The Best Netflix Serial Killer Docs

From 1976 to the summer of 1977, a mysterious killer with a .44-calibre revolver terrorised New York City. Although victims varied, the killer mostly targeted couples in parked cars and sent ominous letters to police and journalists, signed by the “Son of Sam.” 

During the summer of ‘77, one of the most infamous manhunts in New York’s history took place, resulting in the arrest of David Berkowitz. Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes uses interviews with detectives and survivors alongside newly unearthed records from interviews the journalist Jack Jones held with Berkowitz in 1980 that give new insight into the manhunt and the troubled mind behind the crimes.

If you’re keen to delve more into the Son of Sam story from a different perspective, check out Netflix’s equally compelling The Sons of Sam: A Descent Into Darkness, which explores the compelling and shocking theory that Berkowitz did not act alone. 

This chilling docuseries uncovers the heinous crimes committed by John Wayne Gacy between 1972 and 1978. A seemingly normal family man living in the quiet Chicago suburb of Norwood Park Township, Gacy was later convicted of torturing and killing 33 young men between the ages of 14 and 21.

The John Wayne Gacy Tapes expose the serial killer’s complete lack of remorse in never-before-heard audio interviews recorded after his arrest and feature interviews with investigators and journalists close to the case. It also gives a good amount of focus to the victims, honouring their lives and the impact their deaths had on their friends and families.

Between 1978 and 1991, the deeply disturbed serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer murdered and gruesomely dismembered 17 young men. After his final victim managed to escape and alert law enforcement, Dahmer was apprehended, and the full extent of the horror he had inflicted for decades was discovered. 

In The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, archival audio recordings from interviews with Dahmer himself are used to try to make sense of how a human psyche can become so deeply corrupted. Netflix’s popular dramatisation from Ryan Murphy, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, starring Evan Peters as the serial killer, similarly and controversially, tries to get under Dahmer’s skin, but nothing is quite as chilling as hearing him for real on The Dahmer Tapes. 

Fred and Rose West are two of the most notorious British serial killers in history. The married couple, who were arrested in 1994, were convicted of the murders of 12 girls and women between 1967 and 1987 at their residence in Gloucester. Some of the victims included their own children and lodgers, and the documentary Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story exposes their crimes through interviews with the investigators, lawyers, and archival footage with some of their family members, including the eldest son, Stephen West. 

In addition, the docuseries features police recordings with both Fred and Rose after they were apprehended, giving viewers a deeply disturbing look into the minds of these two individuals, as well as the failings of law enforcement to act sooner.

This terrifying four-part docuseries explores the intense police manhunt for the “Night Stalker” who terrorised Los Angeles and San Francisco between 1984 and 1985 by torturing and killing people in their homes. In ‘85, Richard Ramirez was caught, and he was finally convicted on 12 counts of murder and other related crimes in 1989. 

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer provides a disturbing look into Ramirez’s traumatising youth and his subsequent descent into violence and depravity. It also takes viewers into the frustrating and pressure-filled investigation to find the killer, not knowing when he would strike again.

While most serial killer documentaries tend to focus on the murderers in an attempt to understand why they committed such heinous crimes, Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer flips the script and focuses largely on the victims and their friends and families. The killer, Rex Heuermann, was only caught in 2023 after murdering several women along the Gilgo Beach area of Long Island’s Suffolk County between 1993 and 2011. 

This documentary, more than any of the others, examines the heavy emotional impact of the murders that went unsolved for so many years, casting a critical eye on how law enforcement and the media handled the killings when they happened.

The Ripper is a four-part docuseries that delves into the investigation and subsequent capture of the Yorkshire Ripper. Between 1975 and 1980, the serial killer brutally murdered 13 women in West Yorkshire and Manchester. He was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper due to the similarities between his crimes and those of the infamous Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper. 

Peter Sutcliffe was finally caught in 1981 and charged with the murders. The series documents the events that took place through interviews with survivors, family members of the victims, journalists, and investigators who worked to crack the case. As a piece of social history, it’s also a damning indictment of victim-blaming culture, especially for sex workers – something that sadly continues to this day.