Women commit about 12 percent of the murders in the US, and people want to know about them. From Snapped to Killer Couples, Deadly Wives to Deadly Women to Wives with Knives, and Dateline NBC to Meet, Marry, Murder, female killers get equal time in true crime shows. And in Murder She Solved, the spotlight is on the female investigators who solve murders.
Snapped
Thought women don’t kill? Snapped proves otherwise. Snapped is a long-running show featuring 31 seasons of murders perpetrated by women through various means, from poisoning, to stabbing, to gunshots, to murder-for-hire. It balances narration, re-creations, and the victim’s and suspect’s background and relationship with interviews with detectives, prosecutors, and victims’ families and friends, sprinkling police interviews and trial clips into the story.
The draw of the show is its ability to show how a relationship can devolve and how detectives discover that it isn’t what it first appears to be. Episodes in Seasons 1-23 detail the suspect’s background first; recent seasons tell the victim’s life story first.
Suggested episode: A special 90-minute episode, Season 26, Episode 15 features the case of Sheila Davalloo, a pharmaceutical researcher who not only murdered her romantic competition but also attempted to kill her husband. Davalloo tells her side of the story in a prison interview.
Where to stream: Peacock, Hulu
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Snapped: Killer Couples
Produced by the same folks who make Snapped, this show (also called Killer Couples) focuses on couples who kill together, mostly heterosexual, with plenty of women taking the lead. Episodes delve into cases involving love triangles, spree killings, serial killers, murder for financial gain, and others.
Suggested episode: Season 3, Episode 9 covers the famous Canadian killer couple of Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, who tortured, sexually assaulted, and killed at least three victims.
Where to stream: Peacock
Read the full profile of Snapped: Killer Couples
Dateline NBC
While Dateline doesn’t only focus on female killers, its dedication to murders of romantic partners qualifies it for this category. Plenty of women hire others to kill or do their own dirty work.
Dateline includes episodes with other investigative pieces than murder (such as the recent Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation case), but it mostly concentrates on true crime.
Although it can sometimes be predictable, the writing leaves the audience wondering until the end as to the identity of the murderer. Dateline’s storytelling and the correspondents’ empathy for victims’ families and friends, makes it a standout in the genre. Correspondents often interview suspects before or after conviction, and their hard-nosed questioning is a highlight.
Suggested episode: Dateline has covered many well-known cases, from the Kathleen Peterson case to the Gianni Versace murder, but the lesser-known ones can be just as compelling. Try “The Real Thing About Pam” (Season 30, Episode 22), which is the same case from the Dateline podcast and NBC fictional series, or “The Ascension of Mother God” (Season 30, Episode 4).
Where to stream: Peacock, Hulu
Read the full profile of Dateline NBC
Meet, Marry, Murder
Meet, Marry, Murder features disturbing homicide cases committed by one spouse against the other, often preceded by domestic abuse or coercive control, and women are just as likely to be the abuser.
Episodes concentrate on couples from the US and UK and rely on detectives recounting their investigations, along with outside experts like psychologists, former detectives, journalists, criminologists, attorneys, and domestic abuse specialists, who succeed at emphasizing the seriousness of the situation and the dangers of domestic abuse. They not only detail the story, but also the psychology behind the murder, suspect, victim, and their relationship.
Suggested episode: Season 1, Episodes 9 and 42 provide dual coverage of the Kathy Augustine murder by her husband Chaz Higgs and the murder-suicide involving her daughter, Dallas Augustine, and Dallas’ wife.
Where to stream: Tubi, True Crime Network
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Deadly Women
Deadly Women answers the question: Do women kill? Yes, they most certainly do. It tells stories of female murderers using all sorts of methods, from poisoning, to stabbing, to guns, just as well as men, if not as prolifically.
Deadly Women groups episodes by theme, such as greed, jealousy, forbidden love, obsession, revenge, and the like, even historical murders, which are not usually covered in other series, and those from countries outside the US. Some of the cases are detailed elsewhere (see Snapped, for example), but Deadly Women presents them using dramatized re-creations, with dialogue, that emphasize the murders themselves, rather than the subsequent investigations.
Suggested episode: Season 3, Episode 8, “Fatal Obsession,” includes the murder of pregnant woman Bobbie Joe Stinnett by a killer who wanted to steal her unborn child.
Where to stream: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Discovery+
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Deadly Wives
At first, Deadly Wives might come across as just another murder show about women who kill, but its draw is the sarcastic narration of actress Christine Estabrook, who delivers the writing with disbelief and an almost audible rolling of her eyes. She comments on trial testimony with asides like “Wait, you’re gonna love this one.” This short-lived show has episodes with 1-2 stories each that scrutinize the lies, alibis, and excuses of wives involved in killing their husbands. The police interview these deadly wives, and prosecutors cross-examine the ones brazen enough to take the witness stand, providing a lighter take on intimate partner homicide and trading suspense and cliffhangers for barbs that might shock some viewers and delight others.
Suggested episode: Season 1, Episode 10 (“Opposites Attract”) includes the murder of Bruce Cleland by his wife and her cousins, along with the murder of Becky Klein by her wife.
Where to stream: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video
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Wives with Knives
Stabbing is the method of choice in this true crime series about female murderers and attempted murderers. Each episode gives viewers an inside look at one case and the motives of a wife or girlfriend who stabbed her romantic partner. The show centers on the stories of the wives themselves, who give their version and provide interviews with criminologist and criminal behavior analyst Casey Jordan, who also adds psychoanalytic commentary.
Wives with Knives also brings on the wives’ families and friends, who detail the context of their lives and background. The show intersperses the competing sides of the story with dramatized re-creations (with dialogue) that tell the story event by event, focusing on what led up to the murder, in some cases abuse, and the murder itself, without a lot of information on the investigation that followed. The show’s unique presentation of both sides of the story makes it a fascinating watch.
Suggested episode: In “Demons, Drugs and Darkness” (Season 2, Episode 4), a woman who battles schizophrenia and meth addiction stabs her ex-boyfriend.
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, Discovery+
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Murder She Solved
Murder She Solved emphasizes a different side of the coin: investigations involving female detectives, pathologists, and others (like private investigators, forensic scientists, and criminal profilers), who share their experiences solving homicides in the United States and Canada. It eschews fancy prose or cliffhangers and gets right down to business with the details of investigative techniques for each case, from forensics to undercover operations. Hit men, friends, spouses, and strangers kill, and female detectives solve the case.
Suggested episode: In “Never A Doubt” (Season 3, episode 4), the wife of a man wrongfully convicted for killing his mother-in-law investigates the case herself and finds the real killer.
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, True Crime Network
Read the full profile of Murder She Solved
