Plot Synopsis

From the devastatingly bombed streets of London to industrial Chicago to Nazi Berlin, each one-hour episode of MURDEROUS HISTORY captures criminal investigations to prove that everything is not always what it seems. This six-part series steps back in time to examine the most gruesome and compelling murder mysteries of the past 200 years, viewed through the lens of the eras and cities in which they took place. Using re-enactments, the series follows determined investigators and complex perpetrators while revealing how each case made its own mark on history. They happened in times of war and peace, during daylight and darkness, and to victims old and young. These are the stories of the most heinous murders of the 19th and 20th centuries, some which have faded from memory and others that continue to haunt their host cities to this day. Join us as we travel back to some of history's defining moments when detectives had to overcome the limited tools of their era -- and often invented new forensic techniques on the fly -- in a race to catch the killers before they struck again.
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On Sunday, May 30, 2021 at 9pm ET/PT, Smithsonian Channel premiered "Rio's Playboy Killers," the season finale of MURDEROUS HISTORY, exploring how the 1977 murder of Claudia Rodrigues cast a light on Rio's drugs trade, police corruption, and abuses of power.