Online Newspaper for Students at School of Journalism

What to know about ‘true crime’ entertainment

‘True crime’ is a nonfiction production in the form of; books, films, podcasts, and television shows; where the author examines a crime and details the actions of people associated with and affected by criminal events.

Forty percent of the crimes are murders focusing on tales of serial killers and genre recounting high-profile, sensational crimes such as: The Jon Benet Ramsey killing, the O.J. Simpson’s murder case, and the Pamela Smart murder while others are devoted to more obscure slayings.

The first true crime magazine: ‘True detective’ was published in 1924 featuring fairly matter-of-fact accounts of crimes and how they were solved.

During the genre’s heyday (before World War II), 200 different true crime magazines were sold on newsstands, with six million magazines sold every month.

With the cover featuring mainly women being menaced in ‘some way’ by a potential criminal perpetrator and intense scenarios, True detective had a circulation of two million in the 1960’s.

However by 1970, public interest in the magazines began declining and by 1996, almost none was published including ‘True Detective’ after the genre was often criticized for being ‘insensitive’ to the victims and their families.

Other True crime famous shows included:
⦁ My Friend Dahmer
My Friend Dahmer is a biographical drama that covers the adolescence of Jeffrey Dahmer: a shy, strange boy who grew up to become one of America’s most infamous serial killers.

Molly’s Game
Molly’s Game, based on her memoir of the same name, is the true story of Molly Bloom, a young American skier who ran the most exclusive high-stakes poker game in the world for a decade with players that included actors, athletes, moguls, and the Russian mob. She was arrested in the middle of the night by more than 17 FBI agents in 2013 when she was 34.

Share this article

Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
Email
Print