Plot Synopsis

A CRIME TO REMEMBER unravels the intricacies of real-life murder cases of the '50s and '60s, telling each story from the perspective of a ficitional bystander who "knew" the victim, while using dramatic recreations and interviews with reporters who covered the case. Set against the backdrop of Studebakers, fedoras, and three-martini lunches, these stories reveal complicated relationships where thwarted dreams and repressed passions led to terrible crimes. Each story is driven by the narrative of a fictional bystander who "knew" the victim, while reporters who covered the case explain how the crime and investigation impacted society. While murder might have been the same back then, the world was very different: scientific technology was limited; relationships were complicated, but pretended not to be; and murder was often seen as a better way out of a marriage than divorce. And for an essentially all-white, male-dominated police force operating in a gumshoe world, sometimes it was more about what someone looked like rather than what they did that determined guilt. Each one-hour episode featured a different story, including: Alice Crimmins, who was found guilty of murdering her two children in Queens, NY in 1965, despite flimsy circumstantial evidence, by a jury of 12 married men; Newsweek researcher Janice Wylie and schoolteacher Emily Hoffert, who were found dead in their apartment in New York, NY in 1963, with the NYPD so eager to get a conviction that they overlooked a key detail; Judge Curtis Chillingworth and his wife, who disappeared after a party in West Palm Beach, FL in 1965, with the police later unravelling a tale of corruption, moonshine, and the Cuban lottery; the passengers of United Airlines Flight 629, which exploded in mid-air after leaving Denver, CO in 1955, because of an elaborate murder plot from a twisted mother/son relationship; the first nationally known serial killer, who killed six young females from various southern Michigan universities from 1967-69, before a rookie cop infiltrated the closed society of college fraternities; and Ann Woodward, who admitted to accidentally pulling the trigger on a gun that killed her husband, Billy, in New York, NY in 1955, leading to disastrous consequences when New York society closed ranks. On Tuesday, November 11, 2014 at 10pm ET/PT, Investigation Discovery aired the Season 2 premiere of A CRIME TO REMEMBER. The season opener, "38 Witnesses," chronicles the story of Kitty Genovese, who was raped and stabbed to death outside her Kew Gardens apartment building in Queens in 1964, as her neighbors watch and do nothing, introducing America to the bystander effect. Subsequent episodes document the stories of these people: Ruby McCollum, the wife of the wealthiest African-American in all of Live Oak, FL in 1952, who is responsible for the murder of beloved Dr. Leroy Adams, a son of the Confederacy; Candy Mossler, who finds her multi-millionaire husband, Jacques, stabbed to death in their apartment in Key Biscayne, FL in 1964; Charles Whitman, who went on a shooting spree from tower at University of Texas in 1966; Lucille and Cork Miller, who are in a car crash in San Bernardino, CA in 1964 -- but only half of the evidence suggests it was an accident; Charles Schmid (aka The Pied Piper of Tucson), who strangled his girlfriend, Gretchen Fritz, when she threatened to break up with him and expose his past; and many more landmark crimes in America. Season 3 of A CRIME TO REMEMBER premiered on Tuesday, November 10, 2015 at 10pm ET/PT on Investigation Discovery. In the season opener, "Lock Up Your Daughters," a local reporter in Gaffney, SC, receives a mysterious phone call in 1968 from a murderer who threatens to kill again, Gaffney police must race against the clock to try to save the town's teen girls. Subsequent episodes in Season 3 feature these stories: Roseann Quinn, a kind, bookish schoolteacher for deaf children, is found brutally murdered in her Upper West Side apartment in 1973; a strange man enters the home of nursing students and systematically tortures, rapes, and murders eight young women in Chicago in 1966; a lovely Easter Sunday turns deadly when Veronica Gedeon and two others are discovered murdered in New York City in 1937; and many more true-crime stories of yesteryear. One day before the Season 3 premiere, Investigation Discovery unveiled its ACrimeToRemember.com immersive experience, a digital and interactive collage that highlights the crimes that defined the times. This project marks ID's first foray into virtual reality with a 360 virtual crime scene where users can navigate a crime scene of the era by the touch of their mouse or a turn of their phone. After they find all the clues and get the real facts, users can enjoy living photographs, view a behind-the-scenes look at the series and get sneak peeks into this season's cases. Season 4 of A CRIME TO REMEMBER premiered on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 at 9pm ET/PT on Investigation Discovery, exploring eight tragic stories of truly mad men and women whose thwarted dreams and repressed passions spiraled into terrible crimes spanning the roaring '20s through the 1970s. In the premiere episode, titled Teenage Wasteland, the quaint town of Lincoln, Nebraska is turned upside when the body of a service station attendant is found lying in the open road. Murder is rare in the Heartland, and the crime leaves the community stunned. But the terror doesn't stop there - shortly after, a young family is found dead in their home and their teenage daughter is missing. Police suspect two love-struck, sex-crazed teens are behind the rampage, and everyone from local farmers to the National Guard takes up arms to find them before they strike again. Subsequent episodes each feature one of the following stories: when Patricia Jones' body is discovered on the side of lovers' lane in Kansas City, MO, in 1960, police focus their investigation on her husband; Mrs. Nelson rises from her morning coffee and is stunned to find her neighbor, Carol Thompson, severely wounded lying on the doorstep, gasping for breath and clutching a silk robe over her body in St. Paul, MN, in 1963; Thalia Massie, the young aristocratic wife of a Naval Lieutenant, wanders out of a glittering speakeasy and winds up bruised and beaten by the side of a dark road in Honolulu, HI, in 1931; a friendly afternoon tea turns into a murder scene, stumping investigators about how a reclusive young woman was killed while playing hostess in Bronx, NY, in 1941; a policeman responding to a report of gunshots at the well-appointed home of wealthy manufacturer Fred Oesterreich lets himself inside, only to discover Fred shot dead in Los Angeles, CA, in 1922; three adults and two children are found ritualistically bound, shot, and drowned in their own swimming pool in Santa Cruz, CA, in 1970; and the headlights of a yellow sports car are blazing, the engine is running and beautiful Cheryl Perveler is bleeding out from a gunshot to the head in Los Angeles, CA, in 1968. On Saturday, February 10 at 10pm ET/PT, Investigation Discovery premiered the fourth season of A CRIME TO REMEMBER. The season opener, "Once Upon a Crime," reveals the story behind Truman Capote's classic "In Cold Blood" -- when the four members of the Clutter family are brutally murdered, detectives mount a nationwide search for the killers and face the chilling prospect that they died for no reason whatsoever.
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Investigation Discovery premiered "Mother's Little Helper," the Season 4 finale on Saturday, April 7, 2018 at 10pm ET/PT. After the blood-soaked body of 76-year-old Franklin Bradshaw is found behind the counter of his auto-parts store, detectives dig into the strained history of his family -- and uncover a hotbed of deceit, manipulation and all-consuming greed.