We wish these were fiction... Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be looking at the best feature-length documentaries about real-life crimes—no multi-part series, please. And there will be spoilers!
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00:00 They said, "Well, it has to be all three of you guys, or it's nobody."
00:04 And, um, so we, you know, we looked at each other, we was like, "Well, guess it's nobody."
00:09 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the best feature-length documentaries about
00:13 real-life crimes. No multi-part series. And there will be spoilers.
00:19 He, he, he stole that part of them, and they're all struggling to get it back.
00:27 Number 10. Operation Varsity Blues. The College Admission Scandal.
00:31 This documentary tells a tale of corruption and fraud in American education.
00:36 Wealthy parents were charged with bribing universities to accept their children.
00:40 Among the 50 charged were famous actors like Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.
00:45 At the heart of the scam were former coach William "Rick" Singer and John Vandermoor.
00:49 If you want, I can provide John Vandermoor with a check. I can send him your $500,000
00:54 to secure a spot for one of your girls. Director Chris Smith used wiretap transcripts
00:59 and blogs to piece together the story, along with reenactments.
01:03 Not gonna tell the IRS that, you know, that Mark took the test for Isabella, the Gordy.
01:07 Right, yeah. Or the Gordy, you know,
01:10 we paid Gordy to help get into Georgetown, right? Smith also got the participation of Singer's
01:15 former business associate to find out information on the coach. All in all,
01:19 this documentary is eye-opening in exposing the ways the wealthy game the system.
01:24 We're here today to announce charges in the largest college admissions scam
01:28 ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice.
01:30 Everyone knew Lonnie. He was a good neighbor, someone to turn to for help.
01:38 Documentaries about serial killers are not unusual, but director Nick Broomfield's film
01:43 about the murderer called The Grim Sleeper also highlights perceived indifference by the police
01:47 in capturing the killer. Relating the story of Lonnie Franklin Jr., eventually charged in 2010
01:53 with murdering 10 young black women, it includes activists who claimed police weren't motivated
01:58 because many of the victims were poor drug users or sex workers.
02:01 Franklin took a 14-year hiatus from killing, earning him the nickname "Grim Sleeper" when he
02:16 resumed. And he thought it was fun. He laughed, gave me that little funny grin, or he winked
02:22 the eye at me. Eventually, he was arrested on a felony charge unrelated to his murders.
02:26 But that gave the department a DNA sample which finally led to his arrest.
02:30 Broomfield's film reveals this chilling but all-too-familiar tale of murder,
02:43 systemic indifference, and racial bigotry.
02:49 This award-winning film is another blood-curdling expose on institutional indifference.
02:53 This time, it concerns the most heinous of crimes committed by people sworn to protect and defend.
03:07 Utilizing countless interviews by veterans, director Kirby Dick investigates endemic
03:12 sexual assault in the military.
03:14 "So the minute a female shows up at my work, she's immediately pounced on.
03:18 All of the new females get talked about."
03:20 The victims include soldiers assaulted by their own servicemen,
03:23 only to be disbelieved and even retaliated against.
03:26 "When we went to one of the higher-ups, the chain of command, they were all like his,
03:32 his drinking buddy, and they, they told me just because I didn't like somebody,
03:35 they weren't going to switch me away from this guy."
03:38 Due to military hierarchy, many have even had to report their assault to their own attackers.
03:44 As a result, few assailants are prosecuted and convicted.
03:47 Invisible War not only sheds light on toxic aspects of military culture,
03:51 but also on flaws in our own culture.
03:54 "You can't ask women to serve and then say, 'Oh, by the way,
03:57 if you get in one of these horrendous situations, we won't be there to back you up or to help you.'"
04:02 Systemic abuse and cover-ups are not just confined to the military.
04:08 This documentary follows the crimes of Larry Nassar,
04:11 a doctor who sexually assaulted hundreds of women, many of them young female gymnasts.
04:16 "I was like, 'Wait a minute, this doctor used to do very similar things to me.'"
04:23 Starting in 2015, Maggie Nichols, Rachel Denhollander,
04:27 and Jessica Howard, among other gymnasts, accused Nassar of mistreatment.
04:32 "Now we're, now we're talking three people, and these women didn't know each other.
04:36 How many more could there be?"
04:39 It turned out that allegations of carnal assault went back years,
04:42 covered up by Steve Penny, the USA Gymnastics CEO.
04:47 Penny was eventually charged with evidence tampering, though the charges were later dismissed.
04:52 Directors Bonnie Cohen and John Schenk follow reporters from the Indianapolis Star
04:56 as they investigate the case against Nassar.
04:58 "I know that means that if the DA picks it up, I'll be testifying with great detail in open
05:02 court in front of him, knowing that we both have the same memories. And I hate that idea. I hate it.
05:08 But if I don't, he can continue."
05:11 By the time Nassar was convicted, more than 260 victims had accused Nassar of gross mistreatment.
05:17 "When you take the ability to love and express love from somebody and
05:22 take it away or damage it, it profoundly affects their psyche."
05:26 Number 6. Amanda Knox
05:28 It was a case that had captivated the whole world.
05:37 Amanda Knox, an American exchange student living in Italy,
05:40 was convicted twice of murdering her roommate.
05:43 "Either I'm a psychopath in sheep's clothing, or I am you."
05:50 In this documentary, directors Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn allow Knox
05:54 to tell her own side of the story.
05:56 "The knife, I could not explain. There was no reason for my DNA to have been on a handle
06:03 and Meredith's DNA to have been on the blade. It was impossible."
06:07 Despite evidence suggesting another perpetrator, the Italian police investigated Knox and her
06:11 then-boyfriend for their unusual behaviors. Tabloids followed suit, demonizing Knox as a
06:17 femme fatale obsessed with sex and the occult. And, as it turned out, Chief Prosecutor Giuliano
06:22 Mignini had a history of baseless and sexist theorizing, as well as abuses of power.
06:28 In the end, Knox spent four years in Italian prison before she was finally acquitted in 2015.
06:34 "But you're trying to find the answer in my eyes, when the answer's right over there.
06:39 You're looking at me. Why?"
06:41 Number 5. The Inventor. Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.
06:46 "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first
06:50 step, right? And this is, this is the first step."
06:54 This film follows infamous entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos,
06:58 which promised to diagnose 200 diseases with just a few drops of blood.
07:03 Hailed as a wunderkind, Holmes managed to convince investors in the value of
07:06 Theranos' Edison machine. There was one small problem. Edison did not work.
07:12 "Pieces of the device would literally fall off in the middle of testing.
07:15 Centrifuges exploding inside of it and things like that."
07:19 Undeterred, Holmes and her team ignored bad news on the machine's efficacy.
07:23 "They strictly told us, 'Stay at your desk.' They didn't want any of us down there because
07:28 they were scared if the inspectors saw what was going on, that could have huge consequences."
07:32 Director Alex Gibney investigates Holmes' motives. Was she an arrogant idealist or a cynical fraud?
07:39 Either way, Holmes' hubris left a trail of victims and at least one self-inflicted death in her wake.
07:45 There are some crimes that are truly so bizarre they are stranger than fiction.
07:53 "And I always said, 'You're the reason I was born to be your mom.'"
07:57 The murder of Dee Dee Blanchard by her daughter Gypsy Rose Blanchard was the result of some truly
08:02 horrific abuse. Blanchard convinced people that her daughter was ill, when in fact, Gypsy Rose was
08:08 in perfect health. "And her goal is some kind of emotional gratification, looking for sympathy,
08:15 attention, care." Blanchard went so far as to insert a feeding tube into her daughter and have
08:21 her use an unnecessary wheelchair. Desperate to escape, Gypsy Rose and her then-boyfriend carried
08:26 out the murder. Dee Dee Blanchard was so unstable that her own relatives were not at all sad to see
08:32 her go. "What you want me to do with the ashes? Everybody said, 'I don't want her.'"
08:36 Gypsy Rose is now out on parole, no doubt scarred by her ordeal.
08:42 "I'm sorry for it. I feel bad for it. Um, it just feels good to be honest."
08:50 Number three, The Imposter. Another bizarre true crime is the subject of this lauded 2012 documentary.
08:56 "So, told him he had to walk home. And that's, was the day, the last time we heard from him."
09:07 Nicholas Patrick Barkley, a teenager from Texas, disappeared in 1994, but apparently reappeared
09:13 three years later in Spain. "Was it him? I said, 'Yeah, he said, 'I love you.' Oh, and then she
09:19 started crying on the phone." "Well, you start crying and you tell him, 'We're gonna come get
09:24 you and bring you home.'" But as it turns out, the man was an imposter, French impersonator Frédéric
09:30 Bourdain. "I was thinking to myself that Nicholas Barkley could come back at his house any day.
09:35 That was my first worry. I was really worried about that." He altered himself to look like
09:42 Nicholas, fooling even Barkley's own mother. Bourdain was eventually arrested thanks to the
09:46 work of investigators, but that is not the end. "And as I looked at the picture, I noticed that
09:52 the boy had blue-gray looking eyes, and this man had brown eyes." Bourdain alleged that the family
09:58 killed Nicholas. Their acceptance of Bourdain was an attempt to cover up their crime. Director Bart
10:04 Layton shows all the sides of the story and leaves us with the question, "Was this family
10:08 truly the victims of an unrepentant conman, or is there something more sinister at work?" "I saw them
10:14 as a very questionable family. There'd be no reason for them to accept a stranger into their lives."
10:22 "Unless there was something to hide." Number two, "The Thin Blue Line." This is the film that
10:29 changed the way documentaries were made forever. "I get up, I go to work on Saturday, you know,
10:35 why did I meet this kid? I don't know. Why did I run out of gas at that time? I don't know."
10:40 Errol Morris' film follows the case of Randall Dale Adams, accused of shooting Dallas police
10:44 officer Robert W. Wood in 1976. Although all the evidence pointed to 16-year-old David Harris,
10:51 Adams was the one convicted and sentenced to death. Morris' use of reenactments and a cinematic
10:57 style deviated from the standard verite style of documentaries. "And that's the man, and she
11:02 waved her finger right toward Randall Adams. She's the one that got him convicted." As a result,
11:07 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences refused to consider it for Best Documentary.
11:12 Morris' film also managed to secure a confession from Harris himself via voiceover. "If you could
11:16 say why there's a reason that Randall Adams is in jail, it might be because of the fact that he
11:24 didn't have no place for somebody to stay that helped him that night." Finally, Adams was released
11:30 after 12 years in prison. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell
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11:46 [Music]
11:48 Number 1. The Central Park Five. Most people have heard of the infamous 1989 case of five
11:55 black and Latino teenagers wrongly accused of gang assault. Browbeaten into making false
12:00 confessions, the teens were convicted. "Confessions will trump DNA. Confessions will change witnesses'
12:07 testimony. Confessions are irresistibly persuasive and almost the effects can't be reversed."
12:14 The real criminal, Matias Reyes, finally confessed to the assault, supported by DNA evidence. By then,
12:20 however, the five teens had largely served their sentences, between seven and 13 years.
12:26 "If you watch the videotaped confessions, it turns out they actually don't know where the crime took
12:33 place, they don't know when it took place, and they don't know how it took place." The Central Park
12:38 Five exposes the racial and class divides that led to this miscarriage of justice. Not only that,
12:44 it also tells this grisly history through the point of view of the five teens themselves.
12:48 "When I was released, best feeling in the world, you know, I said, 'Wow, you know, I got a fresh
12:56 start. I can try to pick up, put my life back together.'" "Yeah, he came home, and I was happy
13:03 he was home, and all that." The now exonerated men filed a lawsuit against the city of New York,
13:08 which eventually agreed to a settlement after several years resistance. Which true crime
13:14 documentary was truly better than any fiction? Let us know in the comments down below.
13:18 "She was punished enough to where they should let her go free."
13:24 [Music]