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| Steven Avery from Making a Mrderer |
Documentaries
and retellings of real murder cases and crimes seem to be the new international
trend in crime genre.
During Christmas I watched the documentary series
"Making a murderer" on Netflix. True Crime series like this is as
fascinating as they are addicting. One of those who made the most impression on
me was "The Staircase" which is offering a rare and revealing inside
look at a high-profile murder trial against author Michael Peterson. “Paradise Lost” is another fascinating documentary. The same is “Murder on a Sunday morning”. Two of the latest documentaries that have received considerable
attention worldwide are “The Jinx” and the podcast “Serial”.
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| In cold blood |
True Crime is not a new phenomenon. In November 1959 Truman Capote went to the small town of Holcomb to see and describe the scene of
the murder of farmer Herbert Clutter and his family. During a few days he got
to know everyone who was involved in the investigation of the massacre, and
most of the residents in the small town. After the arrest, he visited the two
killers in prison and in the months that followed, he spent hundreds of hours
with them. The unique story he was told became the documentary novel "In Cold
Blood". The book came out in 1966, a year after the death sentence was executed.
It was an international success and is considered one of the first examples of
the genre True Crime.
While it is somewhat sensationalized by this
"peeping", it also has an empathetic side. We want to know something
about the people who cause suffering, about people suffering, and about the
people who are trying to create some kind of order in the whole. And in the
wake of a crime the really big themes in life up often show up: love and hate,
betrayal and justice, guilt and atonement.
And it is undeniably fascinating to get a piece of
insight into a sick mind, as Capote gives us in “In cold blood”. We are getting
a little closer to answering the question most law-abiding citizens will ask
them self when they hear about an incident like the one in Holcomb in 1959: How
is it possible?
Many of the true crime successes of recent years
have also had a clear critical look at prosecutors and the judiciary. "Making a
Murderer" is just a recent example. In all these cases, some of those who are
supposed to administer justice in our society, failed on the coarsest. Some
have lied, been one-eyed or blind, have been cowardly and evasive - and at home
on the couch in front of the TV, we feel pretty confident that we'd acted more
heroic and truthful in a similar situation.
Jorn
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