The 100 Best True Crime Docs

Alternative title: my life's work.

I fall asleep to Law & Order. I grew up with Olivia Benson. The First 48 is usually background noise and I work to 20/20. I’m a psycho, I know it. True crime docs are my absolute KRYPTONITE and I cannot explain it. I’m sure it says something dark about my psyche but I’m not about to do the deep dive and burst my own bubble. Let me live my life. As your true crime bestie, I feel it’s my duty and *honor* to spill my all-time favorites. I’ve put in a lot of hours of research and, quite frankly, I’ve been training my whole life for this. Some of my favorites are murder-y, some are cult-y, some are just bizzare-y, but all are juicy. I’ve organized these by streaming services for easy binging but otherwise, they’re in no particular order (my Hall of Famers are noted with a trophy 🏆).

Sit down, buckle up, and get your pepper spray ready.

Netflix

1. Cold Case Files

2. 🏆 I am a Killer

3. I am a Stalker

4. Unsolved Mysteries

5. American Murder: The Family Next Door

6. Our Father

7. Night Stalker

8. Keep Sweet Pray and Obey

9. 🏆 Tell Me Who I Am

10. 🏆 Missing: Dead or Alive

11. American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing

12. Waco: American Apocalypse

13. 🏆 Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal

14. Ghislane Maxwell: Filthy Rich

15. Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields

16. Killer Sally

17. Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes

18. Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes

19. Sins of our Mother

20. I Just Killed My Dad

21. The Staircase

22. The Family

23. My Daughter’s Killer

24. Web of Make Believe: Death, Lies, and the Internet

25. Confession Tapes

26. The Innocence Files

27. How to Fix a Drug Scandal

28. Voyeur

29. Heroin(e) (I recognize this isn’t exactly true crime, but it’s a really good watch) 

30. Eliza Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime

31. Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes

32. Trial 4 

33. Killer Women with Piers Morgan

34. Trial by Media

35. Why did You Kill Me

36. Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel

37. The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez

38. Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez

39. Exhibit A

40. Abducted in Plain Sight

41. Flint Town

42. Depp v Heard

43. 🏆 The Keepers

44. Escaping Twin Flames

45. Making a Murderer 

46. 🏆 American Nightmare 

47. The Innocence Files

48. Girl in the Picture

49. Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife

50. Capturing the Killer Nurse

51. Strong Island

52. The Innocent Man

53. Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult 

54. The Tinder Swindler

55. What Jennifer Did

56. 🏆 Victim/Suspect

57. Audrie & Daisy

Hulu

58. The Secrets of Hillsong

59. Killer Cases

60. 20/20

61. The First 48

62. Mormon No More 

63. Missing

64. Evil Talks

65. BTK Confessions of a Serial Killer

66. Sins of the Parents: The Crumbly Trials

67. The Murder of Laci Peterson

68. Still Missing Morgan

69. Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence

70. Betrayal: The Perfect Husband

71. Accused: Guilty or Innocent

72. Missing

73. Dead Asleep

74. 🏆 God Forbid: The Sex Scaadal that Brought Down a Dynasty

75. Secrets of Playboy

HBO/MAX

76. The Staircase (this is different than the Netflix doc, both worth watching) 

77. The Vow 

78. The Way Down

79. 🏆 The Jinx

80. 🏆 Murder on Middle Beach

81. Allen v Farrow

82. 🏆 I’ll be Gone in the Dark

83. Burden of Proof

84. Quiet on Set

85. Justice, USA 

86. 🏆 Love Has Won, The Cult of Mother God 

87. The Curious Case of Natalia Grace

88. The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, Natalia Speaks

89. Hillson, a Megachurch Exposed

90. I Love You, Now Die

91. Mommy Dead and Dearest

92. There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane

93. Going Clear: Scientology and The Prison of Belief

94. Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty

95. Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Tapes 

96. 🏆 Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes

97. The Murders at Starved Rock

Peacock

98. Who Killed Robert Wone?

99. Dateline

Prime

100. Shiny, Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets

Did I miss any of your favorites? PLEASE leave them in the comments!