The recent thread about the murder of the United Healthcare CEO prompted this question.
Are you interested in true crime, “stuff”? To what extent and why are you interested?
I will try. I’m avoiding the UH CEO murder thread but I am in general interested in true crime up to a point. I find unraveling a mystery fascinating. Detective work and forensics are fascinating. The motivations of people, good and bad, can be fascinating.
That said, I hate salacious details and anything to do with children. I abhor violence in general and can’t stand to hear details about it.
ETA - I also hate the vast majority of true crime podcasts where busybodies run around accusing people of crimes.
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The science involved in bringing these criminals to justice.
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I fell hard with the Murdaugh saga. The family drama, the lying and manipulation of the key conspirators, and the data gathering and research of the investigators and prosecutors to bring these [expletive deleted] to justice.
There is always something deeper than the crime. There is a message about society. There is a message about human nature and relationships. And there is a chance to give a voice to the victims.
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I wouldn’t say that I am a true-crime fan, but some real-life cases have caught my interest over the years. When I couldn’t sleep while pregnant with ds1, I’d watch reruns of the Dahmer trial on Court TV. 
Another one that caught my attention: the Susan Smith murders. I knew immediately that she drowned her kids.
Of course, the JonBenet Ramsey case. I still am intrigued by that. I hope that one day we learn what happened to that poor girl.
I find people endlessly fascinating. My background is journalism, and when you are close to so much of the worst of human nature you develop a bit of armor/dark humor. I actually am related to someone who got a bit of notoriety because she committed murder. Her family had spent Easter at our house the year of the killing. It was shocking and then not shocking. I don’t know. Hard to explain.
I always told my kids that you never know what is going on behind closed doors. I guess these crimes are the equivalent of rubber-necking when you pass a traffic accident?
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Only interested in the forensic science of it. I’ve seen the real life victims in the news. I’ve had their body fluids on my skin. I have zero interest in the “art” of the overly detailed portrayal of humans being evil or the psychological mind games mentally ill persons have done to other innocent people that movie directors do for money.
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P. D. James, who wrote murder mysteries, when asked why she wrote about murder, said she didn’t write about murder, she wrote about bringing order out of chaos. That may be the attraction of true crime shows, and fictional shows too. Look at NCIS or CSI. I don’t watch true crime shows but I love mystery fiction books and shows
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I’ve been addicted since the OJ Simpson trial unfortunately. Any sensational crime and I’m sucked in.
Most big cases end up reflecting back what is going on in society so in many ways following true crime is just like following politics or pop culture or sports or what have you. They are all windows into society.
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This was the awesome true crime show Mr. and I used to watch regularly:
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When I was in nursing school, I got a part time job in the trauma ICU of our nationally renowned county hospital. MANY of our patients were victims (or even perpetrators) of violent crimes. One time our entire unit was being protected by a whole unit of police officers because we had a patient who had been targeted by a notorious gang who vowed to come to the hospital to “finish the job.” My husband was losing his you know what over that and the fact that I wouldn’t be swayed to quit my job and stay home over that threat. They never made good on that threat, but that surely piqued my interstest in true crime, as I witnessed the effects of such on a daily basis.
The first day on the job in that hospital, I told my mentor “Oh my God, I read about this guy in the newspaper,” and he responded “Honey, ALL these people are in the newspaper-this is the trauma unit at the Dallas County hospital!” And I learned quickly how right he was. It was the best education a student nurse could get, and in the end, emotionally traumatic to the point that a year later, I had to quit that job because it was just too much for me.
BUT, after that period of my life, I became pretty invested in true crime shows and a particular web site devoted to it. It’s a fascinating look at human nature. I no longer visit that web site or watch many of those shows, but for a period, I was definitely engrossed in that genre.
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It’s interesting to learn why people are intrigued. It is something that would never appeal to me.
I used to have a dental hygienist who went to true crime conventions! I just can’t imagine something with such an awful subject matter being a, “fun,” hobby for someone.
But, different strokes for different folks!
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Level 1 ED for over 20 years. Families of the victims (and opposing gangs) would get violent. It started with removing lamps and bolting down tables to prevent throwing and now triage works behind bullet slowing glass and all visitors and walk in patients need to go through a mental detector. I have literal physical scars from patients injuring me. Coworkers who have had bones broken. Cops pulling weapons in the middle of a trauma resuscitation to protect staff.
Its one thing to have the brains of a trauma patient on your arm (caused you didnt have time to gown up before rolling patient for assessment), its another when you feel repeatedly threatened just trying to help sick people.
So yeah, if the focus of a show is more about the crime Im not as interested. If its about finding the evil person, I can watch it.
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I enjoy captivating story podcasts. This can be true crime or a variety of other genres. While the stories often involve some type of criminal act, people doing bad things is not what makes it interesting to me. It is more the story and the characters – people doing extraordinary things in extraordinary circumstances. I often learn new things and see things from new perspectives.
Some example podcasts I enjoyed are below. The first one involves a seemingly regular upper middle class, middle aged, engineer who became addicted to OxyContin after being prescribed for back pain. The podcast discusses how OxyContin became widely prescribed in the United States, in spite of its addictiveness. Eventually he and his son moved from Oxy to the medically similar drug heroin, and successfully robbed dozens of banks to fund the habit and avoid drug withdrawals. He didn’t rob banks using a weapon
or violence – just calmly walked in to banks and requested that they hand him a few thousand dollars. He had a variety of techniques to throw off law enforcement, such as changing outfits each time. He comes across as a surprisingly likable person. He was released from prison, after serving 6 years, in 2019 and now seems to have his life on track, enjoying spending time with his grandkids and such.
Hooked
When Tony Hathaway was arrested outside a Seattle bank in February 2014, it brought an end to one of the most prolific bank robbery streaks in American history. Hathaway robbed 30 banks in a single year, all within a 30-mile radius of his suburban home. But that’s not the most surprising part of this story. Before Hathaway was a masterful bank robber—a shape-shifting professional who confounded multiple police departments and the FBI—he was a top design engineer at Boeing, one of America’s most important companies. Hathaway traveled the world in business class, working on the 747, while hiding a gigantic secret: an OxyContin addiction that ultimately unraveled his life. Based on three years of conversations between Hathaway and journalist Josh Dean, Hooked is a different kind of crime story that takes listeners on an exceptional and very personal tour of America’s opioid epidemic.
Dr. Death S1
Christopher Duntsch was a neurosurgeon who radiated confidence. He claimed he was the best in Dallas. If you had back pain, and had tried everything else, Dr. Duntsch could give you the spine surgery that would take your pain away. But soon his patients started to experience complications, and the system failed to protect them. Which begs the question: who - or what - is that system meant to protect? From Wondery, the network behind the hit podcast Dirty John, DR. DEATH is a story about a charming surgeon, 33 patients and a spineless system.
Serial: S3
Serial is heading back to court. This time, in Cleveland. Not for one extraordinary case; instead, Serial wanted to tackle the whole criminal justice system. To do that we figured we’d need to look at something different: ordinary cases. So we did. Inside these ordinary cases we found the troubling machinery of the criminal justice system on full display. We chose Cleveland, because they let us record everywhere — courtrooms, back hallways, judges’ chambers, prosecutors’ offices. And then we followed those cases outside the building, into neighborhoods, into people’s houses, and into prison. We watched how justice is calculated in cases of all sizes, from the smallest misdemeanor to the most serious felony. This season, we tell you the extraordinary stories of ordinary cases. One courthouse, week by week.
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Forgot to mention… another true crime show we liked to watch was American Greed. The crimes were mostly financial in nature, but occasionally someone would be killed to cover up the tracks.
My D liked watching crime police procedural but I often found them too scary/gory. I do admit I like High Potential and HIP (the French version) —it’s about a woman with an IQ of 160 who is unorthodox but helps the police solve crimes with her amazing intellect. Not sure why or how I happened upon it, but I enjoy it, especially the French HIP version. These stories are NOT true crime but made up cases.
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Great typo - I wish there was such a thing!
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I grew up on Forensic Files, America’s Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries. I am very fascinated by the science of it and watching detectives piece together the evidence. I’m big on podcasts now like Crime Junkie.
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