General True Crime Shows

[Brattinella]

Yes. :(

[bosawks]

His "hairstyle" is seared in my consciousness forever, unforunately.... 

[walnutqueen]

FYI - Crime Watch Daily now has it's own forum.  It is a syndicated daily tabloid news show about crimes of all kinds.  It airs on my local CW channel at 3 pm - check your local listings.

[One Tough Cookie]

I watched the show Your Worst Nightmare on Netflilx.  The episode "When the Lights Go Out" was really creepy.  It was scarier than a horror movie because you knew it was true.  It is about Cassie Jo Stoddart housesitting for her aunt.  Truly creepy and scary.  Very well done.  

 

I watched documentary about the two young me who killed Cassie.  One guy seemed to have grown up a bit in prison and spoke about his realizing the horror of what  he did--the other guy is still denying he took part in the killing and seems to think he had a chance of getting out.  The docu as on Lifetime and was called "Children in Prison" or something like that.

[applecrisp]

I just watched Murder Book and was very touched by the story of the Appalachian police officer.  There is so much mistrust of the law right now and much of it is justified.  I just liked this little story.  Also,like the narrator-sort of old school policeman. 

[KellsBells]

Has anyone seen the Surviving Evil about the woman who was abducted with her two children from the daycare parking lot? That definitely was a story I had not heard of, and it was horrible. However, I was torn between thinking how brave she was to tell her story, and my instinct of just keeping anonymous so everyone didn't know about it and be able to attach this to my children. Maybe just a generational thing (I'm in my late 50s)? Still, that guy was as crazy as crazy can be and I'm glad he was caught and punished. 

[TaraS1]

Oh, the nurses!  Broke my heart back then, and still does.  Speck was a disgusting POS who survived a long time in prison turning tricks and growing boobs and doing drugs, having a good old time.  A video popped up after he died, and he was on camera with his buddies, truly repellant.

I have always wished the nurses would have attacked him, some might have gotten away.

 

That is probably the one story/killer in my lifetime of interest in true crime that I cannot bear to watch, read about, hear about, etc., because I can never forget the first time I saw that video you're talking about, on one of Bill Kurtis's A&E shows.  Something about it just disturbed me so deeply that I can't even stand to think about it all these years later.

[ButterQueen]

Ditto! I don't usually watch "Disappeared" for that very reason. And after watching many different shows I go to Google for a, Where are they now? fix, usually hoping to read: Appeal denied.

My twin-!! I spend so much time on google after watching these shows.

[walnutqueen]

My twin-!! I spend so much time on google after watching these shows.

 

Me too, me too!  But as a contrarian with an inexplicable aversion to Google, I Bing.  :-)

[geekgirl921]

I really liked the premiere of A Crime to Remember. I found it interesting that he wasn't satisfied with just killing them, he had to make sure the town knew about it. I have the feeling he would have gotten away with it for a lot longer if he hadn't felt the need to communicate.

[ButterQueen]

Me too, me too!  But as a contrarian with an inexplicable aversion to Google, I Bing.  :-)

I don't Bing. : - p

[millennium]

Anyone catch the first episode of Your Worst Nightmare   It was nice to have a fresh story, and it was well-done.  

 

My only complaint:

 

The show threw the viewers a red herring by making it appear the disturbance had a supernatural cause -- for example, the swinging charm stopping and straightening out in mid-air as if by magic -- when in fact magic had nothing to do with the real horror in that house

[smittykins]

Me too, me too!  But as a contrarian with an inexplicable aversion to Google, I Bing.  :-)

  

I don't Bing. : - p

I usually Yahoo! :)

I've been known to do this even before the episode is over.

[ButterQueen]

I think I need to cut back on my ID channel. Last night, after watching A Crime To Remember, I locked our bedroom door.....with my husband and 125 pound dog in bed with me. Oh my-!!!

Anyone watch Barbara Walter's interview with Jean Harris? Jean is a nut and Barbara's "you poor baby" looks disgusted me.

[Brattinella]

Jean Harris was probably the most deluded, narcissistic individual I've ever seen!  And shame on BaBA WaWa for being so buddy-buddy with her!

[NewDigs]

Butterqueen, I have had to cut back on my ID viewing. The dramatizations/reenactments and the dramatic music and expressive narrations that comprise so many shows have kind of freaked me out. I can do the Datelines, 20/20s and 48 Hours et al and read true crime but the docudramas...

Isn't Jean Harris really dead? Is BaBa reprising old interviews? Won't watch. Wish she would "retire" somewhere that I am not.

[Tunia]

Yup - Jean Harris died about 3 years ago.  This entire show is just a vanity event designed to keep BaWa's mug on TV way longer than it should be,

 

Barbara:  How can we miss you if you won't go away?

[ButterQueen]

Jean Harris was probably the most deluded, narcissistic individual I've ever seen!  And shame on BaBA WaWa for being so buddy-buddy with her!

When she put her sunglasses on, I laughed out loud.

What an insufferable woman, She didn't kill the doctor, the medics took too long getting him to the hospital. She's a piece of work and should have never been let out of prison. She went there with her gun, at night, and killed him because he wouldn't marry her.

Butterqueen, I have had to cut back on my ID viewing. The dramatizations/reenactments and the dramatic music and expressive narrations that comprise so many shows have kind of freaked me out. I can do the Datelines, 20/20s and 48 Hours et al and read true crime but the docudramas...

Isn't Jean Harris really dead? Is BaBa reprising old interviews? Won't watch. Wish she would "retire" somewhere that I am not.

It's never bothered me before, but I was just a wreck at bedtime. I heard my husband say, "who locked this door" and I pretended to be asleep. : O

Yup - Jean Harris died about 3 years ago.  This entire show is just a vanity event designed to keep BaWa's mug on TV way longer than it should be,

 

Barbara:  How can we miss you if you won't go away?

YES -- she needs to retire or at least talk about something current.

[applecrisp]

I just can't stand Barbra Walter's, she is in Trump territory IMO so insufferable.

[glowlights]

Did anyone watch last night's A Crime To Remember, about the murder of Roseanne Quinn (which inspired the book Looking For Mr. Goodbar)? It left me shaking my head at the weird cherry-picking of details. The one good thing was having an academic discuss the "slut-shaming" that went on in the wake of Quinn's murder, and that if you think a woman deserves to be murdered because of her sex life, that says more about you than the victim.

[auntjess]

I quit after a few minutes of Jean Harris.
Barbara must have a grotesque painting of herself, hidden away somewhere.  She's 86.

[tobeannounced]

Well, here I am at my table for one again. I'm actually kind of enjoying Barb's show.  It's just kind of interesting to revisit the cases of my youth and hear more details and get updates.

[walnutqueen]

Did anyone watch last night's A Crime To Remember, about the murder of Roseanne Quinn (which inspired the book Looking For Mr. Goodbar)? It left me shaking my head at the weird cherry-picking of details. The one good thing was having an academic discuss the "slut-shaming" that went on in the wake of Quinn's murder, and that if you think a woman deserves to be murdered because of her sex life, that says more about you than the victim.

 

Yes - it was the "Fatal Attraction" cautionary tale of that generation.  Except she wasn't some sleazy adulteress, and slut-shaming was rampant back then.

[KellsBells]

I'm watching the Your Worst Nightmare about John List. Aside from the fact that this story has been covered ad nauseum by every possible show that could cover it, the acting is eye-rollingly terrible. Turning it off and switching to something on my DVR.

[Fraoch]

I recently stumbled onto the MFTV movie "Judgment Day" on YouTube, starring Robert Blake as John List. I think it did a better job of explaining List's mind-set and what an effed-up relationship he had with his mother, which then tainted everything that followed (not excusing his actions, of course).

 

Jean Harris -- I knew very little about this case because of my age (39), but man, was she unsympathetic. I kept wondering why Barbara was so drawn to her.

[glowlights]

Yes - it was the "Fatal Attraction" cautionary tale of that generation.  Except she wasn't some sleazy adulteress, and slut-shaming was rampant back then.

 

Right, but many of the details that have been widely reported and repeated were different in this ep of A Crime To Remember, and some of the other details were weirdly glossed over or left vague. If it turns out that major details (such as broom vs candle) have been changed, why not clarify that and explain? Why make her back surgery and limp sound so mysterious when they could have just said she had polio? And it makes me nuts that they didn't explain that the only finding re: semen was that she had had sex sometime within 24 hours of her death, not that it was certainly the murderer's. To me that's an important detail, seeing as there could very well be another witness who never came forward. Not to mention the way they portrayed the "rumors" of her bringing home multiple men as the work of one gossipy shrew, when my understanding is the police established that pattern from multiple witnesses. I just.... it really left me shaking my head. Or did anyone else see it differently?

[Constantinople]

Did anyone watch last night's A Crime To Remember, about the murder of Roseanne Quinn (which inspired the book Looking For Mr. Goodbar)? It left me shaking my head at the weird cherry-picking of details. The one good thing was having an academic discuss the "slut-shaming" that went on in the wake of Quinn's murder, and that if you think a woman deserves to be murdered because of her sex life, that says more about you than the victim.

 

Yes - it was the "Fatal Attraction" cautionary tale of that generation.  Except she wasn't some sleazy adulteress, and slut-shaming was rampant back then.

At least they didn't beat a confession out of the black suspect and then railroad him at trial, unlike the Career Girl Murders from 1963 (and Season 1).

So...progress?

[applecrisp]

I'm watching the Your Worst Nightmare about John List. Aside from the fact that this story has been covered ad nauseum by every possible show that could cover it, the acting is eye-rollingly terrible. Turning it off and switching to something on my DVR.

I didn't find it so bad.  I just thought they should have given America's Most Wanted more credit in helping solve the murder.  My memory is they made a sculpture of his head and it was new and experimental-again if i am wrong let me know.  I always thought that show was important.

[FanOfTheFans]

I didn't find it so bad.  I just thought they should have given America's Most Wanted more credit in helping solve the murder.  My memory is they made a sculpture of his head and it was new and experimental-again if i am wrong let me know.  I always thought that show was important.

Applecrisp, I remember it the same way. Also remember how the eyeglasses they picked for the sculpture were spot on for his actual glasses. Uncanny really.

[KellsBells]

I didn't find it so bad.  I just thought they should have given America's Most Wanted more credit in helping solve the murder.  My memory is they made a sculpture of his head and it was new and experimental-again if i am wrong let me know.  I always thought that show was important.

 

That's right! I'd totally forgotten about that. I didn't watch to the end, I just thought it was too awful, but I do remember that, and that the eyeglasses were dead-on, as Fan remembers. 

[Constantinople]

The latest Fatal Vows was about a car dealership executive who shot her mechanic husband, buried him in the yard with her son's help, then claimed he ran off to Phoenix with a gay lover.  She even went so far as to file tax returns under his name.  More or less that's how things stood for 8-10 years.  She probably would have gotten away with it, but then she fired a friend of her son's, a friend who had heard some stories from the son about what happened.

 

I believe I've seen this story before, but I don't recall where.

 

I mention the case because due to statue of limitations, the prosecutors could only have brought first-degree murder chargers.  They couldn't even bring second-degree murder charges, so they did a plea deal where the woman copped to voluntary manslaughter and only received 8 years (the statute of limitations had run out on manslaughter too, but she didn't want to risk being convicted on first-degree murder).

 

Whichever state it was in, I think it was New Mexico, needs to amend its statute of limitations on second-degree murder, and probably manslaughter as well.

[applecrisp]

She was a terrible person who involved her son in a murder and I think lied about the gay lover-not that there's anything wrong with that.(TM Sienfeld)  I really like Fatal Vows, but it seemed the talking heads took everything at face value when a lot was not true. That is a flaw of the format.  Justice was not served in that case.  She was a real piece of work!

[smittykins]

I believe I saw it on either 48 Hours or 20/20.

[editorgrrl]

The latest Fatal Vows was about a car dealership executive who shot her mechanic husband, buried him in the yard with her son's help, then claimed he ran off to Phoenix with a gay lover.

I believe I've seen this story before, but I don't recall where.

Season 4, episode 6, "Collision Course," was about Michael Snyder. His wife Ellen killed him in New Mexico in January 2002, when her son from a previous marriage, Michael Sheffield, was 17.

I saw the case on Dateline, "The Secret": http://www.nbcnews.com/video/dateline/54952073/ It was also covered on Snapped (season 9, episode 3).

[Constantinople]

I'm watching the Your Worst Nightmare about John List. Aside from the fact that this story has been covered ad nauseum by every possible show that could cover it, the acting is eye-rollingly terrible. Turning it off and switching to something on my DVR.

 

I was skeptical that the kid with the local newspaper route stopped by the house to get paid shortly after List murdered his wife since, according to the episode, it was a school day and that kid should have been in school.

 

Also, it's been a long time, but I don't recall that we ever paid the kid who delivered the newspaper for the paper itself, nor, when I was that kid for a summer, I don't recall anyone paying me directly.  But that was somewhat later than the List murders and a different state and paper.

 

But, if it's true about the kid, it's a hell of a story.

[Brattinella]

I remember paying the paper boy directly.  Giving him extra at Christmas.

[KellsBells]

I remember paying the paper boy directly.  Giving him extra at Christmas.

 

Yes, he showed up at the door to collect weekly or monthly. I remember my mom paying him and giving him a dime tip. Doesn't sound like much now, but back then it was like giving a dollar now. Then, of course, a bit more at Christmas. 

[Tunia]

^^^Collection day would always be the day the paperboy/girl would find their customer was not at home.

[auntjess]

I saw that Barbara was doing OJ.  What next, a Jody Arias rehash?  This summer has had tons of OJ rehashes.
She has a Menendez coming up, which I might watch.

I didn't see the List mentioned above, but I saw one, earlier that featured America's Most Wanted prominently.

 

I think my favorite crime case is the Canadian colonel.  I've saw it again recently on Dateline or similar.
When they burned his uniform, I wonder if it was done with any ceremony or ritual.

[Brattinella]

I liked the Canadian Colonel, too.  I watched the OJ episode, and the Jean Harris one.  The List episode was on tonight, pretty standard fare except for the acting capability of the actress who played List's wife.  I DO want to see the Melendez story, though.  I can't believe someone would want to marry a convicted murderer.  Especially their PARENTS!

[auntjess]

I think I saw/read too much of OJ at the time, and Jean Harris was a local story so I OD'd on it at the time.

[FanOfTheFans]

I remember paying the paper boy directly.  Giving him extra at Christmas.

Yep my brothers were paperboys and they had to collect. Some people would actually hide and not answer the door during collection time. My brothers would be bummed out cuz the deficit came out of their pocket. At Xmas time they would get tons of candy though. I loved it as they would share their bounty with me. Lol. I was just a wee little whippersnapper at the time.

[glowlights]

Well, here I am at my table for one again. I'm actually kind of enjoying Barb's show.  It's just kind of interesting to revisit the cases of my youth and hear more details and get updates.

 

Can we make that a table for two? I saw Baba Wawa's episode about Jean Harris and even though it had 100% too much Wawa for my tastes, I was really interested in some of that interview footage. It's telling how not-completely-unsympathetic she became (to me) once she got off the amphetamines. I suspect that prescription had as much to do with Dr. Tarnower's focus on keeping people skinny, as much as any supposed fatigue. After all, he could have referred her to a psychiatrist. :(

[friendperidot]

I recently ditched satellite and have been adjusting to life with an antenna. It sure has changed in the past 13 or so years! I've been filling my true crime show needs with Escape network. ID was my go to sleep to channel, but Escape does ok. Been watching Forensic Files and tonight the narrator said "former girlfriend of (suspect) told police that (suspect) and his father had an unusual habit. The fired their 22 shot guns into the walls of their duplex". WTF? Habit? Firing a gun of any sort into the walls of your home is a habit? Brushing your teeth is a habit, biting your fingernails is a habit, firing a gun into the walls of your home is not a habit, it's a practice or a choice or a game, a stupid practice or choice or game, but it is not a habit.

[walnutqueen]

Oh, my goodness, friendperidot, that is wrong on SO many levels.  A 22 caliber weapon is one of the deadliest of projectiles; firing it at a wall is a murder just waiting to happen.  I can't even ...

 

My condolences for your loss of the bazillion useless Sports Channels my ATTUverse forces me to hide every month.  :-)

Edited November 24, 2015 by walnutqueen

[smittykins]

Hey now, I'll give up my MLB and YES Networks when you pry them from my cold dead hands. :)

Speaking of Forensic Files, what's the deal with the "Digital Details" episodes HLN is showing on Saturday nights? Except for supposedly being "new," they don't seem to be any different from the ones they air the rest of the time.

[applecrisp]

I have been waiting for a show like Bad Blood for awhile. I think it is about people who are falsely accused of killing a family member.  I can't think of anything worse.  To have your family accuse you and worse yet believe you killed someone. Three cases come to mind.                                                                                                                                                          

 

The shock jock from Palm Beach who was accused of killing his aunt.  A young girl steps in and fingers her uncle because he had some really expensive art work in his garage.  He loses a lot of his family.  A retired professor of engineering is killed by intruders and his son and wife happen to show up.  He was known to have a lot of guns.  It really was an odd story but was all true.  Some family members said they did for money, some stood by the couple.  Sad.

 

Third was the case of the couple and the mortgage broker.  Boy did her family throw her under the bus.  Maybe she had something to do with, I didn't think so.  Just know I came away thinking what a crappy family.

 

I think about my family and myself.  Not to sound conceited but I do think I would fight for a family member.  If there was a lot of good evidence I would probably accept it.  But I do wonder about my family at times.

 

I think it would be so hard to think people you love could think you could be so evil.

[walnutqueen]

Suz at Large, on 24 Nov 2015 - 07:20 AM, said:

Anyhoo, I found a new true crime show on Reelz: Demons in the City of Angels. I DVR'd the first episode and really enjoyed it. I'd seen the story on at least one other show - probably on ID - but this was a new take on it and I liked it. It told the story from the victim's perspective. Only when they mentioned how the guy died, did I think, "Hey, I bet that he was a victim of those two predatory old bats." I thought the show made the investigation seem a little plodding, but that may have been just a byproduct of having to fill an hour show with it.

 

I've set the DVR to catch the next new episodes. We'll see.

 

Thanks for the scoop, Suz - I just set my DVR to record this series, too (I doubt I even knew I had the Reelz channel!).  :-)

[walnutqueen]

I think it would be so hard to think people you love could think you could be so evil.

 

I must've spent too much of my childhood (and life) loving some evil people, because I can easily imagine several of my family members, a few exes, and random acquaintances, being evil and doing evil.  Actually, I don't even have to use my imagination, since some memories cannot be erased, no matter how much I drink!!!   :-)(

 

Hey, at the very least, the people I've met here on PTV (and TWoP before), are SO much more decent and worthy of my lurve!

[walnutqueen]

I don't know if I could handle the "Last Hours of ,.." show, Suz - it hits a little too close to home.  I have an irrational fear of dying in a ... compromising position ...  like some of the characters on Six Feet Under.  I'd probably rather be brutally murdered than stroke out on the shitter or choke on a piece of chicken!   ;-)