Murder pamphlet, 1812
Zhang Yingyu's
The Book of Swindles
(
c.
?1617
) is a late Ming dynasty collection of stories about allegedly true cases of fraud.
[2]
Works in the related Chinese genre of
court case fiction
(gong'an xiaoshuo), such as the 16th-century
Cases of Magistrate Bao
, were either inspired by historical events or else purely fictional.
Hundreds of
pamphlets
,
broadsides
,
chapbooks
and other
street literature
about murders and other crimes were published from 1550 to 1700 in
Britain
as
literacy
increased and cheap new printing methods became widespread. They varied in style: some were sensational, while others conveyed a moral message. Most were purchased by the "artisan class and above", as the lower classes did not have the money or time to read them.
Ballads
were also created, the verses of which were posted on walls around towns, that were told from the
perpetrator
's point of view in an attempt to understand the
psychological
motivations of the crime. Such pamphlets remained in circulation in the 19th century in Britain and the
United States
, even after widespread crime journalism was introduced via the
penny press
.
[3]
In 1807,
Henry Tufts
published
A Narrative of the Life, Adventures, Travels and Sufferings of Henry Tufts
, which is likely the first extensive biography of an American criminal.
[4]
Thomas De Quincey
published the essay "
On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts
" in
Blackwood's Magazine
in 1827, which focused not on the murder or the murderer but on how society views crime.
[3]
Starting in 1889, Scottish lawyer
William Roughead
wrote and published essays for six decades about notable British murder trials he attended, with many of these essays collected in the 2000 book
Classic Crimes.
Many regard Roughead "as the dean of the modern true crime genre."
[5]
An American pioneer of the genre was
Edmund Pearson
, who was influenced in his style of writing about crime by De Quincey. Pearson published a series of books of this type starting with
Studies in Murder
in 1924 and concluding with
More Studies in Murder
in 1936. Before being collected in his books, Pearson's true crime stories typically appeared in magazines like
Liberty
,
The New Yorker
, and
Vanity Fair
. Inclusion in these high-class magazines distinguished Pearson's crime narratives from those found in the penny press.
[6]
The foreword of a 1964 anthology of Pearson's stories contains an early mention of the term "true crime" as a genre.
[7]
Truman Capote
's "
non-fiction novel
"
In Cold Blood
(1965) is usually credited with establishing the modern novelistic style of the genre
[8]
and the one that rocketed it to great profitability.
[6]
The crimes most commonly include
murder
; about 40 percent focus on tales of
serial killers
.
[8]
[9]
True crime comes in many forms, such as books, films, podcasts, and television shows. Many works in this genre recount high-profile, sensational crimes such as the
killing of JonBenet Ramsey
, the
O.?J. Simpson murder case
, and the
Pamela Smart
murder, while others are devoted to more obscure slayings.
The first true crime magazine,
True Detective
, was published in 1924. It featured fairly matter-of-fact accounts of crimes and how they were solved. During the genre's heyday, before WWII, 200 different true crime magazines were sold on newsstands, with six million magazines sold every month. By itself,
True Detective
had two million in circulation. The covers of the magazines generally featured women being menaced in some way by a potential criminal perpetrator, with the scenarios being more intense in the 1960s.
Public interest in the magazines began declining in the 1970s, and by 1996, almost none were being published, including
True Detective
, which had been bought and shut down by a new owner.
[10]
True crime books often center on sensational, shocking, or strange events, particularly murder. Even though murder makes up less than 20% of reported crime, it is present in most true crime stories. Typically, these books report on a crime from the beginning of its investigation to its
legal proceedings
.
[11]
[
page?needed
]
Serial killers have been a highly profitable sub-genre. An informal survey conducted by
Publishers Weekly
in 1993 concluded that the more popular true crime books focus on serial killers, with the more gruesome and grotesque content performing even better.
[6]
Some true crime works are "instant books" produced quickly to capitalize on popular demand; these have been described as "more than formulaic" and hyper-conventional.
[12]
Others may reflect years of thoughtful research and inquiry and may have considerable
literary merit
.
[8]
A milestone of the genre was
Norman Mailer
's
The Executioner's Song
(1979), which was the first book in the genre to win a
Pulitzer Prize
.
[13]
Other prominent true crime accounts include
Truman Capote
's
In Cold Blood
;
[14]
the best-selling true crime book of all time,
Helter Skelter
, by the lead
Manson family
prosecutor
Vincent Bugliosi
and
Curt Gentry
;
[15]
and
Ann Rule
's
The Stranger Beside Me
, about
Ted Bundy
.
[14]
An example of a modern true crime book is
I'll Be Gone in the Dark
by
Michelle McNamara
.
[16]
Erik Larson
's
The Devil in the White City
gives a novelistic account of
H.?H. Holmes
' operations during the
1893 World's Fair
.
In 2006,
Associated Content
stated that since the start of the 21st century, the genre of writing that was growing the quickest was true crime. Much of this is due to the ease of recycling materials and the publication of numerous volumes by the same authors differing only by minor updates.
[17]
The majority of readers of true crime books are women.
[18]
[19]
Films and television
edit
True crime
documentaries
have been a growing medium in the last several decades. One of the most influential documentaries in this process was
The Thin Blue Line
(1988), directed by
Errol Morris
. This documentary, among others, feature reenactments, although other documentary filmmakers choose not to use them since they do not show the truth.
[20]
In the early 1990s, a boom of true crime films began in Hong Kong. These films ranged from graphic
Category III
?rated films such as
The Untold Story
and
Dr. Lamb
(based on serial killers Wong Chi Hang and
Lam Kor-wan
, respectively) to more general audience fare such as the film
Crime Story
(based on the kidnapping of businessman
Teddy Wang Tei-huei
), which featured action star
Jackie Chan
.
[21]
[22]
Other prominent documentaries
edit
Netflix has become one of the most influential streaming services in regard to their True Crime selection. The Netflix show
Making a Murderer
did so well, the company decided to establish more true crime and expand on this genre making a profit off of the interest from the viewers. Netflix has a number of key search words or tags to help users find true crime programs on their website because the genre has become so popular in the past few years. The way Netflix uses storytelling to explain the case is appealing to many viewers and creates an intimate relationship between the audience and the case itself. These programs often leave the viewer with the job to make a decision on justifications, sentencing, or in cases of unsolved true crime; who they believe did it. Algorithms are used not only to see what a specific user is watching, but also what is being watched worldwide and what is sparking conversation. It is obvious that if this algorithm picks up on popularity, Netflix will continue to push out true crime material.
[25]
[26]
Many of the True Crime documentaries or docuseries have Twitter pages that promote their show's hashtags and reply to fans and/or their theories about the case. Part of the reason viewers love watching true crime, especially on something so available as Netflix, is because after they form their opinions they are able to easily find places to discuss it online and share their opinions. This gains more attention online and leads more people to watching what is being spoken about online. However, this has caused some problems in the past with viewers feeling so strongly about this topic that there have been lawsuits of defamation against Netflix.
[26]
[27]
Podcasts
with a true crime theme are a recent trend. The 2014 true crime podcast
Serial
broke podcasting records when it achieved 5 million downloads on
iTunes
quicker than any previous podcast.
[28]
[29]
[30]
As of September 2018, it has been downloaded more than 340 million times.
[31]
It has been followed by other true crime podcasts such as
Dirty John
,
My Favorite Murder
,
Up and Vanished
,
Parcast
series such as
Cults
,
Female Criminals
and
Mind's Eye
,
Someone Knows Something
,
and many more.
[32]
Podcasts have now expanded to more sites such as
Spotify
,
Apple Music
,
YouTube
and several others. They exist to provide others an easy way to learn about true crime murders and mysteries. Spotify has an expanding number of true crime podcasts with
Rotten Mango
,
Conviction American Panic
,
Bed of Lies
,
Catch & Kill
among many more. This genre has been on the rise as psychologist, Amanda Vicary, said her report found “women were most drawn to true crime stories that gave them tips for spotting danger and staying alive”.
[33]
The True Crime category in Apple Podcasts appeared for the first time mid-2019, and until then the podcasts that would be moved into the section had existed across many other categories, such as History, News & Politics, and even Comedy.
[34]
It has been speculated that
fear
could play a role in the popularity of true crime podcasts. These podcasts often recount horrific crimes, which triggers the fear response and the release of
adrenaline
in the body. Due to the possibility of
binge-watching
podcasts, adrenaline rushes can be experienced in quick bursts.
[35]
Another explanation for the popularity of true crime podcasts is due to the
serialized
nature of crime, in which events happen one after another. Podcasts that explore a crime episodically can utilize this aspect in their storytelling.
[35]
Another strength of these podcasts is use of typical
sensationalist
techniques, such as inclusion of direct dialogue and focus on victims and their families. Podcasts can use music or other sound cues to maximize the intended impact or
shock value
of a fact, as seen in
Serial
.
[36]
Trends in the United States
In the U.S. women are predominantly the consumers of digital true crime podcasts, in 2019 making up around 73%
[37]
of the content audience. The 2019 Edison Research Report found that at the time of data collection, an estimated 90 million of the U.S. population older than 12 had listened to a podcast in the last month,
[38]
and of those polled, around 28% were interested in true crime as a topic to listen to in a podcast.
In 2020, true crime podcasts held many of the U.S. top 50 spots for popularity by most listens, with
Crime Junkie
at
No.
3,
My Favorite Murder
at No. 5, and others scattered amongst the top 50, such as;
Serial
at No. 13,
Dateline NBC
at No. 22, and
Criminal
at No. 30.
[39]
[40]
In that year, true crime ranked third overall for genres by listen
[39]
[41]
behind both comedy and news. From November 2019 through May 2022, true crime podcast listening increased the most of the top three genres by percentage gain in listeners, with a 66% gain (from ~12.9m to ~21.5m) in current listeners, versus the 44% and 37% gain in listeners by comedy and news respectively.
[42]
On Apple Podcasts, True Crime podcasts make up just less than half a percent of the total number of podcasts on the platform. On a collated list of 432 podcasts from the most-visited results of a search for "Top Podcasts of 2021", true crime podcasts made up more than 20% of the podcasts constituting the lists.
[34]
Trends in Australia
In 2017, as many as 30% of podcast listeners had listened to true crime podcasts, and in 2019, this had increased to up to 44%.
[43]
[44]