True Crime Gets the Hollywood Treatment

From haunting homicides to elaborate scams, audiences can’t get enough of real-life horror stories and the people involved in them

- LEANNE ACIZ STANTON

Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Anna Delvey. Erik and Lyle Menendez. Over the last few years, killers and con artists have gone from names you hear in the news to figures more akin to celebrities with reality shows, hundreds of thousands of social media followers and everyday people invested in every aspect of their lives, from their marriages to what they're eating behind bars.

According to a June 2024 YouGov survey, 57 percent of American adults consume true-crime content, and the entertainment industry has long drawn inspiration from the world's most infamous cases (think: the Zodiac Killer and Ted Bundy). But this current crop of criminals aren't so black-and-white.

Case in point: Blanchard. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for her role in the killing of her mom, who experts believe had Munchausen by proxy. In 2019, Hulu gave the story the Hollywood treatment in The Act.