Plot Synopsis

Using news archive with audio interviews, each one-hour episode of THE CRIMES THAT CHANGED US focuses on one true-crime story that's been seared into the American consciousness. These stories are a part of how we look at society, good and evil. But what happens if we could go back in time -- or back in crime -- and look again? By re-immersing the viewer in these cases as we experienced them at the time, this series chronicles the evolution of how these cases were perceived by the public then and how we view them now, exposing how the times have changed, and revealing the lessons learned from each case. Episode topics include: Andrea Yates, whose postpartum mental illness leads her to believe that the only way to save her children from damnation is to methodically drown all five of them, one by one; the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Bombing, where a security guard discovered pipe bombs and cleared the area to minimize fatalities; and more.