Beyond Making A Murderer: Five true-crime shows to binge on Netflix

The global appetite for true-crime has been whet once again with part two of Making a Murderer, available now on Netflix.

Brand new episodes – 10, in fact – explore the cases of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey in more detail, this time with a focus on post-conviction and the tireless efforts of their lawyers to prove convictions they believe are wrongful.

Since the first part landed on the service in 2015, it has become one of the most talked about crime dramas, earning almost cult-like status and spawning conspiracy threads on Reddit.

But the true-crime genre existed before Making a Murderer, and goes beyond the show. Here are five other gritty non-fiction shows to get your teeth into…

The Staircase

The 13-part documentary landed earlier this year, serialising the story of Michael Peterson – a crime novelist accused of killing his wife Kathleen by pushing her down the stairs.

Directed by Academy-award winner Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, The Staircase starts with the events of that day and chronicles the 16-year judicial battle that followed.

The Confession Tapes

The Confession Tapes is dedicated to people convicted of murder claim that their confessions were coerced, false or made involuntarily.

Each of the seven episodes, first added to Netflix in 2017, explores tapes on a case-by-case basis.

Evil Genius

The four-part documentary tells the story of an extraordinary American bank heist, dubbed the “pizza bomber heist”.

In 2003, a robbery gone wrong and public murder in Pennsylvania captured headlines around the world as law enforcement and the FBI embarked on a game of cat-and-mouse to get to the bottom of what happened.

The Investigator: A British Crime Story

Originally aired on ITV, Mark William-Thomas’ true-crime series was hailed as Britain’s answer to Making a Murderer.

The four-part series examined the murder case of Carole Packham, first name Veronica, who disappeared in 1985. The series and William-Thomas’ work proved so thorough that Dorset CID re-opened the case.

The Keepers

The 2017 series, comprised of seven episodes, examines the unsolved murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, a nun and teacher who went missing in November 1967. Her slain body was found nearly two months later.

The case was catapulted back into the headlines in the 1990s after a former student of Sister Cathy’s came forward with a harrowing account of sexual abuse by the high school’s chaplain.

Through examination of conversations with those who know her, and those who worked to solve the Baltimore case, the documentary series pieces together not only a gruesome death but the story beyond the original crime.