Dive into the shocking real-life crimes that inspired some of the most gripping "Law & Order: SVU" episodes. From high-profile celebrity scandals to heart-wrenching true crime stories, we'll explore the real events that became the basis for the show's most memorable storylines.
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00:00Yeah, it was my idea. It rocks, huh?
00:04Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most unforgettable
00:08Law & Order SVU episodes that borrowed their plotlines straight from real-life criminal
00:13cases.
00:14It's a house of horrors, it's sick in there. He's got tasers, zip-tie restraints, there's
00:18German shepherds out in the yard.
00:19There's another aerial caster, my God.
00:23Number 30. Michael Jackson allegations.
00:25In 1993, music icon Michael Jackson was accused of inappropriate behavior with Jordan Chandler,
00:31a teenager who often visited his Neverland ranch. Before the claims went public, Chandler's
00:36father Evan allegedly tried to extort Jackson, threatening to spill the story unless he was
00:41paid off.
00:42He blamed the mass media for promoting the allegations and urged the public to wait and
00:46hear the truth before passing judgment.
00:48When the allegations finally reached the press, the LAPD launched an investigation, which
00:53was thwarted when the Chandlers declined to testify, conveniently after receiving a
00:57hefty $15 million settlement from Jackson.
01:00This bizarre saga inspired the Season 5 episode, Sick, in which a boy accuses billionaire toy
01:06mogul Billy Trippley of sexual assault at his whimsical mansion, the Magic Kingdom.
01:10Like Jackson, Trippley walks away unscathed when the child's family opts for a payout.
01:15The mood in here is pretty festive.
01:18I've been vindicated, but the real winners are the children.
01:2229. Ray Rice Assault Incident
01:25In this Season 16 episode, a famous sportscaster finds himself in the news when security footage
01:30captures him physically assaulting his girlfriend.
01:32Like I told the boys that night, he had too much to drink, had some words, that's all.
01:39Those words didn't turn into deeds.
01:42Hey, I love my girl, but even she will tell you that she goes off the rails when she's
01:49had a few.
01:50As the SVU team digs deeper, they uncover more signs of domestic violence and urge the
01:55girlfriend to press charges and leave him.
01:58Their efforts fail, however, as she remains loyal to him even after his arrest, trial,
02:03and conviction.
02:05Several details from the episode were directly lifted from the 2014 scandal involving former
02:10NFL player Ray Rice.
02:12Rice's career imploded after footage surfaced of him assaulting his then-fiancée, Jenae
02:16Palmer.
02:17That afternoon, the Ravens had terminated Rice's contract, the NFL suspending him indefinitely.
02:24Despite his indictment on third-degree aggravated assault, Palmer stayed by his side and even
02:29married him just one day after the charges were announced.
02:3328. The Murder of Sherry Rasmussen
02:36Oscar-winning actress Marsha Gay Harden delivered a memorable guest performance on Law & Order
02:40SVU as FBI agent Dana Lewis.
02:53Her final appearance came in the season 14 episode Secrets Exhumed, where she partnered
02:58with the SVU team to investigate a string of unsolved murders.
03:01It is eventually revealed that Lewis herself was behind one of the killings, having murdered
03:06the fiancée of her ex-boyfriend.
03:08While fans didn't exactly applaud this turn of events, it echoed a chilling real-life
03:13case.
03:14In 1986, Sherry Rasmussen was murdered in the Los Angeles apartment she shared with
03:18her husband.
03:19Initially chalked up to a botched burglary, investigators eventually made a shocking revelation.
03:25LAPD officer Stephanie Lazarus, who previously dated Rasmussen's husband, killed her apparently
03:31out of jealousy.
03:32The 26-year police veteran was arrested this morning at Parker Center after being linked
03:37to the murder by DNA evidence.
03:42On May 31, 2009, Scott Roder walked into the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas
03:48and fatally shot one of the ushers.
04:01But this was not just a random act.
04:04The usher who was murdered that day was George Tiller.
04:07An abortion doctor who had long been the target of anti-abortion extremists, Tiller's tragic
04:12story loosely inspired a subplot in the SVU episode Hammered, and one of the characters
04:17even referenced his case.
04:29The victim in the episode was also an abortion doctor who had received numerous threats on
04:34her life.
04:35Unlike the real-life case, however, the fictional perpetrator was not an anti-abortion extremist,
04:40but a man coping with alcohol use disorder who committed the crime during an alcohol-induced
04:44blackout.
04:48Canadian couple Paul Bernardo and Carla Homolka, infamously dubbed the Kenan Barbie Killers,
04:54gained notoriety for their grisly crimes between 1990 and 1992.
05:05People were scared stiff for a very long time.
05:08In that time, they sexually assaulted and murdered three victims, one of whom was Homolka's
05:12own younger sister.
05:14They were both arrested in 1993, but Homolka quickly flipped, claiming Bernardo had coerced
05:19her into the crimes.
05:21This case served as the basis for the Season 4 episode Damaged, in which a girl and her
05:25boyfriend assault her younger sister, then conspire to kill her in a staged robbery to
05:30keep her silent.
05:36While Bernardo was the alleged mastermind in the real-life case, the show flipped the
05:41script, making the girlfriend the diabolical planner and killer.
05:48Law & Order SVU often bases its episodes on real-life cases, but this Season 15 installment
05:54took things up a notch by blending not one, but two high-profile scandals.
06:00The episode stars Sybil Shepard as a celebrity chef with a troubling history of racial prejudice,
06:08who fatally shoots a Black teenager, convinced he was about to attack her.
06:12If you followed the news in the early 2010s, this plot might ring a bell.
06:17It mirrors both the controversy involving Paula Deen, who lost business deals after
06:21admitting to using racial slurs, and the tragic shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman
06:26in February 2012.
06:28Both the real-life and fictional cases end with the perpetrator being acquitted, sparking
06:33widespread protests.
06:38The Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking case is a tangled mess that continues to unravel years
06:43after the disgraced financier's death in his jail cell.
06:46Naturally, when it comes to the real-life case, it's hard to ignore the fact that
06:52Naturally, when the SVU writers drew inspiration from it, the resulting story stretched over
06:57two episodes.
06:58The plot follows a detective who, suspecting that his daughters are being targeted by a
07:03wealthy predator, turns to the SVU team.
07:06In part one, the SVU detectives are trying to figure out what's going on.
07:10In part two, the SVU detectives are trying to figure out what's going on.
07:13In part three, the SVU detectives are trying to figure out what's going on.
07:18...turns to the SVU team.
07:20In part one, the suspect is led off by a corrupt judge.
07:23In part two, the polĂtico has different plans.
07:28By the end, the alleged predator is behind bars awaiting trial while he follows Epstein's
07:33lead, and ends his life.
07:37Why quit now?
07:38A lot of people wanted him dead.
07:43Either way, his number was up.
07:44SVU had previously tackled the Jeffrey Epstein case in the season 12 episode Flight.
07:50Number 23
07:51The Strip Search Phone Call Scam
07:53In one of his most unsettling roles, the legendary Robin Williams starred in this
07:57season 9 episode as an audio engineer with a rebellious streak against authority.
08:02How can I help you?
08:04You don't look sick.
08:06When is it a crime to play hooky, detective?
08:09Cough on me now, guilty.
08:10We'll get to that soon enough, may we come in?
08:12At the start of the episode, the character calls into a fast food restaurant,
08:16pretending to be a detective, and orders the manager to strip search an employee.
08:21After his arrest by the SVU team, the episode veers into downright bizarre territory.
08:26However, that initial premise draws heavily from a real-life strip search
08:30phone call scam that plagued rural U.S. areas between 1994 and 2004.
08:35The caller told the assistant manager, Donna Summers, he was a police officer.
08:39He convinced Summers her employee, Louise Ogborn, stole money from a customer.
08:44He went on to encourage Summers to perform a strip search on the young employee
08:48right there in the restaurant, and she did.
08:50Much like Williams' character, who walks free in the episode,
08:53the man arrested in the actual case, David Richard Stewart, was also acquitted.
08:58As a result, the scams remain officially unsolved.
09:03Number 22
09:04The Murder of Shanda Sherer
09:06High school romances are often fleeting and inconsequential,
09:09but things took a dark and tragic turn in the case of Shanda Sherer.
09:13It was a crime of passion and peer pressure, committed by four teenage girls.
09:17Back in 1992, Sherer was abducted and killed by four teenage girls,
09:22all because she was dating one of the girl's ex-girlfriend.
09:25The crime was particularly horrific, given the circumstances of the case
09:29and the ages of everyone involved.
09:31The shocking case has since inspired several stage plays,
09:34novels, and even the season five episode of SVU titled Mean.
09:39It was a joke.
09:41Tying somebody up and throwing them into the back of the trunk
09:43and then beating them to death is a joke.
09:45We didn't hurt her.
09:46I mean, we just had her in the trunk, that's it.
09:49I don't know how all the other stuff happened.
09:50While the episode does away with the romantic rivalry at the center of the real story,
09:54it still brought attention to harassment among children in schools
09:58and its devastating consequences.
10:00Number 21
10:01The Boy in the Box Case
10:03In February 1957, the body of a young boy
10:06was found stuffed in a box by the roadside in Pennsylvania.
10:10For more than 50 years, the boy's identity
10:12and the circumstances around his death remained a mystery.
10:15For decades, generations of detectives have tried to figure out
10:19who was the boy in the box.
10:20The longest continuously investigated homicide in the history
10:23of the Philadelphia Police Department.
10:25That is essentially the premise of this season seven SVU episode.
10:29The story kicks off with authorities discovering the remains
10:32of an unidentified boy who disappeared in 1978.
10:35They managed to track down his killer,
10:37but due to the passage of time,
10:39he is unable to remember the boy's identity.
10:41I'm sorry, I don't remember.
10:46The real life case offers a bittersweet turn
10:49as the boy in the box was finally identified in 2022
10:52as Joseph Augustus Zarelli.
10:54However, his killer and the events that led to his tragic fate remain unknown.
11:00Number 20
11:01Bill Cosby assault allegations.
11:03In one season 17 episode,
11:06a vlogger levels assault allegations against a famous actor.
11:09Despite other accusations against him piling up,
11:12the star quickly denies any involvement.
11:15As of yesterday, the district attorney had elected not to proceed.
11:18So she accuses me?
11:20Throws my name in the cup?
11:21You saw that video.
11:22No one's questioning whether it started consensually.
11:25The episode aired just around the time the accusations
11:28against actor and comedian Bill Cosby were rising in the news.
11:31So a lot of parallels were drawn between the SVU storyline
11:35and the real life case.
11:36The show forges its own path, however,
11:39by making Amanda Rollins go undercover
11:41to obtain tangible proof against the predator
11:43after the charges were initially dropped.
11:46It does look bad, chief.
11:49I mean, it's the same M.O. as Christine.
11:51Same M.O. as the other victim we found too.
11:53But both the fictional star and real actor
11:56lost a lot of public faith after the cases were concluded.
12:04In June 2003,
12:06then 18-year-old Devin Moore was arrested
12:08for shooting two police officers and a dispatcher in Fayette, Alabama.
12:12At his trial in 2005,
12:14his lawyers attempted to introduce evidence
12:16claiming that his use of the popular video game Grand Theft Auto
12:19helped instigate the incident.
12:21What we're saying is that Devin Moore
12:23was in effect trained to do what he did.
12:27He was given a murder simulator.
12:30But the trial judge prevented the evidence
12:32from being shown to the jury,
12:34and Moore was convicted of the crime.
12:36The highly controversial case mirrors an episode
12:38where a teenage couple is arrested
12:40for committing brutal crimes against a young woman.
12:43The characters also claim to have been inspired
12:45to commit their misdeeds by an action video game called Intensity.
12:49How could you not know?
12:52Because they didn't know where I was.
12:55The streets we were driving down were streets from the game.
12:57The people were characters from the game.
12:59It wouldn't be the last time gaming would be linked to violence on television.
13:07When Cameron Todd Willingham's daughters perished
13:10in a fire that engulfed his Texas home in 1991,
13:13he was arrested for orchestrating the horrifying incident.
13:16Despite maintaining his innocence throughout the trial,
13:18Willingham was convicted of the crime and executed.
13:22At six o'clock, Cameron Todd Willingham was told that his time was up.
13:27When he was asked by the warden if he had anything to say,
13:29then he went into the statement where he said
13:31he had been wrongly convicted and that he was innocent.
13:36The case later raised several questions over Willingham's guilt
13:39and the validity of the evidence used in convicting him.
13:42While most of the questions surrounding the real-life case remain unanswered,
13:47an SVU episode went a different route.
13:50A fictional father in the Torch episode
13:52managed to convince the assistant district attorney that he didn't commit the crime.
13:56I'm telling you that Frank Sullivan did not set that fire.
13:59Well then your BS detector is on the fritz.
14:02I believe him.
14:03Eventually, he hires an expert who's able to prove
14:06the fire was due to faulty electrical wiring.
14:09Number 17.
14:11The Slender Man Crime.
14:13This episode was inspired by a harrowing 2014 case
14:17involving two young people who led their friend into the woods
14:20in search of a fictional entity called Slender Man.
14:23Geyser and Wire said their motive to become proxies
14:26of the fictional horror character Slender Man.
14:30Inspired by fan fiction posted on the Creepypasta wiki,
14:33the duo inflicted severe wounds on their friend and left her for dead.
14:37Luckily, the victim was able to get help from a cyclist,
14:40was taken to the hospital and made a full recovery.
14:44The show replaces Slender Man with Glasgow Man
14:47and includes an initial suspect who was believed to be the fictional character.
14:51In the end, the entity turned out to be an innocent bystander.
14:55So Charlie was telling the truth.
14:56He picked up that knife same as he did the camera.
14:58Go give him the good news.
15:01Bring those girls back in here and tell their mothers why.
15:04It's a particularly chilling episode
15:07that captured just how disturbing the real-life case was.
15:15In 1996, a security guard named Thomas Hose
15:19asked a student named Tanya Nicole Cash to live with him.
15:22He then proceeded to keep her captive within his house for years
15:25before changing her name to further cover up his crime.
15:28Hose made Cash change her hair color and her name
15:32and with those changes came limited freedoms.
15:35As she got out, Cash wanted more.
15:38Eventually, Cash got away from him and reported Hose's sickening crimes.
15:42The breakdown of the case came when Cash told a store owner who she really was.
15:47An SVU episode mirrored the real-life events by having a story begin
15:51with a merchant trying to help someone who came into the store.
15:54Then this woman grabs me and begs me to help her, also in Romanian.
15:59What was wrong?
16:01A man. She's trapped in a situation she cannot escape from.
16:06After a few major twists,
16:08the authorities are able to save an innocent woman just in time.
16:17The story of Dee Dee and Gypsy Blanchard is one that shocked audiences
16:21when it was detailed in the HBO documentary,
16:23Mommy, Dead and Dearest.
16:25In a classic case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy,
16:28Dee Dee gave her daughter Gypsy medication for years to make her appear sick.
16:33What medical conditions did you believe you suffered from?
16:38Leukemia, asthma, both vision and hearing impaired, muscular dystrophy, and seizures.
16:50When Gypsy finally became aware of her mother's actions,
16:52she and her boyfriend conspired to exact a cold-blooded revenge on her.
16:57The highly publicized incident clearly inspired this season 19 episode,
17:01where two young people with physical disabilities lash out at their mother.
17:05Then what happened?
17:06She said I was her daughter forever, that I'd always need her to take care of me.
17:15So I hit her with the hammer.
17:16In both cases, a parent's mistreatment builds up to a point
17:20where they push their offspring to a violent breaking point.
17:27The life of 28-year-old bartender Kitty Genovese came to a gruesome end in March 1964,
17:33when she was assaulted and fatally wounded just outside her apartment building.
17:37After the incident, the New York Times erroneously reported that
17:4138 people witnessed the crime and did nothing to help her.
17:44There was a front page New York Times article
17:47which started out describing the situation this way.
17:5138 people watched over the course of a half an hour and did nothing.
17:56The infamous case was instrumental in the creation of a centralized 9-1-1 emergency number
18:02and initiated the theory of the Bystander Effect or Genovese Syndrome.
18:06This effect came into play in the aptly titled SVU episode 41 Witnesses,
18:11in which a drunk woman is assaulted outside her apartment building.
18:15Investigation by the SVU team uncovers a host of witnesses,
18:19who, like in the now-debunked New York Times article,
18:22ignored her cries and never came to her aid.
18:37On the morning of June 5, 2002, Edward and Lois Smart woke up to find
18:42that their daughter Elizabeth had been abducted right from their home.
18:46For the next nine months, Elizabeth was held captive
18:49by Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee.
19:05She was fortunately discovered and rescued by police.
19:09This agonizing case laid the groundwork for the season 4 episode Perfect.
19:13Although similarities abound in the motives of their abductors
19:16and the conditions under which they're made to live,
19:19both cases still differ greatly.
19:21They don't need permission to get pregnant no matter how they do it.
19:24So that's it? We can't touch him?
19:27Not unless we can prove he is in some way connected to Samantha Tasler's death.
19:31Smart's eventual return home contrasts that of the SVU victim.
19:36In the fictionalized story, the investigation kicks off
19:39when the authorities find the victim after it's too late to save her.
19:44Jussie Smollett's Hoax
19:46Famous for starring in the hit series Empire,
19:48Jussie Smollett won a lot of sympathy in 2019
19:52when it seemed like he was the victim of a hate crime.
19:54Jussie Smollett says that attack happened just a short distance from here.
19:58Today, police don't have any suspects or even a solid description of the men,
20:02a reported crime that has rattled Hollywood and just about everyone else.
20:06That sympathy quickly wore off as a police investigation revealed
20:10that the incident was all a hoax orchestrated by Smollett himself.
20:14The actor had hired two men to verbally and physically attack him
20:18and tried to pass off the story as real.
20:21A couple of months after the incident,
20:23SVU drew inspiration from it for the episode Down Low in Hell's Kitchen,
20:27in which a pop star named Mathis lies about being assaulted by a serial predator.
20:32Actually, it was number six.
20:37As with Smollett in real life,
20:39Mathis' stunt backfires phenomenally and results in his reputation going down the drain.
20:49Before the events of May 14, 2011,
20:52Dominique Strauss-Kahn was a high-ranking French politician
20:55who was set to be a frontrunner in the 2012 French presidential election.
20:59His reputation suffered a heavy blow when he was arrested on that day.
21:04Strauss-Kahn was charged with assault and attempted assault against Nafisatou Diallo,
21:08a hotel maid.
21:09I was so scared.
21:11Had you seen Dominique Strauss-Kahn before that day?
21:17I never see him before.
21:18Physical details about the diplomat and maid are changed in the Scorched Earth episode.
21:23However, the maid's credibility was questioned in both the show and real life
21:27after she lied about certain details.
21:30In reality, the real-life case was dismissed before it was even brought to a jury.
21:35The fictional universe sees the diplomat acquitted of assault,
21:38but found guilty of unlawful imprisonment.
21:41On count three, what say you?
21:44On the charge of unlawful imprisonment in the second degree,
21:47we find the defendant guilty.
21:53In this season 17 episode,
21:55a reality TV family notifies the SVU team when their daughter gets pregnant
21:59after taking a purity vow.
22:01The eyes of suspicion first home in on the reality show's cameraman.
22:05Pete Matthews did this to Lane? Our cameraman?
22:09What can you tell me about him?
22:12He's one of our long-term crew members.
22:17Our kids grew up with him. We trusted him.
22:20But after he's cleared, they fall on the pregnant girl's older brother.
22:25Although the sibling is vindicated by DNA,
22:28this plot is reminiscent of the once-popular Duggar family.
22:31They were rocked with scandal when it was revealed that
22:33Josh Duggar assaulted five people.
22:36Josh has done some very bad things, and he's very sorry.
22:44Tonight, the Duggar family speaking out for the first time
22:47about the secret that has haunted their family for more than a decade.
22:50Four of the victims were his own sisters.
22:53Thankfully, none of these attacks resulted in a pregnancy.
22:56The aftermath of the scandal led to the cancellation of the family's TLC series.
23:02JonBenét Ramsey's story
23:04What happened to the young JonBenét Ramsey in her Boulder, Colorado home
23:08is a case that has left detectives and the general public puzzled for decades.
23:13A story that is gripping the nation.
23:15It is the investigation of the murder of little JonBenét Ramsey.
23:18The similarities between the Ramsey case and the one featured
23:21in the SVU episode appearances are striking.
23:24Both cases revolve around a beauty pageant queen who dies via asphyxiation.
23:29The SVU victim is found on a bus.
23:32Eventually, the team is able to trace the evidence back to the perpetrator
23:36and the CEO of the company that influences him.
23:47Sadly, the JonBenét case didn't have the same kind of resolution.
23:50The identity of whoever took the life of JonBenét remains unknown.
23:55Number 8. The Jerry Sandusky Scandal
23:58The Personal Fouls episode detailed an investigation into the life of a famed
24:02basketball coach who is accused of inappropriate conduct with his students.
24:22The episode is directly inspired by the real-life Penn State scandal
24:26involving Jerry Sandusky.
24:28He was a retired defensive coordinator for the state's football program.
24:31Through his non-profit charity, The Second Mile,
24:34Sandusky took advantage of multiple victims over a 15-year period.
24:48His actions were notably enabled by the silence of peers
24:51who had suspicions that crimes were occurring.
24:54SVU remains largely faithful to the truth by telling a tragic story of the mental,
24:59social and emotional costs of delayed justice.
25:03Number 7. The 2014 Isla Vista Crimes
25:06The student community of Isla Vista, California was shaken on the evening of May 23, 2014
25:12when 22-year-old Elliot Rodger went on a rampage and took the lives of six people.
25:18Prior to that evening, Rodger released a YouTube video and emailed a lengthy manifesto.
25:24The document both outlined his frustrations at the world and his upbringing,
25:28and his plans to punish humanity for it.
25:31The details of this heinous case served as the backdrop
25:34for the 2014 SVU episode titled Holden's Manifesto.
25:38While the criminal in the episode mimics the motives of the original perpetrator,
25:42his eventual fate differs from that of the actual case.
25:54In the real world, Rodger took his own life before he could be apprehended by the police.
26:00Number 6. David Reimer's Involuntary Experiment
26:04The shocking true story of David Reimer served as the blueprint for a 2005 episode
26:09where twins exact their revenge on the psychologist who basically used them as a weapon.
26:15In the real world, Rodger took his own life before he could be apprehended by the police.
26:19Where twins exact their revenge on the psychologist who basically used them as lab rats.
26:31In real life, Reimer was raised as a girl without his knowledge
26:35after a botched medical procedure.
26:37His parents were advised to make him undergo sex reassignment surgery
26:41and sent him to counseling sessions with his brother.
26:44A horrifying psychologist named John Money made them perform inappropriate acts
26:48and kept photographic records.
26:50Although Reimer eventually reversed the assignment,
26:53the experiment took a huge psychological toll on the twins.
27:02Both of them suffered depression and died before they were 40.
27:05The episode's brutal outcome for the therapist
27:08doesn't make the case any easier to hear about.
27:11Number 5. Rihanna and Chris Brown Domestic Case
27:14In 2009, reports and photos emerged certifying that A-list singer Rihanna
27:20had been assaulted by her then-boyfriend Chris Brown.
27:38There are many parallels between this case
27:40and that featured in the Funny Valentine episode.
27:43Both followed a female singer who has to deal with the media frenzy
27:46that arises when her pop star boyfriend assaults her.
28:00After the initial story coverage,
28:02Rihanna continued to have a healthy and fruitful career.
28:05However, the SVU writers strayed far from reality with a dark turn.
28:10In the episode, the rising female star on the show
28:13chooses to remain with her boyfriend and ends up losing her life.
28:18Number 4. The Disappearance of Eitan Pates
28:21While some SVU storylines are nearly identical
28:24to the real-life crimes that inspired them,
28:26this 2012 installment is only loosely based on their source material.
28:31The 300th episode of the show, Manhattan Vigil,
28:33was based on the 1979 disappearance of Eitan Pates,
28:37who was abducted on the way to his school bus stop.
28:40Pates' disappearance remained a cold case
28:58until a man named Pedro Hernandez owned up to the crime
29:01and received a life sentence for it.
29:04In the SVU episode,
29:05a young person is taken more than a decade later after a similar incident.
29:09The detectives are then able to learn from their past mistakes
29:13and are able to solve the cold case that had haunted them for years.
29:16You're not going anywhere this time, Lewis.
29:19See, it's over.
29:21You wanna know why?
29:23Because we have witnesses putting you at all those crime scenes.
29:27Number 3. The Ariel Castro Case
29:30The second part of season 15's two-hour premiere
29:33involves an abandoned young man leading detectives to a den
29:36where others are held captive.
29:37There's somebody in there.
29:40Hey, come cut this open.
29:46Hey. Hey.
29:49Gonna need an ambulance.
29:50The episode is a dramatized account of the case around real-life criminal Ariel Castro.
29:55After taking women hostage in the early 2000s, he held them captive for years.
30:00One of his victims even gave birth while in captivity.
30:04The harrowing ordeal came to an end in 2013,
30:07when one of the women escaped with her daughter and led police back to the house.
30:24Castro received a life sentence plus a thousand years for his crimes.
30:28However, he ended up taking his own life shortly after his imprisonment began.
30:34Number 2. The Death of Kaylee Anthony
30:37The trial of Casey Anthony drew significant media attention in 2011,
30:42after the young mother was accused of being responsible for the death of her daughter Kaylee.
30:46The victim was first reported missing in 2008 by her grandmother, who suspected foul play.
30:52After the trial went on from May to July 2011, Anthony was acquitted.
30:56We, the jury, find the defendant not guilty.
30:59And the acquittals continued from there.
31:01Not guilty on all of the most serious charges against her.
31:05This case set the backdrop for the Season 10 episode that aired before Anthony's trial even
31:10began. The episode borrows heavily from the real-life crime. However, its conclusion,
31:15which incorporates themes of anti-vaccination and religion, is a major deviation from the actual story.
31:22The lax safeguards of the New York Park system allow people with deadly and communicable diseases
31:27to mingle freely with the elderly and children. We are suing the City of New York for $100 million.
31:35Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get
31:39notified about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional videos
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31:51Number 1. The Pregnancy Pact
31:54In 2008, a school in Massachusetts made international headlines
31:58when it was revealed that some students had allegedly planned to get pregnant together.
32:02The nation was shocked when reports broke that 18 high school girls from Gloucester,
32:07Massachusetts, all decided to have babies at the same time. As some of the girls were very young,
32:13the news was met with strong criticism and raised questions about assault.
32:18The SVU episode Babes presents a fictional account of the case. During the narrative,
32:23the pact serves as a backdrop in the investigation of the deaths of two people.
32:38The real story has been dramatized in multiple media. However, the actual subjects of the case
32:44have gone on record to deny the existence of any pact. This time around, the show's fiction
32:50may have been stranger than reality. What real-life crime would you like to see get an SVU
32:55treatment? Let us know in the comments below. What the hell do you know about it? I was happy,
33:00I was fine. Me and my son, we were just making it work. It was my choice and you took that away.