Episode list

A rain of bullets descends on students and faculty at the University of Texas. Policemen and civilians alike come together to save the wounded and put an end to the violence. But when the smoke clears, there remain more questions than answers: who could have done this evil, hideous thing, and why?

Denver, CO, November 1, 1955. United Airlines Flight 629, a DC-6B bound for Portland and Seattle, exploded in flames only 11 minutes after taking off from Denver. The subsequent crash in a farm field near Longmont, Colorado, killed everyone on board. It wasn't very long into the crash investigation when chemical residue, consistent with the explosion of dynamite, was found on debris from the rear baggage compartment. The crash investigation then turned into a criminal probe of the second act of sabotage of a commercial airline, in United States history.

Kew Gardens, Queens, 1964: Kitty Genovese is raped and stabbed to death outside her apartment building as her neighbors watch and do nothing, introducing America to the "bystander effect." But is this really the whole story...?

Bay Village, OH, 1954: When Marilyn Sheppard is found beaten to death in her bedroom, it will take more than thirty years to piece together the truth of what happened the night she died.

Panic and terror grip Chicago after the brutal and ritualistic killings of two women and a ten year old girl. A message-scrawled on the wall of one of the crime scenes in red lipstick- fans the flames of the town's anxiety: "For heaven's sake catch me before I kill more..." Amidst the public furor, both the police and the local newspapers are desperate to give the people what they demand: someone to blame. If that happens to be the actual murderer, wonderful. If not...so be it.

"Dear Sir..." begins an elegantly written, meticulously detailed ransom note. And with the note's arrival the fears of Jacob and Dora Franks are confirmed. Their beloved ten-year- old son, Bobby, has been kidnapped. Among the wealthiest families in Chicago, the Franks are able to enlist the help of the top investigative minds in the city. But the investigation takes a tragic turn when, to the Franks' horror, Bobby's body is found in a city park, stripped naked and burned with acid. The detectives struggle to find any leads, with their only piece of physical evidence being a pair of eyeglasses found near the body. Eventually, the investigation leads them towards a baffling pair of suspects-wealthy, well-educated, excitement-seeking college students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb - the original Amerian thrill- killers.

Odessa, TX, 1961: Teenager Betty Williams isn't home. She's not at school. Police are sure she is a runaway, until they uncover a shocking high school rumor that will change this small town forever.

Chicago, IL, 1966: The crime of the century begins when a man knocks on the door of a dormitory of nursing students and murders all...but one, who will live to help police attempt to bring him to justice.

Kansas City, MO, 1960: When Patricia Jones' bullet-ridden body turns up by the side of lovers' lane, Detective Browning forges ahead on a catch me if you can trail from Missouri to Mexico, taunted by the sly smiles of his provocative arch nemesis.

The real story behind Truman Capote's true crime classic In Cold Blood. It's Sunday morning and the Clutter family is expected at church. Susan Kidwell enters the back door, looking for her friend Nancy. The absolute horror she discovers instead will become one of the most infamous crimes scenes in American history. Soon the house is crawling with police, investigating the bodies of all four members of the Clutter family - each of them hog-tied and executed at point-blank range with a shotgun. The small town of Holcomb and the American public at large reel from the implications of the crime-that no small town, no family, no matter how respectable or how upstanding, is ever completely safe. As tireless detectives mount a nationwide search for the perpetrators, they face what might be the most chilling prospect imaginable-that there was no substantial motive in the murders, that the Clutters died needlessly, killed in cold blood.