I love true crime stories, can’t get enough of them and I wondered if any other Dopers had the same passion. Actually I’m pretty sure there are as I remember a previous thread some time ago.
I just read two wonderful examples both from The New Yorker by David Grann.
True Crime: A Post-Modern Murder Mystery
Now I’m eager to read more like this. Can anyone recommend others?
You might be interested in two that I have read recently.
Black Dahlia Avenger is a good analysis of the Black Dahlia murder case, and the author claims to have identified the killer.
Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK - I found this book fascinating. It’s an analysis of the JFK assassination based on the ballistics evidence only. It (to me) proved that JFK was shot by two different people, but the identity of the second shooter is stunning.
Well they aren’t reads, but have you ever watched the two-hour Dateline Saturday Night Mysteries? Some of those are riveting and mind-blowing and they are typically well told. Plus when Keith Morrison narrates it’s like Uncle Remus is telling a yarn of murder. You can watch them on the Dataline website. If you’re interested I’ll name a few I think are good. Also good on amazon prime is forensic files.
Since you seem to like short coverage, try this for size:
If you love true crime stories, I can’t recommend the Casefiles podcast enough. It’s very detailed and straightforward and never boring. I listen to another podcast (My Favorite Murder) and while it’s very entertaining and funny, they often do the same crime story and the level of detail and insight on Casefiles blows MFM away. Case in point, both recently did the Moor Murders- was a totally different story when told in great detail by Casefiles. Granted, he dedicated three episodes to it while MFM gave it 1/3 of one episode but it was still interesting to me how the missing details affected my perception of the story.
Novel-length but good reads.
My Father’s Gun: One Family, Three Badges, One Hundred Years in the NYPD by Brian McDonald (Plume, 1999)
The North Avenue Irregulars: A Suburb Battles the Mafia by Rev. Albert Fay Hill (Cowles, 1968; you may have seen Disney’s version.)
This book is about the Vidoq Society.
** KidCharlemagne**, yes, Keith Morrison is by far the best narrator for these stories, he draws you right into them and you find yourself hanging on his every word. He’s also excellent at interviewing the people involved. I watch them on Dateline’s Youtube channel and always keep an eye open for Morrison’s ones.
LVBoPeep, those podcasts sound interesting, I’ll definitely give those a listen.
Thanks to everyone for some great links!
Another one on TV that is my guilty pleasure is Deadly Women.
David Grann has recently become a favorite of mine. I have been eagerly awaiting his new book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, which is due to be released on April 18.
You should definitely check out The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, which is a collection of his New Yorker pieces.
FYI, Grann is most famous for writing the bestseller The Lost City of Z, about explorers in the Amazon. It’s not a true crime story exactly, but it is a fascinating adventure story.