Something I hear about all the time is that true crime has taken over the entertainment industry. Every week, there seems to be a new podcast, television show, or movie centered around a true crime tale. People talk, dissect, analyze, and speculate about the stories. They become vicarious detectives, along for the ride as the authorities investigate whatever the crime may be. Although it might be more popular than it has ever been, the idea of true crime entertainment is nothing new.
Think back to some of the most famous American figures of the past. Many of them were notorious gangsters of some sort. Jesse James was the leader of a gang that robbed banks and trains in the post-Civil War Wild West. The former Confederate population looked up to him and his legacy lived on in many books, shows, and movies following his death. John Dillinger was a gangster during the Great Depression who robbed banks and earned popularity from the public for being a Robin Hood-like figure. He would also remain popular in books, shows, and movies.
Things changed a little bit with the rise of the serial killer concept in the 1970s, though people like the Manson Family, the Zodiac Killer, Ed Gein, and Jack the Ripper had been serial murdering before that. It was during the 1970s that the term “serial killer” became a known idea. It was also during that decade that the FBI began the concept of profiling, where they would examine crime scenes of a suspected killer to try and create an idea of who was behind the murders. Basically, profiling was a way of determining murder suspects.
During the 1970s, serial killers were seen as frightening figures. That’s still the case. But some time in the 1980s, people became more fascinated by them. Perhaps it was because of the cyphers the Zodiac killer left behind more than a decade earlier. There was increased interest in serial killers as long as those serial killers weren’t serial killing the people interested in them. This popularity, as well as the popularity of gangsters and other crime-related people, brought true crime entertainment to the mainstream.
True crime took a big leap in the late 1980s with three successful television shows beginning their runs. Unsolved Mysteries, America’s Most Wanted, and Cops flew onto the airwaves in 1987, 1988, and 1989, respectively. They gave people a glimpse into the world of crime. They were the starting point of what would become a large chunk of entertainment storytelling. People were enraptured by these shows and would become enraptured by the many other true crime stories that would follow.
To understand the abundance of true crime stories, you must first understand how the stories are designed. There are three main ways that true crime stories are told. The first is in the documentary style, simply relaying the facts to the viewer. The second is the dramatization, where the true events are recreated with actors. The third is the alternate take, where a true crime story is the inspiration for a dramatization, but the dramatization isn’t simply the true crime story. Each form of true crime storytelling is a little bit different, and I’ll be going over them shortly.
The documentary style is the most prominent and popular form of true crime storytelling. It takes the events of a crime and packages them up with real footage of the crime, photos and videos of events surrounding the crime, and interviews with people related to the crime, or people who knew the people related to the crime. Whenever you hear people talking about the popularity of true crime and the overabundance of true crime properties, they’re usually talking about the documentary style true crime stories.
Murder, as always, is the most popular subject in true crime documentaries. Forensic Files became an institution on television because of the murder stories, even if other things were covered in the show as well. Making a Murderer and I’ll Be Gone in the Dark found popularity on Netflix and HBO. The podcast Serial became a cultural juggernaut with a first season that covered the murder of Hae Min Lee, and subsequent seasons about Bowe Berghdal’s desertion charge and the Cayahuga County Court of Common Pleas didn’t fare as well. My Favorite Murder also became a popular podcast based on people just sharing their thoughts about various murders. But it wasn’t always murder that found popularity.
Other true crime tales have risen to some form of popularity through the documentary storytelling. Tiger King was one of the biggest television shows of 2020, hitting right as the pandemic began. It could have been the timing, or it could have been the colourful characters in the exotic animal industry who were involved in an attempted murder-for-hire plot that made it so popular. Around the same time, McMillions found popularity on HBO with a story about a major scam within the McDonald’s Monopoly promotion in the 1990s. Some podcasts have begun covering scammers, con-artists, and such subjects. There was even the documentary film The Imposter in 2012 based on a story from 1997 about a man that pretended to be a family’s 16-year-old son who had disappeared three years earlier. True crime may have found its new wave of entertainment popularity through murder, but it is branching out into the other crimes that also have fascinating stories.
The second branch of true crime storytelling comes through the dramatic telling of true crime stories. Actors are cast to play the parts of the people involved in the crimes. The story is relayed to the audience through performance rather than the documentary style that people might be accustomed to. It is the difference between, say, ESPN’s The Price of Gold and I, Tonya.
One of the big areas in which true crime dramatization thrives is through television movies. In the 1980s and 1990s, major networks loved television movies. Fox, NBC, ABC, and CBS were all putting them out on a regular basis. In order to come up with material for television movies, they frequently took their stories from whatever was in the headlines. If there was a sensational crime, that would make for a great television movie subject. The worst example was what happened with Joey Buttafuoco, his wife Mary Jo, and his underage lover Amy Fisher. Fisher shot Mary Jo in May 1992. On December 28, 1992, NBC had a television movie premiere. On January 3, 1993, CBS and ABC had their own television movies air. Not even a year had passed and there were three television movies for one true crime.
Things would continue to go that way for television movies through the 1990s before television movies of that kind shifted to cable channels like HBO, Lifetime, and A&E. Movies like The Craigslist Killer on Lifetime would pick up the slack that the major networks left behind. Event movies on HBO like You Don’t Know Jack and Phil Spector also helped fill that void.
As you can see, dramatizations of true crime stories frequently involve murder or attempted murder. Something about blood gets people going. Many famous serial killers have had movies and television shows made about them. Jack the Ripper got From Hell. The Zodiac Killer got Zodiac. Ted Bundy got Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. There were movies about important murders in history, such as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Foxcatcher, and Fruitvale Station. Liberties were taken with the stories. Some details were changed to make for a more dramatic movie or a more satisfying conclusion. But they were stories about the murders told in fairly straight-forward ways.
Then there were the true crimes that weren’t murder. Not every crime is murder. Not every true crime dramatization covers murder. When They See Us was about the Central Park Five, who were wrongly convicted of raping a woman in Central Park. Molly’s Game was about a woman who ran some illegal poker rooms. Can You Ever Forgive Me? was about a woman who forged letters by famous authors. And, of course, John Dillinger was the subject of Public Enemies. There are a multitude of crimes that could be portrayed in true crime stories.
Going off the dramatizations, there is one other way that a true crime story can be told. The alternate take film is a dramatization with a twist. It is inspired by a true crime. The story being told is clearly based on a specific crime. But there are major changes made to have the story be decidedly different from the true crime that inspired it, even if that true crime is still apparent. A few examples will better explain what I mean by that.
Law & Order is often heralded with stories that are “ripped from the headlines.” That’s because many of the stories featured in the shows were inspired by true crimes. The crime central to the episode will be a real crime that happened. It’ll be something that the audience members might recognize from having heard about it when it happened. Yet, the characters are different. The detectives and lawyers that fill the main character roles in the show are now the main characters involved in the investigation and trial of the crime. The characters who committed the crime or were victims of the crime have their names changed. The crime is the same. The details surrounding it are different.
Another example can be seen in Too Young to Die?, a 1990 true crime television film that aired on NBC. Amanda Sue Bradley (Juliette Lewis) was a 16-year-old girl from Oklahoma who was awaiting trial for murder. She was a stripper and prostitute who left that life when Mike Medwicki (Michael O’Keefe) took her in. After Mike’s superiors in the military found out that he was getting romantic with an underage girl, he forced her out of the house. She fell in with Billy Canton (Brad Pitt), and the two kidnapped and murdered Mike. It was now up to defence attorney Buddy Thornton (Michael Tucker) to keep Amanda off death row.
Too Young to Die? was based on the true story of Attina Marie Cannaday. She was teenage stripper and prostitute in Mississippi who was sentenced to death for the murder of Ronald Wojcik, a military man who took her in and subsequently forced her out when his superiors found out. The basics were the same. Teen living a bad life murders a military man after an affair. But there were some major differences. The names and locations were obvious. Amanda Sue Bradley was 16, while Attina Marie Cannaday was 14. Mike Medwicki knew Amanda’s age when he took her in, and never intended there to be a romantic relationship. Ronald Wojcik didn’t know about Attina’s age when he took her in, thinking she was of legal age, and intending a romantic relationship. When he found out her true age, thanks to the military, he broke it off. Oh, and David Gray (the real Billy Canton) physically committed the murder in reality, while Amanda Sue Bradley physically committed it in the movie. Outside of the crime, there may have been some major differences in when and how things happened, as well. Too Young to Die? was based on a true crime but had some major differences as the writers told their own story.
The final example I want to give of the alternative true crime story is The Sacrament, a 2013 horror film from Ti West. It was a clear riff on the Jonestown incident from the 1970s. A small group of people visited an American commune in a foreign country only to be witness to one of the largest group murder-suicides ever. The major difference was a time update. The Sacrament was set in 2013 while the Jonestown massacre happened in 1978. This meant that there was a technological update on the part of the main characters. It also meant that the news team brought to Eden Parish in the movie worked for Vice rather than NBC news. As for other changes, there were fewer members of the delegation visiting the commune in The Sacrament than in reality. Three people compared to upwards of a dozen. There were a bunch of differences, but the story was overall the same. People went to the commune. The commune leader felt paranoid and had everyone in the commune killed. The Sacrament was a fictional retelling of a true crime story.
True crime has been a big part of the entertainment industry, seemingly for years. People are fascinated by stories of crime. They’ll take in factual retellings of the crimes in the form of documentaries, non-fiction books, and podcasts. They will watch dramatizations of the crimes. They will even watch fictionalized stories inspired by the crimes. If it has even an ounce of true crime, there will be an audience for it. A good-sized audience.
People keep saying that true crime is the new big thing. It might be bigger right now, with more content being released based on true crime stories than ever before, but this wasn’t the beginning. Serial might be the point of reference for people wanting to say when true crime became a huge thing. However, the roots of true crime were present well before that. There were true crime television movies through the 1980s and 1990s. Three long-running true crime television shows premiered in the 1980s. Before that was the rise of serial killers in the public conscience through the 1960s and 1970s. Before that, there were gangsters like John Dillinger and Jesse James that captured the public’s imagination. True crime is engrained in people. The modern popularity is just the newest wave.
Now it’s time for a few notes before we wrap things up for the week:
- The Craigslist Killer (week 17) was mentioned in this post.
- Charles C. Stevenson Jr. was featured in Too Young to Die?, as well as Jack Frost (week 54) and Snow Buddies (week 270).
- Too Young to Die? saw the second Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance of Tim DeZarn, who was previously seen in Steel (week 127).
- Juliette Lewis was the star of Too Young to Die? and one of the supporting actors in Jem and the Holograms (week 238).
- Annabelle Weenick returned form Cop and ½ (week 340) for Too Young to Die?
- Too Young to Die? was the second Sunday “Bad” Movies feature for Tom Everett, who was also in Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (week 360).
- Finally, Emily Longstreth was in both Too Young to Die? and Hardbodies (week 392).
- Have you seen Too Young to Die? Do you like true crime? Do you like alternative true crime like Too Young to Die? Let me know what you think in the comments or on Twitter.
- Give me suggestions about what to watch. You can put the suggestions in the comments or come find me on Twitter with the suggestions. I’m always looking for things I might not think to watch.
- Check out Sunday “Bad” Movies on Instagram to see more Sunday “Bad” Movies fun.
- To cap things off, I’m going to talk about what’s coming up. Nostalgia is soon coming to Sunday “Bad” Movies in a big way. Next week’s movie will feature many members of turn of the century boy bands. There are people from N*Sync, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees and O-Town. They joined up for a post-apocalyptic zombie western. Dead 7 will be coming up next week, and I hope you come back to see what I write about it. Have a good week!
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