Your next true crime obsession according to your state

Are you entirely obsessed with true crime? Do mysteries and disappearances keep you awake at night? Does a bottle of wine and a serial killer documentary sound like a perfect night in for you?

Because same. So far I've listened to over 300 true crime podcasts this year, watched countless docu-series, and fallen into endless WikiHoles in the search for more information.

Clearly I'm not the only person obsessed with the gore and depravity of real life crimes because you're all out there Googling conspiracy theories, murderers, and cannibals too.

Delve in to find your next sickening, jaw-dropping, and at times laughable true crime obsession according to where you live.

The below recommendations are derived from Google Trends search data from each Australian state and/or territory between August 2019 - August 2020.

NSW - Catching Milat

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The criminal.

Australia's famous 'Backpacker Murderer' is the reason why so many of us still hold our breath as we drive by Belanglo State Forest. Ivan Milat never admitted to his crimes, even as he lay dying he was incapable of mustering up sympathy for his victims. With his final, haunting breaths Milat managed three words - "I don't care."

The crime.

Commonly known as 'The Backpacker Murderer' Milat is responsible for taking the lives of seven hitchhikers in Southern NSW. After picking them up on the Hume Highway the victims were assaulted, imprisoned and subsequently murdered - their remains littering the trees of Belangalo State Forest for months before they were discovered.

Watch the miniseries.

Catching Milat follows a somewhat dramatised version of the life, loves and lurid acts of one Ivan Milat. The suspenseful Aussie-made production is made even more chilling by the sheer familiarity of it all. We've all seen an unassuming cul-de-sac, lined with classic fibro and red brick houses, and never questioned the thoughts behind the eyes of its owner or the actions of their hands.

Watch it on Prime Video

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ACT - Method of a Serial Killer

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The criminal.

This serial killer has no type, no pattern and no regrets. Living a dual life, one as a family man and one as a monster, he created and buried 'Kill Kits' only to return to them later in order to enact his monstrosities. There is no way of knowing how many people lost their lives to the terrifyingly cruel Israel Keyes.

The crime.

Keyes was so unassuming, so well-planned in his attacks, and so good at covering his tracks that it is impossible to know just how many people died by his hands. The killer would bury 'kill kits' with a weapon and clean up materials in random locations across the United States. There they would sit under the dirt, sometimes for years before he came back to dig them up and choose a person's life to end. While he has confessed to 11 murders across the States, his method was so scrupulous that people believe hundreds of unsolved murders came from the hands of Israel Keyes.

The documentary.

Part of the Oxygen series: Method of a Serial Killer, the Israel Keyes episode is a chilling look at the man's complete disregard for the lives he has taken. Arrested for the murder of 18-year-old Samantha Koenig, police didn't know what they had stumbled upon when Keyes began to outline his methodology over a black coffee and a snickers bar.

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QLD - Jeffery Dahmer Files

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The criminal.

Dahmer came from a tumultuous upbringing, suffering from a range of personality disorders and began to self-medicate with alcohol and hard drugs by the age of 14. His controlling thoughts started at 16 when he began to fantasize about dominating, controlling and assaulting unconscious men. By the time he graduated high school, these fantasies had become reality.

The crime.

Prolific serial killer Jeffery Dahmer drugged, strangled and took the lives of 17 young men. But that's just the start of the atrocities he committed against his victims. He would lure men back to his grandmother's house before incapacitating them with sleeping pills and defiling their unconscious bodies. Sometimes Dahmer remembered strangling or bludgeoning his victims but other times he claimed to come to in the morning with no recollection of the act. His final act of cruelty was to dismember the bodies and keep a trophy, saying "If I couldn't keep them there with me whole, I at least could keep their skeletons."

The documentary.

This experimental documentary combined archival footage and fictionalised scenes to retell the summer of Jeffery Dahmer's arrest. Told from differing perspectives of a detective, the lead pathologist and Jeffery's neighbour, we see how vastly what we see can differ from reality.

Watch it on Prime Video

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TAS - The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

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The criminal.

We don't know who the criminal is in this mystery. Did her parents orchestrate her disappearance, or was it a faceless kidnapper who stole her away in the night? There are more questions than there are answers.

The crime.

Little Madeleine seemingly vanished into thin air during a family holiday in Portugal. Controversy questions whether she was taken by a stranger, or by the people who should have loved her most?

The miniseries.

Take a detailed look at the case surrounding three-year-old Maddie's disappearance. During the series, we hear from family, and investigators and explore every theory about what happened to the little girl. Some think she was sold into sex trafficking, others kidnapped and killed, but we can all agree on one thing - we simply don't know what we don't know. 

Watch it on Netflix

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SA - Conversations With a Killer

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The criminal.

Bundy is still regarded as a strapping, charismatic young man that people found difficult to condemn. During his trial, hundreds of women came to court to swoon over him despite the fact that he was accused of 30 homicides. With that kind of confidence, it's no surprise that Ted Bundy was able to lure his female victims away from their friends.

The crime.

Charming, suave and deadly. Ted Bundy assaulted and murdered 30 young women in the 70s, but who could suspect a face like that? He would often approach his victims in public places where they would come with him willingly, or he would knock them unconscious. When he had them in secluded locations he would perform lewd and incredibly vile acts before leading them for dead. Sometimes Bundy revisited the scenes where he left the bodies, tending to them until they putrefied too far to allow it.

The miniseries.

Across four, hour-long episodes we sit down to have a conversation with the real Ted Bundy. Using archival footage derived from over 100 hours of interviews with the man himself, the series chronologically tracks Bundy's life, arrests, crimes, escapes and death.

Watch it on Binge

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NT - The Devil Next Door

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The criminal.

Ivan the Terrible was known as the cruellest guard in the Treblinka extermination camp during WWII. He operated the gas chambers sending hundreds of thousands of displaced Jewish people to their deaths. But before he would open the doors, Ivan would make husbands disfigure their wives, mothers mutilate their children and take away any peace they may have found with their loved ones during their final minutes on Earth.

The crime.

Known for his extreme violence and cruelty, it's said that Ivan the Terrible would cut off workers' ears as they toiled, watching as they slowly bled to death. The notorious guard took pleasure in running the gas chambers of the Treblinka extermination camp during the Holocaust becoming responsible for the end of hundreds of thousands of lives.

The miniseries.

An unassuming Ukrainian immigrant named John Demjanjuk living in the USA is accused of being the infamous Ivan the Terrible. Throughout the series, we follow his trial in Israel for the horrific crimes he is accused of. His family and legal team band behind him, but is it enough to counter the damning evidence?

Watch it on Netflix

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VIC - McMillion$

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The criminal.

'Uncle Jerry' as he was known orchestrated the largest lottery fraud ever documented. But he managed to get enough people to do his dirty work for him.

The crime.

The completely fried story of how one man rigged McDonald's Monopoly to the sum of millions.

The miniseries.

The undeniable truth is that true crime can be kind of funny. You couldn't make up the characters in this real-life cat-and-mouse game. Follow along as we learn about Uncle Jerry, his wives, crime families, and the annoyingly simple way one man managed to rig the most heavily guarded prizes in Maccas Monopoly. Nuggets are essential viewing snacks.

Watch it on Binge

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WA - Clean Torture: An American Fabrication

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The criminal.

A country, taking advantage of criminals, mistreating them and taking away their humanity. Does being in prison mean you stop having basic human rights?

The crime.

Once WWII ended, the US became enamoured with the Soviet's alleged ability to get confessions out of people. They theorised that this could only happen one way - brainwashing.

Using a collection of amoral academics and doctors, the Central Intelligence Agency began work on techniques to break the human spirit without leaving any physical trace. 

The documentary.

Victims and perpetrators discuss the USA's use of torture to secure confessions in prisons. Compiled in the Kubark Manual in 1963, these techniques went on to be used in Afghanistan, Guantanamo, Iraq, and at black sites across the world. Today, some are still employed on terror suspects on American soil.  

Watch it on Binge

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