This wild seven-part docuseries follows a tale of animal rights, cultish accusations, and murder-for-hire. Joe Exotic owns a big cat animal park full of dangerous exotic felines, making a profit off of breeding the animals as well as charging admission to visitors. Carole Baskin, the operator of a nearby big cat sanctuary and rescue center, stands as Exotic’s greatest enemy. As their rivalry grows ever more ferocious, Joe and Carole are pushed to the brink of sanity—and beyond.

Netflix's New Film 'Long Shot', on a Dodgers Fan Accused of Murder, Looks Like a Must-Watch 'Long Shot' will be the documentary short everyone is talking about next month.

Tiger King, which tracks the same case covered by, examines Exotic’s alleged attempt to hire a hitman to take out Baskin. Yet this is just one of many twists that unfold as the documentary progresses.What role do drugs play in Exotic’s personal life?

And does Carole Baskin harbor her own dark secret? It's easy to see why viewers everywhere are obsessed with this new Netflix series.Related. Directed by David France, this documentary centers on the suspicious and mysterious death of self-defined drag queen and black gay rights activist Marsha P. Johnson was at the forefront of the Stonewall riots, and championed for gay liberation until her death in 1992, which was intially ruled a suicide. In this film, one of Johnson’s close friends, transgender woman of color Victoria Cruz, works to have Johnson’s death re-investigated, believing her end to be the result of a homophobic murder.

This documentary focuses on the Miami Showband killings of July 31, 1975. At the time, the Miami Showband was an incredibly popular cabaret band in Ireland. But that fateful summer, a paramilitary group—the Ulster Volunteer Force—planted explosives on their bus at a fabricated checkpoint. The resulting blast caused the death of 5 individuals, including three band members.Related:Other music-focused cases covered by ReMastered include the death of Sam Cooke as seen later on this list, as well as an assassination attempt against Bob Marley in and the unsolved murder of Run-DMC’s DJ Jam Master Jay in. Intrigued by the ways a killer’s mind works? This documentary gives the viewer a long overdue glimpse into the perspective of real-life murderers. Each episode centers on interviews with death row inmates—men convicted of capital murder and talking candidly about the crimes they committed.

While they await execution, each convict sits down to discuss the events that led up to their crimes and how being on death row has affected their thoughts and feelings.With the recent release of season two of this chilling docuseries, follow cases from a woman who claims her boyfriend’s death was a mercy killing to a confessed New Years’ crime with conflicting stories. Small town pharmacist Dan Schneider lost his son in the midst of a drug-related shooting.

Frustrated by what he views as a lackluster response from the police, Schneider takes it upon himself to seek out his son’s murderer. However, as the months pass and an alarming number of young opioid users come into his pharmacy with suspicious prescriptions, he finds that the reach of his son’s dark and tragic world is beyond imagination. Schneider vows to face the problem head on for the chance to save other young people from the terrible end that his son met—he brings the issue directly to Big Pharma. Aaron Hernandez rose to fame as a superstar for the NFL’s New England Patriots, but the athlete had a dark past and a hair-trigger temper. Aer memories of old monastery. In 2013, Hernandez shot and killed semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd, earning himself life in prison. This docuseries dives into factors that might have led him down this dangerous path, including secret relationships, criminal acquaintances, and the long-term medical impact of multiple head injuries.

From his pre-spotlight days to the spectacle of court trials, get an in-depth look at this notorious case.Related. In this emotionally harrowing three-part docuseries, allegations of child sexual abuse within Spanish Catholic institutions are explored through interviews with victims, clergy members, journalists, and experts. In the first episode of the series, those who experienced abuse from three Marist Brothers school share their traumatizing experiences, while one of the accused tells their story. The second episode centers on the abuses committed by a gym teacher, and how he furthered his betrayal by filming it.

In the last episode, one survivor makes a pilgrimage as he delivers his truth, while another confronts the priest who hurt him. On September 26th, 2014, 43 male students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College were forcibly abducted, never to be seen again.

After the tragic disappearance, the Mexican government alleged that the men were detained by the police, and then mistakenly believed to be part of a drug gang, they were released to a crime syndicate and killed. This docuseries uses reconstructions and interviews to paint a picture to the events leading up to the abduction, and how protests against the government’s suspicious claims led to an independent investigation. In the 1970s, charming Indian immigrant Bikram Choudhury helped to bring yoga to North America. Operating out of Beverly Hills, Choudhury embraced an eccentric flair for entertainment and a tough-love approach to teaching. But as he built a massive franchise of hundreds of global studios and loyal followers, did he have a secret dark side?

In Eva Orner’s documentary, she uses archival footage and interviews to explore the shocking allegations against Choudhury, including sexual harassment and rape. This three-part series explores how a gruesome internet video sparked an amateur investigation. In 2010, a man (later identified as Luka Magnotta) posted a video online titled “1 boy 2 kittens,” in which he used a vacuum seal bag to suffocate two kittens.

Outraged, Las Vegas casino data analyst Deanna Thomson and Los Angeles native John Green started a group on Facebook to scrape together evidence as to who this criminal was. Amateur sleuths banded together with the police to track down a twisted killer whose dark intentions were just getting started. In 2005, Ryan Ferguson was convicted of the murder of Kent Heitholt and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Charles Erickson confessed to the murder and implicated his friend Ryan because he had no memory of the night of the crime. He did, however, have vivid and concerning dreams about it taking place.Ryan eventually confessed, but later claimed that he did so under police coercion. For the next ten years, Ryan’s father embarked on a tireless campaign to prove his son’s innocence. This documentary follows that journey, and confronts the flaws within the justice system.

During World War II, a Nazi guard known as “Ivan the Terrible” was stationed at the Treblinka extermination camp. Estimated by survivors to be around twenty-five years old at the time, Ivan was notorious for his excessive cruelty in torturing and slaughtering prisoners. When John Demjanjuk, a grandfather living out his days in Cleveland, was accused of being the wretched death camp guard, a trial began and in 1981 he was extradited to Israel. This documentary utilizes archival footage from concentration camps and real testimonies from Holocaust survivors to examine the atrocities that may have been committed by a seemingly quiet neighborhood man. Holy Hell doesn't center on a criminal investigation like episodes of Cold Case Files or I am Jane Doe. Instead, it peers into the dark and dangerous world of cults, and employs archival footage that is sure to intrigue true crime obsessives.

Holy Hell is directed by Will Allen, who was a member of the West Hollywood Buddhafield cult for over two decades. Allen uses footage from his time in the cult when he acted as videographer and “propaganda minister,” as well as new interviews of former members. Allen’s film is inspired by the disillusionment felt once shocking revelations were unearthed about Buddhafield’s leader, Michel Rostand.Related. Netflix dropped this compelling documentary earlier this year, and it definitely made some waves.

The series focuses on the death of Sam Cooke, the accomplished singer and civil rights activist who gave us “(What a) Wonderful World”, 'Bring It on Home to Me' and “A Change Is Gonna Come.” When he was 33 years old, Cooke was shot and killed by a hotel manager named Bertha Franklin who stated that she fired the gun in self-defense. During his life, Cooke was an outspoken civil rights activist who believed in equality. The documentary delves into Cooke’s advocacy, and questions whether or not his fight for civil rights may have contributed to his untimely demise.Related. Forty years after Iceland’s most notorious murder cases, director and documentarian Dylan Howitt attempts to chronicle the convoluted circumstances around two men’s mysterious disappearances, and how seven people ended up confessing to their murder.In 1974, an 18-year-old male vanished after attending a party. Months later, after driving to a cafe following a late night call, a 32-year-old father was never heard from or seen again. Authorities turned to a group of young people involved in a recent embezzlement scheme who would eventually confess—despite limited evidence—and served out their sentences.Decades later, questions about how their confessions were obtained—including alleged torture by authorities—have been raised, calling attention to one community's horrific response to others’ horrific acts.Related.

Who killed Sister Cathy Cesnik is the question that begins Netflix’s smash hit true crime docu-series, The Keepers. But as any professional binge-watcher knows, the real story is much darker and far more complicated than that. The Keepers has it all—abuse, religion, history, murder, family secrets, conspiracy, and a decades-old cold case.

Throw in some dedicated amateur sleuths who will stop at nothing to discover the truth of what happened to their beloved teacher and you’ll see an obsession in your future.Related. This unusual documentary about the unsolved murder of JonBenet Ramsey approaches its subject through the lens of casting a fictional film on the case.

Director Kitty Green interviews actors from the place of the crime, Boulder, Colorado, in the form of auditions for the main players of the story: JonBenet herself, her mother Patsy, her father John, and more. Through their auditions, the actors reveal their thoughts on the case, creating a compelling portrait of the lasting impact of JonBenet’s murder on the Boulder community and on society in general.Related. One of the strangest true crime stories we’ve come across, Juan Catalan’s freedom hinges on one thing:. Catalan was arrested for the murder of 16-year-old Martha Puebla back in May 2003. The police concluded that Catalan had committed the murder under orders of Puebla's ex-boyfriend and Catalan's brother. If found guilty, Catalan would have been sentenced to the death penalty, but he vehemently claimed that he had an alibi—he was at Dodgers Stadium watching a game. Despite Catalan's lawyer's attempt to find footage to prove his client's claim, the task would become nearly impossible.

In a miraculous turn of events, Larry David ends up helping Catalan. This documentary shows the flaws of the justice system alongside an unlikely celebrity connection. Evil Genius brought one of the strangest true crime cases back to light.

In 2003, a pizza delivery worker standing outside a local bank with a bomb locked around his neck was spotted by police. Believing that the bomb was fake, but that the man posed a real threat, the police put Brian Wells in handcuffs. As Wells leaned against a police car, the bomb went off. News teams broadcasted the man’s gruesome death to millions watching.

And the story only gets weirder from there. The four episode mini-series will keep you riveted til the very end.Related.

Over a decade later, it’s hard to explain or describe the intensity of the and the attendant media coverage. When a British exchange student, Meredith Kercher, was found dead in the apartment she and Knox shared with two Italian women in Perugia, suspicion immediately fell on Knox and her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. Five days after Kercher’s murder, Knox was arrested and charged with her roommate’s murder. Despite the fact that another man was convicted of the murder in 2008, Knox and Sollecito were held in jail for nearly four years. This Netflix original gets into just what made the case so compelling and horrifying to spectators around the world. If you saw 2014’s, starring Channing Tatum and Steve Carrell, you’ll be familiar with the rise and fall of the very wealthy and very eccentric John E.

It was du Pont’s dream to build an American Olympic wrestling team that would dominate the sport. He brought several athletes to live and train in his state-of-the-art gym on his sprawling family farm. But somehow du Pont’s dreams ended in cold-blooded murder—it was a tragic, seemingly senseless crime that few could have anticipated.Related. This true crime documentary is one of the more achingly sad entries on the list–don’t say we didn’t warn you. Covering the murder of William Ford in 1992, Strong Island is directed by the victim’s younger brother, Yance Ford. William was killed in Central Islip.

He was only 24 years old at the time, a high school math teacher. His killer, 19-year-old Mark Reilly, shot him after William complained to his auto body shop about the quality of the repairs done on William’s girlfriend’s car. Reilly was arrested and charged with manslaughter–but an all-white grand jury declined to indict him. This personal, deeply felt documentary was nominated for a 2018 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Over the course of his 20-year career, Errol Morris has been regarded as a veteran true crime documentarian with a knack for profiling the peculiar. His latest is Wormwood, a four and a half hour, six-part Netflix miniseries that harnesses the narrative strengths of previous screen successes like, and while redefining his signature visual style and the genre itself.In this docudrama with a fictional twist, Morris takes on a potential suicide/alleged murder, a CIA cover-up, LSD experiments, and secret government conspiracies that stretch back decades.

Using re-enactments and long-form interviews, Morris uses a deceased agent’s son's search for answers to help find the truth in this bizarre tragedy. There have been plenty of documentaries about wrongful conviction, a hot-button issue in the American criminal justice system. But what if the person released may have actually committed the crime? A Murder in the Park explores the other side of the coin with the story of Anthony Porter. Porter was convicted of murdering two people in 1982. His conviction was then overturned due to the work of a Northwestern professor and his students.

Soon though, many of the Northwestern class’ claims would be called into question. This disturbing and overlooked documentary is a fascinating account of a deeply complex case.Related. In 2007, Janet Moses’ death was plastered all over the news and local headlines. The young Wainuiomata mother was only 22 when she drowned after four days of a brutal exorcism conducted at the hands of her family, an effort to lift a makutu, or curse.

The nine family members involved were charged with manslaughter after attempting, in their eyes, to relieve Moses of a grave disturbance within her.Related:In this docudrama, viewers are taken back through the difficult days leading up to Moses' death. Through expert interviews, court testimony and dramatic reenactments, you are offered a rare look into how one family’s deep, determined love mixed so dangerously with cultural belief to tragic effect. Thirteen-year-old Tair Rada was found brutally murdered on a cold December day in 2006. Her body had been stuffed inside a locked bathroom stall at her school in Israel.

Her murder rocked the community, leaving children afraid to attend school. Just a week later, a Ukrainian immigrant named Roman Zadorov was arrested and confessed to Tair’s murder.

But Zadorov’s confession was just the beginning of the mystery of Tair’s death. Many things didn’t add up, from DNA evidence to other possible suspects, leading many to believe that Zadorov may have been wrongfully convicted. This docu-series left many viewers infuriated—and with good reason. The show illuminates corrupt police work in the United States by focusing on six cases of possible false confessions that led to murder convictions. Although each case in the series differs, they all share one thing in common: manipulation. Why would anyone innocent confess to a crime they didn’t commit?Many of the suspects underwent brutal police interrogations filled with manipulation, intimidation, and deception. This fresh series presents alternate views of the crimes, archival footage, and interviews with the suspects and their families.

You’ll be left wondering if the idea of 'innocent until proven guilty' really reigns supreme in our country.