Top 10 Serial Killer Documentaries

This Top 10 Serial Killer Documentaries List is not based on any ‘scientific’ calculations of IMBD stats, critic polls or ‘website views’ but more of a personal collection of what I feel are some of the best documentaries in the ‘serial killer’ genre…           Hope you enjoy!..

Previews of all Top 10 Serial Killer Documentaries

For those who would like a sampling or taste of each of the respective Top 10 serial killer documentaries before you grab your popcorn, beer or other late-night snacks and sit down for a long-night of dark viewing  just click on the video beneath…

 

#1 Serial Killer Documentary

Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003)

Following up on the brilliant ‘Aileen: Selling of a Serial Killer’, Nick Broomfield‘s second documentary on Aileen Wuornos, the highway prostitute and serial killer who was executed in 2002 for killing seven men in the state of Florida, is arguably the best documentary ever made in the ‘serial killer’ documentary genre…

 

#2 Serial Killer Documentary

Cropsey (2009)

The legend of the local ‘boogeyman‘ has fascinated and terrified children throughout the world for centuries on end… ‘Cropsey‘ takes that ‘power of the urban legend‘ and creates arguably one of the most intriguing investigative-crime documentaries ever made in the ‘serial killer‘ genre…

 

#3 Serial Killer Documentary

Fred And Rose: The West Murders (2001)

After the severed corpse of his missing teenage daughter Heather was discovered buried in the garden of his Gloucester home, Fred West began to slowly confess to a series of horrendous murders… police would eventually dig up the bodies of nine young women from the home of builder Fred West and his partner-in-crime prostitute wife Rose….

 

#4 Serial Killer Documentary

This Is the Zodiac Speaking (2007)

The Zodiac Killer is one of the greatest unsolved serial killer mysteries of all time, only taking second place to the legendary British Victorian slasher ‘Jack the Ripper’… This fascinating documentary examines the crimes of The Zodiac a little bit closer, and tries to make the case as to who he may have been and what may have motivated him to kill …

 

#5 Serial Killer Documentary

Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1993)

Nick Broomfield’s brilliant documentary chronicles Broomfields’ attempt to interview America’s most notorious female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos and in the process exposes how her life at that moment was being exploited by many factions for varying personal gains…

 

#6 Serial Killer Documentary

The Confession (2010)

So, how do you get a serial killer to confess to two murders and lead the police to the location of one of the still missing women even before all the evidence is in?… In a stunning follow-up to their previous ‘Above Suspicion‘ documentary on the crimes of Col. Russel Williams, Bob McKeown of the CBC’s ‘The Fifth Estate‘ breaks down the brilliant interrogation methods used by Ottawa Det. Sgt. Jim Smyth to get Williams to confess…

 

#7 Serial Killer Documentary

Robert Ressler: The Man Who Lives With Monsters (2002)

A look at the life and work of one of the world’s foremost authorities on the profiling of violent offenders, and his chilling encounters with such notorious serial killers as Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy.

Robert Ressler has interviewed and studied the most notorious American serial killers of the modern era. His insights are now studied by others to understand what makes monsters tick.

 

#8 Serial Killer Documentary

Crimes that Shook the World: The Chessboard Killer (2009)

He is the worst serial killer in Russian history… for years, Alexander Pichuzhkin, a.k.a ‘The Chessboard Killer‘ kept a city in fear… for years he taunted the police… he preyed on the lonely and vulnerable and he kept a unique record of his crimes…

Absolutely terrifying documentary about the horrific crimes of Russian serial killer, Alexander Pichuzhkin

 

#9 Serial Killer Documentary

Ted Bundy: The Mind of a Killer (1995)

A&E Biography pretty much invented the ‘serial killer documentary‘ genre so any Top 10 serial killer documentary list would be remiss if it didn’t include at least one of these classic serial killer documentaries…

One of their earlier episodes and still one of the most popular is this examination into the life of notorious American serial killer Ted Bundy…

 

#10 Serial Killer Documentary

The First 48: A Serial Killer Calls (2005)

An incredible episode of A&E’s ‘The First 48‘ in which the Kansas City, Missouri detectives being featured find themselves on the bloody trail of the  ‘Prospect Avenue‘ serial killer … to complicate things even further and heighten the already palpable drama, the killer begins to call the police taunting them with information of more bodies that have yet to be discovered…