Netflix is a haven for true crime junkies. They’ve got documentary after documentary on the most notorious criminals and the most riveting mysteries, enough to fill your watch list for days. The latest addition is the gripping story of the Watts family told through American Murder: The Family Next Door. If you decide you’re tough enough to watch more true crime docus, here are some of the best ones you can watch on Netflix.
Don’t F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer
A twisted criminal’s gruesome videos drive a group of amateur online sleuths to launch a risky manhunt that pulls them into a dark underworld.
Don’t F**k with Cats is told in three parts. It dives into Luka Magnotta’s heinous crimes and how he became Canada’s most infamous criminal. His crimes started with a disturbing video of him torturing cats which he filmed and uploaded. After it caught attention, he started to escalate his crimes until finally murdering a computer engineer Lin Jun in 2012. Afterward, Magnotta fled to Europe but was eventually caught in a computer shop reading articles about himself.
Amanda Knox
She was twice convicted and acquitted of murder. Amanda Knox and the people closest to her case speak out in this illuminating documentary.
In November 2007, Amanda Knox found her roommate, Meredith Kercher, dead in their apartment neck slashed and bloodied. What followed was eight years of court trials, convictions, accusations, and arrests. This documentary details how Amanda and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele (whom she met five days prior) were put on trial in front of the world for a murder they did not commit.
Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story
After 16-year-old Cyntoia Brown is sentenced to life in prison, questions about her past, physiology, and the law itself call her guilt into question.
Cyntoia Brown’s life is one that’s full of tumultuous trials. When she was 16, she became a victim of sex trafficking when she met 43-year-old Johnny Allen. Allen took her to his house and offered to pay her for sex. Things went further downhill when Cyntoia shot him in the head as an act of self-defense. For attempting to protect herself, Cyntoia has served 15 years in prison.
Exhibit A
This true-crime series shows how innocent people have been convicted with dubious forensic techniques and tools such as touch DNA and cadaver dogs.
How many people are wrongfully convicted of crimes they’ve never committed? Netflix’s true-crime series Exhibit A explores what happens when science conflicts with the legal system. The episodes feature the stories of people like George Powell who was accused of robbing a convenience store and Norma Jean Clark who is serving 25 years in prison for the murder of her husband.
Roll Red Roll
This compelling documentary follows the 2012 Steubenville, Ohio rape case, putting social media and high school football culture in the spotlight.
Football players Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richardson are convicted of raping an unconscious 16-year-old girl at a party in 2012. When journalist Alexandria Goddard started piecing together incriminating and disgusting social media posts of the perpetrators, national wrath descended on the small Ohio town. The football players’ crimes unearthed horrible truths about the football-obsessed town and how it’s “putting its daughters at risk to protect its sons.”
Unsolved Mysteries
Real cases of perplexing disappearances, shocking murders and paranormal encounters fuel this gripping revival of the iconic documentary series.
Netflix revives the 1987 Unsolved Mysteries series with new cases that are, well, unsolved. The series is set to have 12 episodes, half of which is yet to be released on Oct. 19, 2020. The current episodes explore chilling disappearances and murder. And since these cases are unsolved, viewers are encouraged to send investigators a tip or relevant information. Radio Times reports that the show has already successfully garnered about a thousand tips.
Inside the Real Narcos
Exposing a rarely seen perspective on the drug wars, ex-Special Forces commando Jason Fox interviews dangerous traffickers and cartel members.
Royal Marine Commando and Special Forces Sergeant Jason Fox bravely hosts Inside the Real Narcos. He immerses himself in the dangerous world of drug cartels in Mexico, Colombia, and Peru to observe how the groups operate. If you liked series like Breaking Bad and Narcos, this will be right up your ally. But don’t forget, everything that happens in this docu-series is real.
The Confession Killer
Henry Lee Lucas rose to infamy when he confessed to hundreds of unsolved murders. This docuseries examines the truth — and horrifying consequences.
Henry Lee Lucas confessed to hundreds of unsolved murders in the 80s thus effectively putting an end to hundreds of cases. Although some cases didn’t have concrete evidence pointing to him, all that mattered was he confessed. That is until officials find inaccuracies in some of his statements which leads them to believe he might not be the criminal after all.
Which documentary will you be watching first?
