The real story behind Truman Capote's true crime classic In Cold Blood. It's Sunday morning and the Clutter family is expected at church. Susan Kidwell enters the back door, looking for her friend Nancy. The absolute horror she discovers instead will become one of the most infamous crimes scenes in American history. Soon the house is crawling with police, investigating the bodies of all four members of the Clutter family - each of them hog-tied and executed at point-blank range with a shotgun. The small town of Holcomb and the American public at large reel from the implications of the crime-that no small town, no family, no matter how respectable or how upstanding, is ever completely safe. As tireless detectives mount a nationwide search for the perpetrators, they face what might be the most chilling prospect imaginable-that there was no substantial motive in the murders, that the Clutters died needlessly, killed in cold blood.

Panic and terror grip Chicago after the brutal and ritualistic killings of two women and a ten year old girl. A message-scrawled on the wall of one of the crime scenes in red lipstick- fans the flames of the town's anxiety: "For heaven's sake catch me before I kill more..." Amidst the public furor, both the police and the local newspapers are desperate to give the people what they demand: someone to blame. If that happens to be the actual murderer, wonderful. If not...so be it.

Dear Sir... begins an elegantly written, meticulously detailed ransom note. And with the note's arrival the fears of Jacob and Dora Franks are confirmed. Their beloved ten-year- old son, Bobby, has been kidnapped. Among the wealthiest families in Chicago, the Franks are able to enlist the help of the top investigative minds in the city. But the investigation takes a tragic turn when, to the Franks' horror, Bobby's body is found in a city park, stripped naked and burned with acid. The detectives struggle to find any leads, with their only piece of physical evidence being a pair of eyeglasses found near the body. Eventually, the investigation leads them towards a baffling pair of suspects-wealthy, well-educated, excitement-seeking college students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb - the original Amerian thrill- killers.

In December 1968 real estate heiress Barbara Jane Mackle is kidnapped and buried alive in a purpose-built plywood box with a life-support system.

Pearl O'Loughlin notices something unusual during her morning routine-her step-daughter Leona has left for school without eating her breakfast. The day wears on and Pearl's worst fears are confirmed-Leona never made it to school at all, and is missing without a trace. Soon, Pearl's bad day spirals into deeper horror when her husband Leo, a Denver detective, is hospitalized. A poisoning plot is revealed and suspicions turn on Pearl herself. Investigators peer into the fraught dynamics of the O'Loughlin family as they attempt to understand who could have wished to do Leo harm, and what happened to his daughter. They face the chilling possibility that someone might be trying to eliminate the entire family - maybe even from within the walls of the O'Loughlin home.

On quiet back roads, just out of earshot from the noise and the glitter of 1950s Los Angeles, love-addled teenage couples park their cars at night to be alone. But these steamy lovers' lanes are suddenly transformed into nightmarish hunting grounds when a lone predator, posing as a cop, begins to terrorize the teenagers and assault the young women in the cars. The LAPD is only able to get a vague description of the suspect- an African-American male. A former LAPD officer named Todd Roark, recently fired from the force, is fingered as the suspect and the case appears to be closed when Roark is arrested. But Detective Danny Galindo-a Mexican-American cop in a nearly all-white department-isn't convinced. The assaults continue, and Galindo races to find the man responsible and clear Roark's name. To do so, he'll navigate the oddball world of Hollywood special effects and face the entrenched racism of his colleagues at the LAPD.

Pearl O'Loughlin notices something unusual during her morning routine-her step-daughter Leona has left for school without eating her breakfast. The day wears on and Pearl's worst fears are confirmed-Leona never made it to school at all, and is missing without a trace. Soon, Pearl's bad day spirals into deeper horror when her husband Leo, a Denver detective, is hospitalized. A poisoning plot is revealed and suspicions turn on Pearl herself. Investigators peer into the fraught dynamics of the O'Loughlin family as they attempt to understand who could have wished to do ...

Morning sunlight filters through shelves of tightly packed carburetors, air filters and brake kits as Dan Schindler enters the grungy storefront of Bradshaw Auto Parts on the outskirts of Salt Lake City. He's looking for a replacement part for a friend's truck - but instead finds something that will haunt him for the rest of his life: the twisted, blood-soaked body of the store's 76 year old owner, Franklin Bradshaw. The sprawling murder investigation that ensues takes detectives from Salt Lake City to rural Texas and the high society world of Manhattan. In so doing, they discover a vast, secret web of money and power lurking behind Franklin's modest, blue-collar appearance. To find his killer, they dig into the strained history of the Bradshaw family - and uncover a hotbed of deceit, manipulation and all-consuming greed.