It begins with a murder, and then another. A woman is killed, a man grievously injured, and a letter is sent to the news media. The killer gives himself a name this is the Zodiac speaking and provides a message written in code. So we start with three mysteries: the man, his motives and his message. The third is quickly cracked; the first hypothesized, but never definitively proven.
KENREX is a one man show, co-written by its star performer, Jack Holden, alongside the show's director, Ed Stambollouian. Holden, fresh from writing The Line of Beauty, which recently enjoyed a sell-out run at The Almeida, now bounces back onto stage himself, in a role portraying the entire town of Skidmore and resident bully, Ken Rex McElroy. Skidmore is a Missouri town too small and far away from anywhere to have a sheriff.
In a chaotic and distressing year, books provided a respite, a chance to commune with works of coherent voice and vision. Some people find it harder to read during days overflowing with one-minute distractions and incessant notifications, but when I took the time, I was rewarded with a slightly bigger foothold in a world of decency, humanity, patience, and compassion. Here are 10 good reasons to give that a try.
Such begins the story of The Carman Family Deaths, Netflix's latest true crime documentary, based on a 2021 WIRED feature by Evan Lubofsky. Carman was, according to his father, the "first-born grandson of a Greek dynasty," and when questions began to emerge following his rescue, suspicions arose that what happened at sea wasn't what he claimed.
Now, a new book details the campaign of coercive control waged against the late Tina Satchwell, and the deep extent of his manipulation. 'Beneath the Stairs' written by Paul Byrne and Ralph Riegel details the sheer cruelty of convicted killer Richard Satchwell and features extensive interviews conducted with Satchwell after his wife went missing in 2017, as he tried to portray himself as a victim and claimed she had run off with €26,000 of their life savings.
But Jeffrey Manchester, the robber known as "Roofman," made headlines for being unusually polite when he executed his misdeeds. After he surprised McDonald's employees by dropping in through the roof-hence his nickname-and holding them at gunpoint, he gently reminded one of them to breathe while they collected cash. Before he locked them in the walk-in refrigerator, he made sure that they had coats to wear so they'd be comfortable in the cold.
Maybe it's just me, but I have a strong aversion to these sensationalized true-crime stories. I've truly never once pressed play thinking, I'm so glad I took the time to reconsider this horrible murderer in a new light. Remember when The Office's simple, will-they-won't-they workplace romance was all we needed in order to feel fulfilled by TV? If only I could watch Jim propose to Pam at a gas station with new eyes! Sadly, it's not so simple nowadays.
At trial, Chambers had claimed that Levin's death was the result of a sexual encounter gone wrong. Rosanna Scotto, a Fox 5 news anchor who covered the case at the time, said Chambers looked like a Hollywood Adonis. Another described him as Kennedyesque. The fact that Chambers was an Upper East Side preppy added a whiff of ironyin these elite circles, violent crime just didn't happen.
Prime Video; available now Waleed Zuaiter, Robin Wright and Laurie Davidson in The Girlfriend. Photograph: Christopher Raphael/Courtesy of Prime Summed up in a sentence A steamy, incestuous adaptation of an excellent novel that pits an adult son's new girlfriend against his mother in an ever-more extreme contest. It has lost little of the book's psychological acuity and retained all of the suspense. Not one to watch with your sons, perhaps, but otherwise enjoy.
This collaboration highlights how Jackson has evolved from hip-hop icon to a dominant force in film and television production. With his company G-Unit Film & Television partnering with Lionsgate Alternative Television, Jackson brings a seasoned producer's expertise and a storyteller's instinct to the world of true crime. His cultural influence and eye for dramatic detail elevate each case, guiding viewers through the strategies and pivotal moments that ultimately lead detectives to justice.
Do you run to a haunted house every Halloween? Do you rubberneck after a grizzly car crash? Do you devour grotesque true crime documentaries? If so, that's natural-and it may even be good for you, according to Coltan Scrivner, a researcher of all things macabre and a fan as well-one recent project was founding a horror film festival where he lives in the Ozarks.
With terrific chutzpah, black-comic flair and cool, cruel unsentimentality, screenwriter Austin Kolodney and director Gus Van Sant have made a true-crime suspense thriller set in the 1970s, tapping into the spirit of both Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon and Network. Apart from anything else, it is a reminder that in that post-Kennedy, post-Watergate age, plenty of lawless and febrile things happened that would now be considered phenomena purely attributable to social media.
This week, Amazon announced it was developing a series based on the trial of Karen Read. Elizabeth Banks is set to star, with The Sex Lives of College Girls producer Justin Noble showrunning and David E. Kelly serving as executive producer. The show's logline says it will examine "society's obsession with true crime, the allure of conspiracy, and the deepening crisis of trust in our institutions."
You might recognise Cecilie Fjellhy from Netflix's 2022 documentary The Tinder Swindler she was one of the victims of fraudster Simon Leviev. This series represents another related dispatch from the wild west of modern communication. Fjellhy is turning detective, joining forces with formidable private investigator Brianne Joseph (I'm like a pitbull: when I grab hold of something, I don't let it go) to unmask romantic scammers on behalf of men and women who have been duped.
Thomas' sister, Eliza Thomas, was 17 years old when she was murdered alongside three other teenage girls-13-year-old Amy Ayers, 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison, and Jennifer's 15-year-old sister Sarah-in Austin, Texas, in 1991. To be fair, Sonora was only 13 when her sister was murdered, and her family, burdened by grief, never openly talked about what happened to Eliza. Still, memory, as Brown expertly captures in his series, is a really tricky thing.
A new Hulu series dramatizes the arrest, trials, and ultimate exoneration of Amanda Knox - who, with her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was accused of murdering her housemate, Meredith Kercher, in 2007. The young women were college students studying abroad in Italy. But The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox (streaming now) has something that sets it apart from many true-crime series: the blessing and personal perspective of its subject, Knox, who serves as an executive producer.
