Crimes That Made History
Crimes and bloody tales that made the headlines usually reveal a lot about the hidden fantasies of their time. From Jack the Ripper to the Andes crash, the ten episodes of this collection shed a black light on a page of history that left a mark on their time.
- 2016-2017
- 1 season
- Questar Entertainment
- Documentary, Suspense
- TV-14
Crimes and bloody tales that made the headlines usually reveal a lot about the hidden fantasies of their time. From Jack the Ripper to the Andes crash, the ten episodes of this collection shed a black light on a page of history that left a mark on their time.
Season 1 Episode Guide
10 Episodes 2017
Episode 1
Roswell, l'invention des soucoupes volantes/Der UFO-Mythos von Roswell
26 mins
On 8 July 1947, the US Air Force announced the discovery of a "flying disc" which had crashed in the Roswell area of New Mexico. This was the birth of the flying saucer phenomenon. Against the backdrop of the Cold War, when conspiracy theories abounded, the myth of the UFO gradually took shape to become a recurrent theme in science-fiction movies and popular culture.
Episode 2
La mort de Lady Di, la presse contre la Couronne/Der Tod von Lady Di
26 mins
On 31 August 1997, Princess Diana died alongside her companion, Dodi Al-Fayed, in a car crash in Paris, whilst being pursued by paparazzi. Her untimely death prompted an outpouring of grief in Britain and elsewhere in the world, and made her a symbol of the excesses of media intrusion, that was ironically echoed in the coverage of her funeral, broadcast live around the globe.
Episode 3
Violette Nozière, l'empoisonneuse parricide/Das Doppelleben der Violette Nozière
26 mins
In August 1933, 18-year-old Violette Noziere poisoned her father in Paris. After a short period on the run, Violette was charged with murder and swiftly confessed to the crime, saying her motive was that her father abused her. The press and public were immediately fascinated by this patricidal teenager, who became known as "The Monster in the Skirt".
Episode 4
L'affaire Soleilland, l'enfance assassinée/Der Kindsmörder Albert Soleilland und die Todesstrafe
27 mins
Paris, January 1907. Albert Soleilland is accused of the rape and murder of a little girl named Marthe. The press details every step of the case as if it was a show. As early century France was on the verge of abolishing the death sentence, this infamous crime set the abolitionist cause back decades. The media strenuously called for Soleilland's execution en masse.
Episode 5
Jack l'éventreur, l'invention du serial killer/Jack the Ripper - Der Mythos des Serienmörders
26 mins
In 1888, a series of gruesome murders shocked London: The perpetrator was dubbed "Jack the Ripper". This was the Victorian era, when puritanism reigned and forensic science was in its infancy. How did these factors combine to create one of the most renowned crime stories in history, resulting in the construction of the serial killer?
Episode 6
Fritz Haarmann, un vampire dans la République de Weimar/Fritz Haarmann - Der Schlächter von Hannover
26 mins
Friedrich Heinrich Karl "Fritz" Haarmann (25 October 1879 - 15 April 1925) was a German serial killer, known as the Butcher of Hanover and the Vampire of Hanover, who committed the sexual assault, murder, mutilation and dismemberment of a minimum of 24 boys and young men between 1918 and 1924 in Hanover, Germany.
Episode 6
Fritz Haarmann, un vampire dans la République de Weimar
26 mins
Friedrich Heinrich Karl "Fritz" Haarmann (25 October 1879 - 15 April 1925) was a German serial killer, known as the Butcher of Hanover and the Vampire of Hanover, who committed the sexual assault, murder, mutilation and dismemberment of a minimum of 24 boys and young men between 1918 and 1924 in Hanover, Germany.
Episode 7
La tuerie de Jonestown, une apocalypse américaine/Das Jonestown-Massaker
26 mins
It is 1978, Guyana. Reverend Jim Jones held an apocalyptic mass. Its' outcome? The sacrifice of 918 members of the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, an American cult founded in the mid-1950s. The entire world was horrified by journalists' accounts, and the images they saw of Jonestown, and this event haunted small communities and alternative forms of worship throughout the 1970s.
Episode 8
Le massacre de la Saint Valentin, l'apogée du gangstérisme/Das Valentinstag-Massaker
26 mins
In 1929, seven members of Bugs Moran's gang were assassinated in a garage by Al Capone's henchmen. This event was taken up by the press who named it the "Saint Valentine's day Massacre". Carried out during the prohibition, those killings became the newsworthy symbol of gang wars - they consolidated the image of the Italian mobster in the American collective imaginary.
Episode 9
Le crash des Andes, l'inavouable anthropophagie/Der Anden-Crash
26 mins
On October 1972, an Uruguayan plane crashed into the Andes. 72 days later, 16 survivors are found. The incredible rescue fascinated the media across the world. How did they survive? An unspeakable truth gradually emerges: to survive, the survivors ate their dead comrades' bodies.
Episode 10
Abe Sada, un crime passionnel au Japon/Abe Sada - Von Liebe und Tod
26 mins
On May 18, 1936, Abe Sada, a former geisha, kills her lover by "erotic asphyxiation", then slices his sex and inscribes his name in his flesh. In an ultra-controlled and militarized Japan, the press is passionate about this transgressive incident, while the murderer defends herself, presenting her crime as an act of "crazy love". Relayed to the West, this murder conveys the image of a fantasized Japan, where all impulses are given free rein.