It's been a bit since I've watched a docuseries that was a complete mindbender. I'm not sure what I thought it was going to be - and I'm still not sure what it is. It covers so many things and once you think it's peaked...new turn!

I found this after watching "The Garden: Cult or Commune" which also a series of next level batshit crazy.

On December 15, 1927, 12-year-old Marion Parker was taken from her school in Los Angeles by a man claiming her father had been involved in an accident.
The man was William Edward Hickman, a former employee of Marion’s father.
Soon after, her father began receiving ransom demands. Desperate to bring his daughter home, he agreed to pay $1,500.
But what happened next turned the kidnapping into one of the most disturbing crimes in American history.
Hickman was eventually caught, and the case became a national sensation.
I recently made a documentary exploring Marion’s kidnapping, the ransom demands, the investigation, and how the case finally ended.
What makes this case especially chilling to me is how easily Hickman convinced the school to hand Marion over. Do you think schools in 1927 could realistically have prevented something like this?
Watch the documentary here:

https://youtu.be/9E_J7Xy1bTk

I'm the creator of Exhibit Tape. I made a 31-minute documentary about the Mamta Kafle Bhatt case, putting the welfare check, detective's visit and TV interview in chronological order, alongside the prosecution and defense positions.

The film is called “His Wife Vanished. Now He's Charged With Her Murder | Bodycam.”

Watch on YouTube

I'd particularly like feedback on the detective's visit starting at 7:40: does keeping more of the conversation help you follow the case, or does that section need a tighter edit? And which part of the timeline needs more context?

If you watch, a timestamped comment on YouTube would be really useful. Happy to discuss it here too.

The recordings are authentic; the narration is synthetic. Bhatt has pleaded not guilty, and the trial was ongoing as of October 17, 2026.

I'm looking for your favorite true crime documentary episode that takes place on Halloween night.

Cleveland 19 News:

​Decades after the tragic events surrounding the 1989 Kirtland cult murders, investigators and experts continue to examine the underlying psychological mechanisms that allowed self-proclaimed prophet Jeffrey Lundgren to exercise absolute control over his followers. The heinous crimes resulted in the deaths of Dennis Avery, his wife Cheryl, and their three young daughters, who were loyal members of Lundgren's splinter group. A special 19 Investigates documentary titled "Deadly Devotion: The Kirtland Cult Murders" delves into these historical events, bringing fresh perspective to how such an extreme dynamic could take root in ordinary communities.

​Cult expert Ashlen Hilliard featured in the coverage explain the step-by-step psychological processes of undue influence and manipulation. Rather than being an isolated phenomenon restricted to rare anomalies, the conditions that enable a charismatic leader to dominate vulnerable followers involve common human vulnerabilities, isolation tactics, and the systematic erosion of independent critical thinking. Members often surrender their autonomy gradually, caught up in promises of spiritual elevation or tight-knit community before recognizing the full extent of the psychological trap.

​The reporting underscores that understanding these historical crimes is essential for recognizing modern patterns of manipulation and high-control groups. By reviewing the actions of key followers and the chilling progression of the case, experts hope to educate the public on how ideological extremism can turn fatal. Authorities emphasize that the focus remains on honoring the victims and comprehending the warning signs of dangerous group dynamics.

​#KirtlandCult #TrueCrime #CultControl #OhioHistory

https://www.cleveland19.com/2026/10/16/kirtland-cult-murders-cult-expert-explains-how-control-takes-hold/

I want the video that happened before they hit sergei yatzenko. They can be seen planning the attack and looking at the road with binoculars. Igor can be seen showing the murder weapon in a bag. I saw a documentary and it said that the actual video was 30 minutes long.

Does anyone have the full video? or is it gone for good now?

Hi friends! I've been trying to figure out who this narrator is... can anybody help? He narrated a couple of episodes of Cold Case Files from 2001 and it's not Bill Kurtis. Does anybody know who it is and if so, I need sources please! 😂 The specific episode I watched with him as the narrator is called "Cold Case Files: A Hitchhike To Murder" about Kathy Devine. Here's the YouTube link (it's the first episode):

https://youtu.be/nDsXZkbJOrM?is=RVZRD4ZY7kPfqBpn

Thank you!! 🙏🏻

On 4 March 2018, Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer who had spied for Britain, and his daughter Yulia were found collapsed on a bench in Salisbury. Police believe Novichok, a Soviet-developed nerve agent, had been put on the front door handle of his house that day from a modified perfume bottle. Both survived. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who went to the house, was seriously ill too.

Two men had flown in on Russian passports as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, and they flew back to Moscow that night. In September 2018 British prosecutors charged them, though both were in Russia. Open-source investigators later identified them as GRU officers Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga. A third man, Denis Sergeev, was charged in 2021.

At the end of June 2018, Charlie Rowley found the discarded bottle. At his home in Amesbury, his partner Dawn Sturgess sprayed it on her wrists. She died on 8 July. The public inquiry into her death reported on 4 December 2025 and found the operation must have been authorised by Putin. None of the three men has ever faced trial, because Russia does not extradite its own citizens.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4m-T1x_EYs

Disclosure: I work with the small channel that made this. It's our first episode, an animated documentary with AI-assisted visuals, built from public records, the inquiry report and published reporting, with the sources in the description. One correction we've already caught: the memorial card at 6:42 gives Dawn's birth year as 1968, but she was 44. Honest feedback is very welcome.

In December 1968, 20 yearold Emory University student and heiress Barbara Jane Mackle fell ill with the Hong Kong flu while on campus. Her mother, Jane, traveled to Atlanta to care for her, and the two checked into a room at the local Rodeway Inn to rest before heading home to Florida for the holidays.

Around 4:00 AM on December 17, a knock sounded at their door. A man outside claimed to be a police officer reporting that Barbara’s boyfriend had been in a severe car accident. When Jane opened the door, two masked intruders—escaped convict Gary Steven Krist and his accomplice Ruth Eisemann-Schier forced their way in. They chloroformed and bound Jane, forced Barbara at gunpoint into a waiting station wagon, and sped off into the night.

They drove her into a secluded pine grove in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Waiting for her was a pre-dug trench holding a custom, fiberglass-reinforced box equipped with two air pipes, a battery-powered light, sedatives, water, and food. Before sealing her inside, her abductors forced her to hold up a hand-written cardboard sign reading "KIDNAPPED" for a proof-of-life photograph.

She was buried under more than a foot of soil.

Her father, millionaire real estate developer Robert Mackle, promptly agreed to pay the $500,000 ransom (equivalent to over $4 million today). After an initial ransom exchange was disrupted by a passing police patrol, a second drop was made. Following intense investigation and tracing clues left in an abandoned vehicle, the FBI combed the Georgia woods searching for any sign of the underground burial site.

For 83 hours nearly three and a half days, Barbara survived inside the dark, claustrophobic box. When the battery-powered light failed early on, she was left in complete pitch darkness, relying on memories of her family to stay calm. Rescuers eventually heard faint thumping and muffled cries from beneath the ground, unearthing the box and finding her weak, dehydrated, but alive.

Both kidnappers were later captured. Krist served 10 years before being paroled, while Eisemann-Schier became the first woman ever added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list before her eventual arrest.