In this week’s Flightless Bird, David Farrier talks to Terra Newell, who you may well know from the Dirty John podcast. We look at what makes the True Crime genre such a big deal, and some of the ethical questions it raises. David also shares his favourite 10 True Crime bits of media with Monica and Rob – which are:
Dear Zachary (2008): A filmmaker decides to memorialize a murdered friend when his friend’s ex-girlfriend announces she is expecting his son.
Blackfish (2013) / The Cove (2009): A documentary following the controversial captivity of killer whales, and its dangers for both humans and whales.
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015): Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki examines the complicated life of reclusive real estate icon Robert Durst, the key suspect in a series of unsolved crimes.
The Staircase (2004): The high-profile murder trial of American novelist Michael Peterson following the death of his wife Kathleen Peterson in 2001.
Last Call (2023): As the AIDS crisis intensifies in the early 1990s, homophobia and hate crimes increase, and a serial killer preys on gay men in New York City by infiltrating the queer nightlife to identify his victims.
6 The Thin Blue Line – 1988 (Errol Morris): A film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas.
Paradise Lost (1996): A horrific triple child murder leads to an indictment and trial of three nonconformist boys based on questionable evidence.
Capturing the Friedmans (2003): Documentary on the Friedmans, a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking and horrible crimes.
The Imposter (2012): A documentary centered on a young man in Spain who claims to a grieving Texas family that he is their 16-year-old son who has been missing for 3 years.
In The Dark Season 2: The second season of In the Dark explored the legal odyssey surrounding Curtis Flowers, who was accused of shooting four people to death inside Tardy Furniture, a Winona, Mississippi store, in July 1996
Honorable mentions: A Very Fatal Murder, American Vandal
Other OGs: Helter Skelter (1974), In Cold Blood (1966), Making a Murderer (2018), Serial (2014)
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