Many of us will tuck into more than just food as we settle in front of the telly at night.
For those with an appetite for the macabre, murder is always on the menu.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has broken streaming records on Netflix with half a billion views in its first week, proving the true crime genre is as popular as ever. But does our hunger for graphic details and footage of serial killers mean we are also monsters? Or is it OK to let killers entertain us?
David Wilson, professor emeritus of criminology at Birmingham City University, believes such stories play an important role.
He said: “I personally don’t find an interest in violence – including murder and serial murder – odd. It’s normal, even necessary.
“If you know the circumstances in which violence is likely to occur, you can avoid those circumstances and not fall victim to violence.
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“These stories also perform a function in society – showing good eventually triumphs over evil. It confirms our deep-seated need to believe the bad guy ultimately gets caught.”
David Cantor, psychologist and visiting professor at Liverpool Hope University, said it is also about escapism.
He said: “All television and much of literature is either gossip or escapism. Gossip in the sense of letting us into the secrets of other people’s lives. Escapism in allowing us to vicariously experience some place and/or events we could never be involved with any other way.
“For these to work there has to be a resolution of some sort. Crime provides all this.”
Prof Wilson said our love of true crime is not new: “We’ve been fascinated with murder since the early 19th century. People would take the day off work to watch hangings.”
And he said we are more detached viewing 21st century true crime shows: “We are not really watching a serial killer or a murder, we are watching a dramatisation of what they have done through the protective veil of the TV.”
Netflix’s Dahmer series has proved hugely popular with viewers, but victims’ families are far from happy. They have criticised the makers for not consulting them and for making them relive their trauma.
Prof Wilson, who met serial killer Dennis Nilsen, thinks programme makers should never let serial killers dominate the narrative.
He said: “I think true crime is justified when it prioritises the voices of victims and how the killer was brought to justice, rather than the voice of the killer himself.”
In the ITV drama Des, starring David Tennant, he felt they got it right. “It showed Brian Masters, who wrote Nilsen’s biography, asking awkward questions and the detective who made the arrest, bringing the victims into it,” Prof Wilson explained.
He said documentaries such as Netflix’s The Staircase are slightly different because audiences are asked to engage in a mystery.
Michael Peterson was jailed for murdering his wife Kathleen, who was found at the bottom of the stairs. He was freed after eight years by taking an Alford plea – a guilty plea where the defendant maintains their innocence.
Still craving a crime binge on TV? Our roundup should whet your appetite…
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
Netflix
This ten-episode series dramatises Dahmer’s killing spree. Known as the Milwaukee Monster, between 1978 and 1991 he stalked the gay scene and killed 17 men and boys, with some of the cases involving cannibalism.
Aged 34, while serving a life sentence, Dahmer was beaten to death by a fellow inmate.
The Ripper
Netflix
The four-part British true crime docuseries released on the streaming channel at the end of 2020, explored the events surrounding the murders of 13 women in West Yorkshire and Manchester between 1975 and 1980 by serial killer Peter Sutcliffe.
He was dubbed The Yorkshire Ripper because of the similarities to the gruesome murders committed by 19th century serial killer Jack the Ripper.
The story is told through interviews with investigators, survivors, journalists and the family members of victims.
The Sons of Sam: A Descent Into Darkness
Netflix
This four-parter is about New York’s 1977 ‘summer of fear’ when six people were randomly shot dead across the city.
Postal worker David Berkowitz confessed but an investigative journalist believed he did not act alone and was part of a satanic cult that ordered him to kill.
Jack the Ripper: Five victims
Apple TV and Channel 5
Historians and crime experts re-examine the case of notorious East London serial killer Jack the Ripper.
Starting with Mary Ann ‘Polly’ Nichols, forensic, psychology, law enforcement and historical experts cast doubt on the version of events that has been widely accepted. In a bid to distinguish truth from fiction, they try to dispel commonly held myths about the mysterious killer.
And they ask why the stories of the five brutally murdered women have never really been told.
The Women and the Murderer
Netflix
In French, with subtitles, this documentary traces the capture of serial killer Guy Georges, who murdered seven women in the Bastille neighbourhood of Paris in the 1990s.
He stabbed them to death with butchers’ knives, earning him the nickname ‘the beast of Bastille’. In 2001 he was sentenced to life in prison.
Conversations with a killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes
Netflix
Using tapes recorded by two journalists, this four-parter features Bundy’s monologues.
The serial killer murdered more than 30 women in the 1970s but got away with it for as long as did because he looked so normal and ‘handsome’.
Also on the streaming channel is the drama Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile starring Zac Efron as the killer. Eventually brought to justice, Bundy was executed at Florida State Prison in 1989.
Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer
Netflix
Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker, is one of the most prolific serial killers to have prowled the streets of Los Angeles.
In the 1980s, he broke into homes, murdering and sexually assaulting residents. Jailed for 13 murders, he was sentenced to death, but in 2013, he died of cancer in prison.
Conversations with a killer: the John Wayne Gacy Tapes
Netflix
Gacy was convicted of murdering at least thirty-three young men and boys in the 1970s.
This series has interviews with people who knew him as well as chilling recordings of the killer made after his initial arrest. He was executed by lethal injection in 1994.
Des
ITV Player
In a brilliantly cast drama, David Tennant takes on the role of serial killer Dennis Nilson, known as Des. Tennant’s performance is uncanny and chilling, especially in the scenes where he talks about his crimes.
For more about Nilson, head to Netflix to watch Memories of a Murderer: the Nilsen Tapes.
Tickets for An Evening with Emilia Fox & Prof David Wilson on October 28 in Westminster are available at Eventbrite
