“The serial killer media industrial complex rages on, but what has it taught us? Very little about the crimes in question, and much more about ourselves.”
murder
Posted inNonfiction
‘Do You Know These Women?’
Sarah Souli | November 2022 | 13 minutes (3,781 words) This is an excerpt from The Atavist’s issue no. 133, “A Matter of Honor.” The story was completed with generous support from the Incubator for Media Education and Development, a nonprofit journalistic organization founded in 2018 with an exclusive donation from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. “Just by being there, […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Fascinating History Behind a Set of Miniature Murder Scenes
“Forensics pioneer and miniaturist Frances Glessner Lee crafted tiny dioramas in the 1940s to teach investigators to search for clues and assess a scene.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
‘The More We Pulled Back the Carpet, the More We Saw’: What I Learned When I Bought a House With a Dark Past
“I knew it wasn’t my dream home. What I didn’t know is that its history would give me nightmares.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Has The Zodiac Killer Mystery Been Solved (Again)?
Author Jarett Kobek believes he’s uncovered the true identity of the Zodiac Killer: an eccentric man named Paul Doerr, who died in 2007. Doerr’s daughter, Gloria, isn’t so sure — until Aaron Gell suggests that the two of them come together to meet. In this chilling story for Los Angeles magazine, Gell describes how Kobek’s […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
When Innocence Isn’t Enough
Christopher Dunn has been in prison for over 30 years for a murder in St. Louis that he and others say he didn’t commit. Even though new evidence has emerged in favor of Dunn, the state of Missouri says he must stay in prison — because he wasn’t sentenced to death. He continued, “This Court does […]
Posted inNonfiction
How to Save True Crime: A Reading List of Wrongful Conviction Stories
Stories about wrongful convictions open our eyes to systemic injustices in the U.S. court system. Maurice Chammah, a staff writer at The Marshall Project, compiles his recommended longreads within the genre.
Posted inStory
The Hare Krishnas of Coal Country
The world is full of make-believe. Some of it is sweet, some of it is sick. It persists because we have found no other antidote for pain.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Long Afterlife of a Terrible Crime
“Decades after her mother was killed, Regina Alexander reached out to the son of the people who did it.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
What Lies Beneath: The Secrets of France’s Top Serial Killer Expert
Stéphane Bourgoin is a bestselling author in France, known for his expertise in serial killers and extensive interviews with more than 70 of them. Then a group of strangers began to investigate his past.