Murderous History

In the aftermath of the Nazi Blitz, a body is found in a bombed-out London church. It appears to be another civilian casualty of the insidious German campaign, but detectives soon piece together an even darker theory... that someone used the war to try and cover up a heinous act of murder. Travel back to 1942 as we examine the case of Rachel Dobkin. Then follow investigators as they overcome the technological limits of the era and pioneer new forensic methods that not only solve the crime but forever change the way police track criminals.

By the late 1800s, Chicago had transformed from a swampland off Lake Michigan to the second-biggest city in the U.S. In just a decade, its population doubled to over one million; one of its new arrivals was a doctor named H.H. Holmes, often described as "America’s first serial killer." Travel back to 1893 and discover the story of a villain who confounded the police and the press and whose legacy continues to haunt the city to this day. Then discover how careful police work finally brought this ruthless murderer to justice.

It's November 1828. Police Sergeant Major John Fisher of the newly formed Edinburgh Police Force is on the hunt for a woman who has gone missing from a local lodging house. She is finally discovered, dead in the cellar of a leading anatomist, yet the doctor is not a suspect... not for murder anyway. Instead, the investigation turns to the lodging house owner, uncovering a macabre competition between local medical schools for human cadavers, and the "Resurrection Men" who supplied them by digging up graves... or worse.

It's late 1940 and every Berliner's attention is focused on the success of the Luftwaffe's Blitz on Britain. But a very different kind of attack is happening right under their noses. A serial killer is on the loose, attacking women along the S-Bahn overground rail system. While the Nazi propaganda machine buries the story to protect its image of a pure, idyllic Germany, an SS detective puts his extraordinary skills to work, using early forensic science and psychological profiling methods to nab the murderer before he strikes again.

Britain in the 1890s is a world leader, but while some prospered, many were left behind with no safety net. Perhaps no one was more vulnerable than unwed mothers, who were stigmatized, usually poverty-stricken, and often forced to make devastating choices. Discover a dark underworld in Victorian England where "baby farming"—childcare networks where infants were treated as salable commodities—was widespread and helped give rise to a serial killer more murderous than Jack the Ripper, yet far lesser known.

July 23rd, 1977. Claudia Rodrigues, the well-off sister of a popular actress, attends a party in a trendy neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. What happens next will spark a national scandal and become Brazil's crime of the century. Witness this high-profile case as it unfolds, featuring the playboy son of a watch company tycoon, the Jogo do Bicho mafia, lots of cocaine, and a successful local detective known as the "Brazilian Barretta," who must battle Rio's powerful and corrupt forces in order to bring Claudia's killers to justice.