The True Crime Podcasts Keeping Us Up At Night

There are a lot of morbid people out there who love to hear about terrible crimes; and I’m one of them. I devoured Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood (twice) as well as the Manson family biopic Helter Skelter. I was Netflixed and chilled to the bone watching Making a Murderer and the recent Amanda Knox documentary. I can also often be found at the bar recounting the Moors murders and as a kid I asked my grandparents to regularly drive past a garden near their house where a body was once found.

My somewhat morbid fascination with grisly, awful events is deep-rooted in a constant fear of being murdered (I used to watch Crimewatch far too regularly and as a result have more than once imagined by own reconstruction on the walk home from the pub.) However, I also think I’m just quite curious about the dark realms of human behaviour, and it would seem I’m not alone. Ever since Serial burst into our ears two years ago, gaining 1.5 million listeners per episode, the rise of the true crime podcast has been stratospheric, with many enjoying the investigation and re-telling of some of the world’s most infamous and unknown crimes.

From the forensic to the implausible and downright spine-chilling, here’s a pick of the best podcasts out there, for every type of criminal appetite....