Joining the SnappedandSnapped: Killer Couples family is Snapped: She Made Me Do It. In this series, women are the masterminds who solicit men to help them commit murder, convincing these men to help them kill not only the women’s spouses, but sometimes their parents or other victims.
Some cases bring up the question of who really orchestrated the murder: Did these women “make” others do their dirty deeds, manipulating them to do so, or were the men the ones truly responsible? Of course, these co-perpetrators try to place the blame on the women and absolve themselves of any guilt.
Not as compelling as Snapped and Killer Couples, the focus on women—and their wily ways when it comes to murder—still makes Snapped: She Made Me Do It an interesting watch.
Love the drama of mean girls? Mean Girl Murders takes mean to its ultimate conclusion
About Mean Girl Murders
Those mean girls. We love to hate them. And when they kill, we love to watch the cases. Take the case of Skylar Neese, so shocking that it was covered by a bunch of shows, including Dateline, Snapped, and See No Evil. High school mean girls murdering one of their classmates? Sounds like a compelling premise, but Discovery+’s Mean Girl Murders doesn’t quite deliver on the stereotype.
Some of the episodes in this true crime show take you back to the days of high school, with the complicated drama and catty back-biting, falling squarely into the mean-girl stereotype. Others, however, feel shoved into the mean-girl box, when they don’t really qualify. A rodeo queen who murders her father? Not quite.
The absence of a true mean-girl slant makes Mean Girl Murders a pretty run-of-the-mill true crime show, with the usual elements like re-creations, narration, and stories from detectives and families, using the trope of the mean girl to draw audiences in. Unfortunately for all its promise, it falls a bit short.
The Show Elements
Seasons: 1 (2022-)
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Discovery+
Women who kill multiple spouses and finally get caught
About Black Widow Murders
Female killers seem to be so much more…fascinating. Maybe it’s their general rarity in comparison to men (women commit about 12 percent of the murders in the US), maybe it’s their methods of murder, or maybe it’s the stereotype that women are the gentler sex, a stereotype that has been proven so very wrong by shows like Black Widow Murders.
This true crime show delves into homicide cases involving women who have murdered multiple romantic partners, gaining them the “black widow” label.
These women kill using various means, from poison, to murder-for-hire, to guns, and the show includes commentary by psychologists, reporters, and crime writers who covered the cases, as well as testimonials by investigators and victims’ loved ones.
As one of the psychologists from the show notes, these women are serial killers who murder people they know, unlike male serial killers who usually kill strangers. Just as sociopathic, but these women are doing things their own way.
(Note: This site contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
Women commit about 12 percent of the murders in the US, and people want to know about them. From Snapped to Killer Couples, Deadly Wives to Deadly Women to Wives with Knives, and Dateline NBC to Meet, Marry, Murder, female killers get equal time in true crime shows. And in Murder She Solved, the spotlight is on the female investigators who solve murders.
Snapped
Thought women don’t kill? Snapped proves otherwise. Snapped is a long-running show featuring 31 seasons of murders perpetrated by women through various means, from poisoning, to stabbing, to gunshots, to murder-for-hire. It balances narration, re-creations, and the victim’s and suspect’s background and relationship with interviews with detectives, prosecutors, and victims’ families and friends, sprinkling police interviews and trial clips into the story.
The draw of the show is its ability to show how a relationship can devolve and how detectives discover that it isn’t what it first appears to be. Episodes in Seasons 1-23 detail the suspect’s background first; recent seasons tell the victim’s life story first.
Suggested episode: A special 90-minute episode, Season 26, Episode 15 features the case of Sheila Davalloo, a pharmaceutical researcher who not only murdered her romantic competition but also attempted to kill her husband. Davalloo tells her side of the story in a prison interview.
Produced by the same folks who make Snapped, this show (also called Killer Couples) focuses on couples who kill together, mostly heterosexual, with plenty of women taking the lead. Episodes delve into cases involving love triangles, spree killings, serial killers, murder for financial gain, and others.
Suggested episode: Season 3, Episode 9 covers the famous Canadian killer couple of Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, who tortured, sexually assaulted, and killed at least three victims.
While Dateline doesn’t only focus on female killers, its dedication to murders of romantic partners qualifies it for this category. Plenty of women hire others to kill or do their own dirty work.
Dateline includes episodes with other investigative pieces than murder (such as the recent Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation case), but it mostly concentrates on true crime.
Although it can sometimes be predictable, the writing leaves the audience wondering until the end as to the identity of the murderer. Dateline’s storytelling and the correspondents’ empathy for victims’ families and friends, makes it a standout in the genre. Correspondents like Keith Morrison often interview suspects before or after conviction, and their hard-nosed questioning is a highlight.
Suggested episode: Dateline has covered many well-known cases, from the Kathleen Peterson case to the Gianni Versace murder, but the lesser-known ones can be just as compelling. Try “The Real Thing About Pam” (Season 30, Episode 22), which is the same case from the Dateline podcast and NBC fictional series, or “The Ascension of Mother God” (Season 30, Episode 4).
Meet, Marry, Murder features disturbing homicide cases committed by one spouse against the other, often preceded by domestic abuse or coercive control, and women are just as likely to be the abuser.
Episodes concentrate on couples from the US and UK and rely on detectives recounting their investigations, along with outside experts like psychologists, former detectives, journalists, criminologists, attorneys, and domestic abuse specialists, who succeed at emphasizing the seriousness of the situation and the dangers of domestic abuse. They not only detail the story, but also the psychology behind the murder, suspect, victim, and their relationship.
Suggested episode: Season 1, Episodes 9 and 42 provide dual coverage of the Kathy Augustine murder by her husband Chaz Higgs and the murder-suicide involving her daughter, Dallas Augustine, and Dallas’ wife.
Where to stream: Tubi, True Crime Network, Peacock, The Roku Channel
Deadly Women answers the question: Do women kill? Yes, they most certainly do. It tells stories of female murderers using all sorts of methods, from poisoning, to stabbing, to guns, just as well as men, if not as prolifically.
Deadly Women groups episodes by theme, such as greed, jealousy, forbidden love, obsession, revenge, and the like, even historical murders, which are not usually covered in other series, and those from countries outside the US. Some of the cases are detailed elsewhere (see Snapped, for example), but Deadly Women presents them using dramatized re-creations, with dialogue, that emphasize the murders themselves, rather than the subsequent investigations.
Suggested episode: Season 3, Episode 8, “Fatal Obsession,” includes the murder of pregnant woman Bobbie Joe Stinnett by a killer who wanted to steal her unborn child.
Where to stream: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Discovery+
At first, Deadly Wives might come across as just another murder show about women who kill, but its draw is the sarcastic narration of actress Christine Estabrook, who delivers the writing with disbelief and an almost audible rolling of her eyes. She comments on trial testimony with asides like “Wait, you’re gonna love this one.” This short-lived show has episodes with 1-2 stories each that scrutinize the lies, alibis, and excuses of wives involved in killing their husbands. The police interview these deadly wives, and prosecutors cross-examine the ones brazen enough to take the witness stand, providing a lighter take on intimate partner homicide and trading suspense and cliffhangers for barbs that might shock some viewers and delight others.
Suggested episode: Season 1, Episode 10 (“Opposites Attract”) includes the murder of Bruce Cleland by his wife and her cousins, along with the murder of Becky Klein by her wife.
Stabbing is the method of choice in this true crime series about female murderers and attempted murderers. Each episode gives viewers an inside look at one case and the motives of a wife or girlfriend who stabbed her romantic partner. The show centers on the stories of the wives themselves, who give their version and provide interviews with criminologist and criminal behavior analyst Casey Jordan, who also adds psychoanalytic commentary.
Wives with Knives also brings on the wives’ families and friends, who detail the context of their lives and background. The show intersperses the competing sides of the story with dramatized re-creations (with dialogue) that tell the story event by event, focusing on what led up to the murder, in some cases abuse, and the murder itself, without a lot of information on the investigation that followed. The show’s unique presentation of both sides of the story makes it a fascinating watch.
Suggested episode: In “Demons, Drugs and Darkness” (Season 2, Episode 4), a woman who battles schizophrenia and meth addiction stabs her ex-boyfriend.
Murder She Solved emphasizes a different side of the coin: investigations involving female detectives, pathologists, and others (like private investigators, forensic scientists, and criminal profilers), who share their experiences solving homicides in the United States and Canada. It eschews fancy prose or cliffhangers and gets right down to business with the details of investigative techniques for each case, from forensics to undercover operations. Hit men, friends, spouses, and strangers kill, and female detectives solve the case.
Suggested episode: In “Never A Doubt” (Season 3, episode 4), the wife of a man wrongfully convicted for killing his mother-in-law investigates the case herself and finds the real killer.
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, True Crime Network
Produced by the same folks who make Snapped, this true crime show (also called Killer Couples) has a similar format to Snapped but focuses on couples who kill together, mostly heterosexual, with plenty of women taking the lead in the murders.
Episodes delve into homicide cases involving love triangles, spree killings, serial killers, murder for financial gain, and others. It blends narration, re-creations, interviews with detectives and victims’ loved ones, and police interviews and trial clips to show how two people can inflame each other’s motivations and desires, or one person can pressure another, to the point that they kill together.
Knives are the weapon of choice for these murderous women
About Wives With Knives
Stabbing is the method of choice in this true crime series about female murderers and attempted murderers. Each episode gives viewers an inside look at one case and the motives of a wife or girlfriend who stabbed her romantic partner.
Wives with Knives centers on the stories of the wives themselves, who give their version and provide interviews with criminologist and criminal behavior analyst Casey Jordan, who also adds psychoanalytic commentary.
Wives with Knives also brings on the wives’ families and friends, who share details about the context of the women’s lives and are featured more than the victims or their family and friends. The show intersperses the competing sides of the story with dramatized re-creations (with dialogue) that tell the story event by event, focusing on what led up to the murder, in some cases abuse, and the murder itself. It omits long descriptions of the investigation that followed, excluding the detectives and prosecutors involved for the most part. The show’s unique presentation of both sides of the story makes it a fascinating watch.
Killer women are the focus of this long-running true crime series
About Snapped
Thought women don’t kill? Snapped proves otherwise. Snapped is a long-running true crime show featuring 31 seasons of murders perpetrated by women through various means, from poisoning, to stabbing, to gunshots, to murder-for-hire. It balances narration, re-creations, and the victim’s and suspect’s background and relationship with interviews with detectives, prosecutors, and victims’ families and friends, sprinkling police interviews and trial clips into the story.
The draw of the show is its ability to show how a relationship can devolve and how detectives discover that it isn’t what it first appears to be. Episodes in Seasons 1-23 detail the suspect’s background first; recent seasons tell the victim’s life story first.
Women murderers take center stage in these homicide cases
(Note: This site contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
About Deadly Women
DeadlyWomen answers the question: Do women kill? Yes, they most certainly do. It tells stories (usually three per episode) of female murderers using all sorts of methods, from poisoning, to stabbing, to guns, just as well as men, if not as prolifically.
Deadly Women groups episodes by theme, such as greed, jealousy, forbidden love, obsession, revenge, and the like, even historical murders, which are not usually covered in other true crime series, and those from countries outside the US. Some of the cases are detailed elsewhere (see Snapped, for example), but Deadly Women presents them using dramatized re-creations with dialogue that emphasize the murders themselves, rather than the subsequent investigations.
Along with detectives from some of the cases, a stock group of experts provides insights, primarily former FBI profiler Candice DeLong and forensic pathologist Janis Amatuzio. DeLong analyzes the murderer’s behavior and the pathology behind it, while Amatuzio discusses the effects of certain homicide methods on the body. They are joined by a variety of historians, who detail the stories of the older cases, sometimes centuries-old.
The Show Elements
Seasons: 14 (2008-2021)
Where to stream: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Discovery+
Marriages turn deadly in this show about killer wives
About Deadly Wives
At first, Deadly Wives might come across as just another murder show about women who kill, but its draw is the sarcastic narration actress Christine Estabrook, who delivers the writing with disbelief and an almost audible rolling of her eyes. She comments on trial testimony with asides like “Wait, you’re gonna love this one.”
This short-lived true crime show has episodes with one to two stories each that scrutinize the lies, alibis, and excuses of wives involved in killing their husbands. The police interview these deadly wives, and prosecutors cross-examine the ones brazen enough to take the witness stand.
The show provides a lighter take on intimate partner homicide and trades suspense and cliffhangers for barbs that might shock some viewers and delight others.
True Crime Docket 