MAV RECOMMENDS - Murder Mysteries
This blog post is brought to you by Dana Sharman, Account Coordinator, MAVERICK
In this edition of recommendations, we are taking a bit of a darker turn. What better way to unwind after a long day’s work than relaxing with a murder mystery and exploring the realm of unsolved murders? If you agree, then you’re in luck. Here are some of our favourite non-fiction murder mysteries from movies, series and podcasts you need to watch when you want to put your investigative mind to the test.
Evil Genius: The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist is one of Netflix’s new docuseries. The story begins with pizza-delivery man, Brain Wells, forced to rob a bank with a bomb locked around his neck and goes from there to discover the malicious mastermind (or masterminds) behind the 2003 Pizza Bomber case. To avoid saying any spoilers I’ll stop myself there, but for those who have watched there is already talk about a season two.
HBO’s Mommy Dead and Dearest follows the murder of Dee Dee Blancharde for which her own daughter, Gypsy Rose Blancharde, was accused. What stands this documentary apart from the rest is that the murderer is clear however, the family secrets are ones no one could have imagined. The film unveils the abuse and fraud that happened behind the scenes for all of Gypsy’s life and shows that things are not always as they appear.
Some classify Network as the leading purveyor of non-fiction true-crime, The Confession Tapes only helps solidify this statement. The series highlights possible false confessions that lead to murder convictions, featuring a different case per episode. Each case presents alternate views of how the crime could have taken place with experts on false confessions miscarriages of justice and psychology, leaving you wondering if these culprits were in truth victims the whole time.
The Keepers is next on our list, this docuseries has been classified by a colleague as the best murder mystery of them all. It’s been claimed by some as a murder mystery about survival. Watch as it resurfaces the murder of Cathy Cesnik, a nun and teacher of a catholic school in Baltimore and uncovers secrets of the church and cover-up by authorities. To this day, more than 50 years later, no one has been convicted for Cathy’s murder.
As we are all podcast lovers here at Maverick, it would be right to suggest murder mysteries without mentioning some highly captivating podcasts that will have you on the edge of your seat. If we are only to suggest a few, our top picks would be Serial along with Behind the Bastards.
Murder Mysteries
Evil Genius (docuseries)
Mommy Dead and Dearest (movie)