 True Crime Shows with the Most Disturbing Backstories
Reality is way more disturbing than fiction! Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re looking at true crime television shows based on very unsettling source material. For this list, we’ll be focusing on true crime dramas and excluding docuseries. Beware of spoilers ahead.
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00:00Allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood.
00:02How did you end up here?
00:04Did 657 Boulevard call to you with its force within?
00:07Welcome to Ms. Mojo,
00:09and today we're looking at true crime television shows
00:11based on very unsettling source material.
00:14For this list, we're focusing on true crime dramas
00:17and excluding docuseries.
00:19Beware of spoilers ahead.
00:21I mean, you believe it, don't you?
00:27Number 10, The Girl from Plainville.
00:30I hate that I'm always worrying and regretting about the past,
00:35and I'm pessimistic about the future.
00:39You don't have to feel that way.
00:42On July 12, 2014,
00:45Conrad Roy III was found deceased in a Massachusetts parking lot
00:49as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning inside his truck.
00:52When investigators went through his phone,
00:54they found countless texts from his girlfriend, Michelle Carter,
00:57encouraging him to take his own life.
00:59When he hesitated or second-guessed the decision,
01:01she repeatedly told him to go through with it.
01:03Whenever he had doubts, she diminished them.
01:08Whenever he had guilt about leaving his family,
01:12she assured him that she would comfort them.
01:15Carter's deeply upsetting messages
01:17showed that she played an active role in his death,
01:19and that had it not been for her unrelenting words of assurance,
01:23Roy might have lived.
01:24She was ultimately found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
01:27Elle Fanning starred as Carter in Hulu's The Girl from Plainville,
01:31which explores the unprecedented case
01:33and the heartbreaking reality of mental illness in youth.
01:36I could make you happy, make your dreams come true.
01:43Nothing that I wouldn't do.
01:48Number 9, Candy and Love and Death.
01:51She looked so hurt, so acid.
01:58I'm sorry.
02:00In June 1980, Betty Gore was killed inside her Wiley, Texas home.
02:05The grisly crime made headlines not only because it occurred on Friday the 13th,
02:09but also because the axe-wielder was church-going housewife Candace Candy Montgomery.
02:14However, not many people were familiar with the shocking murder
02:17and the controversial not-guilty verdict.
02:20That changed in 2022 with the arrival of Hulu's Candy,
02:24a five-part series starring Jessica Biel in the titular role.
02:27In 2023, Max released their seven-episode series Love and Death,
02:32led by Elizabeth Olsen.
02:34Shall we set a date for the affair to begin?
02:44Let's go with December 12th.
02:45Both shows follow the affair between Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore's husband Alan,
02:49which was the catalyst for the violent altercation.
02:52Biel and Olsen perfectly portray the eeriness of Candy committing a crime
02:56and then going about her day.
02:58I went to Betty's and we just got to talking.
03:01And I looked at my watch and thought,
03:02enough time to go to Target to get Father's Day cards,
03:04so I drove all the way to Plano.
03:06But when I got to the parking lot, I realized my watch had stopped.
03:09And so I was late.
03:09I didn't even go in.
03:10I'm so upset.
03:11I wanted to see the kids' puppet show.
03:13Number 8, I Am the Night.
03:15Your grandfather is a very, very dangerous man.
03:23Stay away.
03:25Stay away from him.
03:27TNT's I Am the Night tells the true story of Fauna Hodel,
03:31who uncovered dark secrets in her biological family,
03:34including a connection to one of the most famous unsolved cases in Los Angeles.
03:38In 1949, Tamar Hodel, Fauna's birth mother,
03:41alleged that she was physically mistreated by her father,
03:44Dr. George Hodel, who was ultimately acquitted in court.
03:48George Hodel had dirt on a lot of people,
03:50so he was protected by the higher-ups in the police department.
03:54Among other crimes, the wealthy physician was a suspect in the 1947 murder
03:59of aspiring actress Elizabeth Short, aka the Black Dahlia,
04:02who was found in unspeakable conditions.
04:05While the case has been explored in several books, podcasts, and movies,
04:09TNT interweaves two twisted stories surrounding the Hodel family
04:13in one dark, fascinating series.
04:15Your granddaughter called.
04:19I'll take care of it.
04:25Number seven, Under the Bridge.
04:27Yo! Where's Josephine at?
04:30I'm supposed to fight some chick.
04:32Hey, somebody's ass about to get rocked.
04:35Based on Rebecca Godfrey's 2005 book Under the Bridge,
04:38The True Story of the Murder of Rena Virk,
04:40Hulu's limited series takes a look at the cruelty
04:43that led to the untimely death of Rena Virk.
04:45In November 1997, a group of young people, mostly girls,
04:49attacked her at a gathering under the Craigflower Bridge
04:52in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada.
04:54We had a plan, you know, to teach Rena a lesson.
04:58So when I did that, everyone just jumped on her.
05:00Unfortunately, things didn't end there,
05:03as two partygoers, Kelly Ellard and Warren Glowatzki,
05:06followed her as she tried to leave,
05:08and attacked her again before Ellard drowned Virk.
05:11The violent crime was shocking,
05:12not only because it happened in a small Canadian town,
05:15but also because the victim and perpetrators were also young.
05:19Young girls in Victoria were the ones we were supposed to protect.
05:27Not be protected from.
05:29Number six, A Friend of the Family.
05:31In 1970s Idaho, Jan Broberg was kidnapped twice
05:35by family friend Robert Birchtold.
05:37Strangely, he also had intimate encounters with her parents,
05:41essentially blackmailing them to get away with his crimes.
05:44What exactly is your relationship with Robert Birchtold?
05:50Well, he's practically a member of the family.
05:54He loves our children like they're his own, like we love his.
05:59Anyone who has seen Netflix's documentary,
06:01Abducted in Plain Sight, already knows the bizarre story.
06:04Peacocks, A Friend of the Family retells Broberg's traumatic experiences with Birchtold,
06:09and how he used brainwashing tactics to convince her
06:12that abductions were part of an alien mission.
06:14Do you remember how we talked about at some point,
06:17there would come a time where we would both be tested?
06:20Yes.
06:22That time has come.
06:24Jan Broberg herself, who later became an actress,
06:27collaborated on the series and appeared in the finale.
06:30Her involvement helped creators make the series as close as it can be
06:33to the real stranger than fiction tale.
06:36Jan and her family gave us their childhood diaries,
06:40like the actual diaries.
06:42They gave us clothes that they wore.
06:44They gave us furniture from their house.
06:46They gave us thousands of photographs.
06:51I'm so trapped.
06:53I can't tell anyone.
06:55You can tell me.
06:56This Hulu miniseries is as disturbing as it is tragic.
07:00For years, Claudine Dede Blanchard told everyone
07:03that her daughter Gypsy Rose had a long list of illnesses,
07:06including muscular dystrophy, leukemia, and epilepsy.
07:09She was forced to use a wheelchair and underwent unnecessary surgeries.
07:13She also notably ate through a feeding tube
07:16and had her head shaved to appear more sickly.
07:20Sweet pea, I know sometimes you want to be like everybody else,
07:25but you know what?
07:28I like you special.
07:30It was suspected that Dede might have had
07:33factitious disorder imposed on another,
07:35meaning she acted as though her child was ill to gain attention.
07:38After a lifetime of torturous medical procedures,
07:41isolation, and pain,
07:43Gypsy Rose planned her mother's murder
07:45with her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn in 2015.
07:48The best memory that I have in my entire life
07:52is the day that I got to prison.
07:56Number four, Mindhunter.
07:58In a case where we can't immediately divine motive,
08:01we shouldn't panic.
08:02It's a riddle, but it can be solved.
08:04It's complex, but it's human.
08:09Based on John Douglas and Mark Olshaker's true crime book,
08:12Mindhunter follows the inception of the FBI's behavioral science unit
08:16and of criminal profiling.
08:17Along with psychologist Dr. Wendy Carr,
08:20special agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench set out on a research project
08:23proving that criminal psychology could be used to capture serial killers.
08:28If there's one thing I know, it's this.
08:32A mother should not scorn her own son.
08:36If a woman humiliates her little boy,
08:38he will become hostile and violent and debased, period.
08:43They travel around the country interviewing convicted murderers,
08:46including the likes of Edmund Kemper and David Berkowitz,
08:49which the Netflix series reenacts with direct quotes.
08:52Exploring everything from their traumatic backstories
08:55to their horrifying crimes,
08:56Mindhunter depicts some of the most depraved killers with eerie accuracy.
09:01Well, if you know, you know.
09:02You don't need to talk to me.
09:04It's yourself you need to talk to.
09:07Number three, appropriate adult.
09:09I just had the right berry in that garden.
09:12There's more.
09:15You wouldn't believe it.
09:18Not that you can let on to the police that you'll be okay.
09:20I keep everything I say in confidence.
09:22ITV's two-part crime drama stars Emily Watson as Janet Leach,
09:26a social worker who became the appropriate adult
09:29for one of the UK's most prolific serial killers.
09:32In 1994, she was summoned to attend the interrogation of Fred West,
09:36played by Dominic West, not his relative,
09:39where he confessed to the 1987 murder of his daughter Heather.
09:42When police searched the West's, quote,
09:45"'House of Horrors' at 25 Cromwell Street,'
09:47they uncovered her buried remains, among several others.
09:51More were later discovered at different locations."
09:54He went back to the house and he did indicate certain places
09:57where the police might dig in the garden,
09:59but he never admitted that there were six other bodies under the house.
10:03The series focuses on Leach's pursuit of the truth about West
10:06and his wife Rosemary's horrific crimes.
10:08Dominic West, Emily Watson, and Monica Dolan, who played Rose,
10:12all won Best Acting awards at the 2012 BAFTAs,
10:15while the program itself earned a nomination for Best Miniseries.
10:19I thought maybe you thought I'd let you down.
10:24If you let anyone down, Fred, it was yourself.
10:27Number two, Dr. Death.
10:29The first season of Dr. Death is based on Christopher Dunsch,
10:32a Texas-based neurosurgeon who received a life sentence
10:35for maiming and killing patients.
10:37Anyone close to me thinks that I'm likely something between God,
10:41Einstein, and the Antichrist,
10:44because how can I do anything I want and cross every discipline boundary
10:48like it's a playground and never ever lose?
10:51Over two years, Dunsch caused irreparable damage to at least 33 out of 38 patients,
10:57two of whom died during or after an operation.
10:59Others were left paralyzed, severely injured, and or in agonizing pain.
11:04Peacock's anthology series follows doctors Randall Kirby and Robert Henderson,
11:08who fought to have Dunsch's license revoked and him put behind bars.
11:12He killed Shelley Brennan by drilling through her vertebral artery.
11:16He also did that to another patient at Dallas Medical.
11:19Shouldn't that have precluded him from employment at other hospitals?
11:22If the hospitals that employed him had reported his pattern of egregious crimes,
11:27many victims could have been saved.
11:29Season two focuses on disgraced surgeon and conman Paolo Macchiarini,
11:33whose unethical experiments killed multiple patients.
11:36Both sickening cases are the stuff of nightmares.
11:39There are certain things that you don't want to have to tell you.
11:43You're giving me no choice.
11:44Before we unveil our top pick, here are some honorable mentions.
11:48Baby Reindeer, Richard Gad's autobiographical series about his stalker.
11:52Every day now, Martha would be outside.
11:55This ticking time bomb on my life.
11:57I would leave first thing in the morning and she would be there.
12:00I love you, nipples.
12:02Think of me at work today.
12:03Dez, the chilling capture and conviction of Scottish serial killer Dennis Nielsen.
12:08195 Melrose Avenue N2.
12:10There you'll find the remains of 12 or 13 people dating back to 1978.
12:18I need a leaf to get this off my chin.
12:21Under the banner of heaven,
12:22two religious extremist brothers murdered their sister-in-law and niece.
12:26Actions have consequences, Brenda.
12:28You know that.
12:30Are you threatening me?
12:32No.
12:34I am but the hand of God.
12:36It is his mouth that commands me.
12:39Blackbird, an undercover operation to secure a confession from suspected serial killer Larry Hall.
12:45Do you know what they're for, James?
12:49No.
12:55They watch over the dead.
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13:16Jeffrey Dahmer is one of the most recognizable names in the true crime world.
13:20After Ryan Murphy's controversial series hit Netflix in 2022,
13:24a new generation was introduced to the horrific story.
13:28Two PBRs, please.
13:30Oh, he's buying a PBR.
13:33He must be a real player.
13:36Sorry.
13:38Starring Evan Peters in the title role, Dahmer follows the Milwaukee serial killer from childhood
13:43to his reign of terror between the late 70s and early 90s. For years, he lured and killed men,
13:49most of whom were from marginalized communities.
13:52Why does everybody always want to leave me?
13:56Leave you? What do you mean, leave you? I need some fresh air. It stinks in here.
14:01Well, hey, I said to turn on the air conditioner.
14:04While living at the Oxford Apartments, neighbors complained of awful smells and noises.
14:08It wasn't until Dahmer was apprehended on July 22nd, 1991,
14:13that police discovered his house filled with remains, the details of which we can't get into,
14:17and explicit photos of his victims. It doesn't get more disturbing than that.
14:22I called you, and I told you over and over a million times that something was going on,
14:28and you know what you did? Y'all did nothing.
14:32What true crime series disturbed you the most? Let us know in the comments below.
14:37Give these people some release.
14:43Never.
14:45Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo,
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