Inspired By A True Story

June 17, 1971. A 13 year old girl is dropped off at a bus stop in Alvin Texas. Never seen alive again, her body was found on November 26, 1971. Just a few months later, another body was found mere yards away. Thus begins the sordid tales of the Texas Killing Fields. In 2011, a film is released that is focused on these Texas Killing Fields, but goes in a wildly different direction. True is often st...

August 28,1955. Young Emmett Till is kidnapped in the middle of the night. His eventual death will change the course of events in civil rights for decades to come. In 2022, Danielle Deadwyler portrays the mother of this young boy, Mamie Till-Mobley, in one of the most powerfully underrated films of this decade. 70 years was not so long ago, and Till was sadly inspired by a true story.  Listen to t...

November 13, 2000. A polish man leaves work for a meeting with a client, and is never seen alive again. How his murderer is caught is nothing short of fascinating. In 2016, Jim Carrey portrays a version of the detective who eventually brought this killer to justice in a completely different way. Always remember that print and the internet are forever, because Dark Crimes was indeed inspired by a t...

March 1, 1949. Police are notified by surrounding neighbors that a local woman and her two-year-old daughter are missing, which leads to a basement full of horrors and the arrests of two despicable people. The couple at the heart of these horrors, who came to be known as the Lonely Hearts Killers, are later revisited in not one but TWO movie interpretations of these events.  Love is not always exc...

January 6, 1994. Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is viciously attacked on the eve of her Olympic qualifying competition at the 1994 US figure skating championships. In 2017, director Craig Gillespie showcases Margot Robbie as the alleged conspirator of this attack, Tonya Harding. Lace up before hitting this ice, because I, Tonya was Inspired By A True Story.  Listen to this episode of the Inspired By...

December 26, 1996. John and Patsy Ramsey wake to find their daughter, JonBenét Ramsey, missing, and a ransom note on the stairs. Hours later, JonBenét's body would be found INSIDE the house. To this day, no murderer has been named. In 2016, Lifetime attempted to tell this story with conflicting information, and in 2024, Netflix released a dive into the case from the family's perspective. Always ch...

December 7, 2003. A beloved young boy sets off to take a bus ride on a journey to buy his parents Christmas presents and is never seen alive again. In 2022, Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris starred in a film that focuses on the police investigation that led to the perpetrator's eventual arrest, which left the family of the victim in complete disdain. An incredible tale that seems almost impossible, y...

September 13, 1978. Cheryl Bradshaw, a drama teacher, takes a trip to The Dating Game , where she asks potential suitors random questions that lead to an eventual date. One of those contestants, is a serial killer. In 2024, Anna Kendrick renames the film's lead Sheryl and offers up her directorial debut with Woman of the Hour , recapturing these same events in creatively intense ways with a unique...

September 1975. Suffering from either psychosis or demonic possession, a young woman begins undergoing an exorcism that will lead to her eventual death. In 2005, director Scott Derrickson delivers a film based off of these true events that posits the question of what is good and what is evil? It's time to put everlasting battle between God and the Devil on trial, this is the story behind The Exorc...

October - 1973. The Perron Family have moved into a dream of a home. Unfortunately, it allegedly harbored a dark, evil secret and for the next decade. This family claimed to be tortured by a malevolent spirt, and they were begging for help, and Ed and Lorraine Warren, a pair of paranormal investigators, were more than happy to oblige. In 2013, renowned horror director James Wan reinvents history i...

May 1, 1990. Greggory Smart is found murdered in his own home, the victim of an apparent burglary gone wrong. Shortly after, his wife, Pamela Smart, is charged with his murder, committed by the 15 year old boy she was having a sexual affair with. In 1995, Nicole Kidman's stars in Gus Van Sant's To Die For , a wild retelling of these same events, complete with a much darker outcome. Listen to this...

October 26, 1881. Four men, armed with guns, long coats, and badges, rolled up to a lot near the OK Corral to disarm several miscreants looking for trouble. What happened next became the most infamous gunfight in American history. In 1993, Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer star as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday in one of the greatest westerns of all time. Grab your horses and load your revolvers, because T...

November, 1986. A young woman, beaten and disheveled, has run from lawn to lawn screaming she has been raped, and for anyone to call the police. This woman, this hero, finds herself ultimately responsible for bringing down two of Australia's most notorious serial killers. In 2016, writer and director Ben Young creates a film frighteningly close to the real story of Kate Moir's tragic encounter wit...

June, 1983. A young woman gets into a car expecting a simple exchange of sex for money. Instead, her horrific ordeal and fight for survival leads to the capture of Alaska's most notorious serial killer, Robert Hansen, known as the Butcher Baker, a man believed to have murdered at least 17 women. In 2013, Nicolas Cage and John Cusack reunite determined to take on this tale and pay respect to the vi...

July 1, 1981. A brutal attack at 8763 Wonderland Avenue in Los Angeles leads to the bodies of 4 people, and one clinging to life. At the center of the investigation is a coked out porn star. In 2003, director James Cox recounts these events with Val Kilmer taking on the role of porn legend John Holmes. We are about to go down the rabbit hole known as the Wonderland murders. Be careful where you sw...

June, 1964. Three young men took part in Freedom Summer, a 3 month initiative to register black people in the South to vote. Then suddenly, they went missing. In 1988, director Alan Parker recreated these events in a phenomenal film that became nominated for Best Picture, and starred the talents of Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, and Gene Hackman. It's hard to believe, but this was only 60 years...

In 1990, a widow meets a kindly young man at her husband's funeral, and the two immediately kick up an engrossing friendship. This man eventually takes on the widow's entire multimillion dollar estate, up and 6 years later, when a body is found in a deep freezer.  In 2011, director Richard Linklater takes on the task of painting Bernie Tiede in the most positive of lights, under the darkest of cir...

February 22, 1946. A young couple in Texarkana, Texas pull over for a little loving, and  are forced out of their car by a man wearing a hood with two slits for eyes. The carnage that followed terrified an entire community for months, and eventually became known as the Moonlight Murders.   In 1976, Director Charles B Pierce recreates these crimes in a quasi documentary style. Be mindful where you...

The Sound of Freedom was based on events in 2014, when a former Department of Homeland Security agent partners with Columbian authorities for an undercover sting targeting traffickers of children sold into sex slavery. In 2023, Jim Caviezel stars as this man, Tim Ballard, in a dramatic reenactment of this operation, which brought with it millions in box office success, and plenty of controversy. K...

November 13, 1974. Amityville, Long Island. A man, Ronald DeFeo Jr., bursts into a bar screaming that his parents have been shot. What the police later find in this man's home will terrify and haunt an entire community. One year later, George and Kathleen "Kathy" Lutz move their family into that same home, and almost immediately begin to notice strange occurrences throughout the property, includin...

April 8, 2009. The U.S. cargo ship Maersk Alabama disembarks on a journey to Kenya, led by Captain Phillips. It would not arrive as scheduled due to an attack by Somali pirates, that would lead to several people dead.  In 2013, Tom Hanks takes on the role of Captain Richard Phillips in a film that garnered 6 Oscar nominations and left everyone pointing and saying, I'm the Captain now.  Be careful...

December 7, 1971. Five bodies have been discovered in a New Jersey mansion. They have all been brutally murdered. But the husband and father is nowhere to be found.  In 1987, Lost's Terry O'Quinn starred in a film revolving around a serial killer in search of the ideal American family. A man who would kill anyone whom dare challenge his vision of perfection. Be careful who parents your children be...

January 26, 1996. An Olympian wrestler is gunned down in his own driveway located on Foxcatcher Farm, in front of his wife, for seemingly no reason at all. The perpetrator turns out to be someone of wealth and privilege. In 2014, Steve Carrell gives a career altering performance as the man who pulled the trigger, starring alongside Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo. Be careful who you work for, beca...

1978. Melvin Weinberg and Lady Evelyn Knight have been arrested for fraud, and are facing three years in prison when the FBI presents them with an offer: Come work for us, conning politicians and others into committing crimes by providing favors in exchange for cash, all under the illusion of an Arabian Sheik, and you get probation. In 2013, director David O Russell directs Christian Bale and Amy...

April 2004. A young woman has been called into her bosses office at a small, Kentucky McDonald's at the behest of a police officer's phone call who demands compliance. What follows is a tragedy of astonishing proportions, and crimes that included unlawful imprisonment, sexual deviancy, and sexual assault. In 2012, writer and director Craig Zobel crafted an independent film called Compliance, which...