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True Crime Garage
Best of True Crime 2025 ////// 895
00:47:05
Happy New Year! True Crime Garage is wishing the very best in health, happiness, and prosperity for you, yours, and everyone in 2026! We are kicking the year off in a traditional fashion by discussing some of the highlights of last year. In this episode Nic and the Captain discuss their favorite True Crime Documentaries of 2025. Ready for a night on the couch with some popcorn and true crime? Well, we have you covered.
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- [00:01]
Nick
Protein is now at Starbucks and it's never tasted so good. Try our all new caramel protein lattes with up to 31 grams of protein and options with no added sugar. Level up, level up. Level up. Level up. Level up. Level up your drink at Starbucks. Special Agent Will Trent, ABC Tonight you run from the dark. That's why it chases you. Get out of my house.
- [00:23]
Captain
The hit series Will Trent is back.
- [00:25]
Nick
Will, this is a manhunt, not a.
- [00:27]
Captain
Murder that needs to be solved.
- [00:28]
Nick
And the truth, this man killed my mother and left me to die is out. I think if we don't catch this guy, then he's going to go off the deep end of control.
- [00:37]
Olivia McKenzie
They won't even see you coming.
- [00:38]
Nick
I have to end this.
- [00:40]
Captain
Will Trent season premiere tonight, 8, 7 Central on ABC and stream on Hulu.
- [01:25]
Nick
Welcome to True Crime Garage, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick. And with me, as always, is a man who knows that Florida football is just a ploy to sell food. Here is the captain and man, oh.
- [01:39]
Captain
Man, I'd like a chili dog. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
- [01:50]
Nick
This week we are drinking Wake Me up by Weedman Brewing Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. Wake Me up is a hazelnut coffee milk stout. And we all could use some waking up after the holidays. And if there ever was a beer to bring you out of your long winter's nap, it is this delicious coffee stout right here, ABV 6.5% garage grade three and three quarter bottle caps out of five. And let's give some thanks and praise to our good friends and some new year holiday cheers to our good friends that helped us fill up the old garage fridge for this week. First up, a shout out to Ryan Newhart from Cheshire, Connecticut.
- [02:35]
Captain
And a big we like your jib goes out to Katrina from Rutland, Vermont.
- [02:39]
Nick
Next up, we go international captain with the cheers to Tara in London, Ontario, Canada. And also up in Canada, we have a triple cheers to Katie, Finn and Maddox from Aurora, Ontario. Everyone we just mentioned, near and far contributed to this week's beer fund. And for that, we thank you.
- [03:01]
Captain
Yeah, yum, yum. Get you some BW Double Run Beer Run. Go to truecrimegarage.com Sign up on the mailing list and you'll be in the know. And Colonel, that's enough of the business.
- [03:13]
Nick
All right, everybody, gather round, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime foreign. We want to welcome everybody into the new year 2026. Never thought I would make it this far, but here we it and here we stand together. And guess what? When it comes to true crime, you have been listening. We have been listening, but we've also been watching. And today we wanted to ring in the new year and celebrate 2025 with some of our favorite true crime viewing pleasures of 2025. These would be documentaries and dramatizations of real life true crime stories. And what a great year it was for those of you on streaming services. Really a lot to choose from and to watch this year. It was hard for me to narrow it down to just three today, Captain, but both of us are going to offer up three for the beautiful listeners. And these are coming with a strong recommendation to sit down and watch with your friends when you have the opportunity. If you don't mind there, captain, I will kick things off with my third favorite of the year of 2025. And this was a documentary on Netflix. This one was a surprise to me. I'm not going to lie. I'm a little out to lunch when it comes to knowing that these documentaries are going to come out. I thank you and I also thank some of the folks following me on X, because it's usually you or somebody on X that will inform me that, hey, next week or later this month, there's this documentary coming out on case A or case B. And usually I'm getting notified when it's a case that we've covered, especially when people can hear it in my voice that it's a case that I'm passionate about. This was a case that I knew very little of. It was one of those moments for me. I love when you find the surprise right when you, when you sit down.
- [05:55]
Captain
Open up that Cracker Jack box and you find the surprise.
- [05:59]
Nick
Some of the best movies and shows that I've watched in this lifetime come about that way where it's a surprise. Where I sit down, I'm like, this will probably be okay. It'll fill some time and entertain me for the evening. This one was, was a surprise to me. I actually sat down with the thought that I would probably be turning it off within 15 or 20 minutes. And that didn't happen. In fact, it made my top three. So my third favorite of 2025 was a documentary. It's the perfect name neighbor from Netflix. This one. What I loved about it was this reminded me of, well, hold on.
- [06:40]
Captain
We should tell the listeners. There might be some spoilers, right? Correct, Correct. So you have been warned.
- [06:48]
Nick
Yes, true. When. But When I sit down to watch a true crime documentary, I usually they. They give away quite a bit in the trailer. Yeah, One, and then two. I usually anticipate that we're going to be dealing with a murder of some sort, whether it be unsolved or solved or what have you. But this one, the perfect neighbor. The thing that I loved about it the most was it reminded me of being a kid and when I first got captivated by the show Cops, right? Bad boys, bad boys what you gonna do?
- [07:21]
Captain
What you gonna do when they come for you?
- [07:23]
Nick
Bad boys, bad boys that show, while I'm not going to sit here and say that that show was like brilliant or highly educating or anything like that, it was groundbreaking.
- [07:36]
Captain
They could have called the show the dumbest people on earth.
- [07:39]
Nick
It was groundbreaking. As far as back when that show came out, we didn't have live TV outside of sports or much in the way of reality tv, if you will. Right. And that. And Cops very much was that. And it was like train wreck reality tv. Right. You can't turn away from it.
- [07:58]
Captain
It's.
- [07:59]
Nick
It's Cops. Show up to the trailer park to arrest the boyfriend who's been slapping the girlfriend, and then she's screaming, don't take him away. I love him. I love him. You know, it's.
- [08:09]
Captain
We shouldn't laugh about that. But one of my favorite parts about Cops as a kid was like, the amount of people that would, you know, can you step outside, sir, so we can talk to you? And they're not wearing a shirt. There was just a lot of people that was talking to the cops that didn't have a shirt on, maybe didn't even have pants on. And then I also loved when there was a chase.
- [08:32]
Nick
All the car chases on Cops are incredible.
- [08:34]
Captain
No, I'm not even saying car chase.
- [08:36]
Nick
I'm talking about all the foot chases through people's backyard.
- [08:39]
Captain
Elementary school showdown, foot race.
- [08:42]
Nick
Oh, that's crazy. Now that I think about it, I don't know which one I like better, the car chase or the foot chase. I like when they pin the guy down and he's like, in a field, but they don't know where he is in the field. And so they just send in the dog and the dog gets the guy.
- [08:57]
Captain
My favorite is when they get the guy down and he's clearly resisting arrest. And he's like, hey, man, you're hurting me. And they're like, well, stop resisting. He's like, I'm not.
- [09:08]
Nick
But he's still resisting the car chase, too. When they have to when they have to take the car out. Like, the guy's just refusing to stop, and now he's burned up two or three of the tires, and he's just driving on the rims. Yeah, they have to. They're like, you know what? We're just gonna have to slam into this guy at some point. All right, we got a little off here.
- [09:30]
Captain
Hey, do what we want. And in 2026, this show does what it wants.
- [09:35]
Nick
But that's why this movie, this documentary, to me, the Perfect Neighbor was so good and so captivating.
- [09:42]
Captain
Now, hold on one second. I just. I have to tell you the truth. I haven't watched this one yet, even though I've been told 100 times you need to watch this one.
- [09:52]
Nick
Well, the thing that makes it unique is that I would say 95% of it is from body cam footage from the cops. So you're. This is not. None of this is scripted. Right. And it's. It's so unfiltered because it's. It's not a documentary in the way that we are used to them. This is just a collection of the body cam footage. And I say 95% because there are some news clips that are added to the film. But the body cam footage is. I think it's so brilliant because it allows the viewer to see the cops showing up on scene. And in the scene, they're taking the complaint, then they're addressing the person that the complaint is against. And so in every situation and scenario, you are just. It's like you're sitting on the shoulder of the cop and just viewing it, and you are allowed to decide for yourself what you think has happened in that particular scenario or who is at fault. And it's very appropriately named because it's all about a dispute between a group of neighbors. It's from a recent incident that took place in the summer of 2023 down in Ocala, Florida. And I won't get too deep into the specifics of it. This is one that the body cam footage is incredible. There's a lot of moments, too, where if you're watching it with other people, where you are very much inspired to hit Paul's and kind of add your opinion to what you just witnessed. It's one that I watched with a couple of people, and it took us a while to get through it because we found ourselves pausing to kind of discuss things that we were viewing as we went along. So it was really a fun experience. And then to add to the credibility of this documentary, the. When it Premiered. This was at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Back in January of 2025, it won the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival. It was a limited theatrical release in October and then globally released on streaming on Netflix on October 17th. It was one that I think I watched it probably late October, was at dinner with friends that weekend and brought it up and they had everything I just said, the reasons why I liked it. They shared those same opinions. So this was it all is sort of based around not just this body cam footage, this neighborhood and sort of these squabbles going on in the neighborhood, but it also has a lot to do with Florida stand your ground laws as well. So my number three pick here, Captain, is the perfect neighbor. And that one is still available to watch on Netflix.
- [13:00]
Captain
Yeah, like I said, that's definitely has been on my list to watch. But as you know, my friend, some, some weeks we get done with the show and we got to get on to that next case. And after however many hours you put in that day, sometimes you don't want to turn on a true crime documentary. I think Joe Rogan's podcast says all day all night. Well, sometimes I'm just true crime all day and not all night. And sometimes I'm. I'm just true crime all night. But my number three, I think maybe you'll agree with me and this is just my guess and maybe it's just because of the my friends and the people I know online and. But it seems like every year there's the big true crime doc that everybody watched. So my number three is Amy Bradley is missing. It was a Netflix documentary, I think because we have a little bit of behind the scenes of how these documentaries were made. I think it was shot really well. It was entertaining. I think they told a compelling story. I think it's a three part series, but it kind of reminds me of the style of Unsolved Mysteries. So I feel like if you like Unsolved Mysteries, you'll like this documentary. It's obviously about Amy Bradley going missing in 1998 on a Caribbean cruise ship. She was 23 years old at the time. But I thought it was very enjoyable, very entertaining. And I also kind of like the fact that if you dive into a case afterwards, you, you will see that they don't put everything into a documentary. They leave out some possible storylines or maybe even possible theories of what happened. But this one was kind of surprising. Even though I really liked it, I feel like they left out a lot.
- [15:02]
Nick
Yeah, I agree. I think they left out a lot too. But I think that was pleasantly strategic. I'll label it that because I feel like while it's a story that you could tell in a six to nine hour form.
- [15:18]
Captain
Right.
- [15:19]
Nick
I think I would have checked out two hours into that six to nine hour form. So I think they, you know, while they had to pick and choose some of that, I'm on board with it. And, and then your observation there of Unsolved Mysteries, I think is spot on. It's. For me, I thought it was very much like taking the Unsolved mystery style with the longer format of a Dateline or 20, 20, 48 Hours episode.
- [15:53]
Captain
Yes.
- [15:53]
Nick
And then mashing that together. So, I mean, that is one way of saying that we hold that documentary, the Amy Bradley documentary, in high regard to put it in the names with Unsolved Mysteries and, and all of those other fine outfits. Yes. I, I thought that was a good one. And the, my favorite part of that documentary coming out this year was the conversations that it inspired. I went to multiple places, just out on my daily routine or winding down in the evening. And when I would pop into a place, I would walk by people and hear them talking about the Amy Bradley case. So it inspired a lot of conversations and that was really interesting. And it inspired our conversation with James Renner. Him, he was kind enough with his time to come on our show to talk about the Amy Bradley case. Yeah.
- [16:47]
Captain
And I believe he is working on a book. Maybe it'll be out in 2026. But surprising. Again, we both like this documentary. It's my number three, but Rotten Tomatoes only gives it a 67%.
- [17:03]
Nick
My number two is again from the fine folks over at Netflix. It is a traditional true crime documentary. This one, too. This one I was really surprised by. And this one got me in my heart and in my soul. It's called My Father, the BTK Killer. And it centers around Dennis Raider, the BTK Killer, his daughter, Carrie Rossen. I flipped this one on late one night, thinking I would fall asleep or just shut it off because I feel like I've seen everything under the sun, read everything under the sun about btk to the point where Dennis Raider annoys me for a million reasons. But this documentary really made me feel something for Carrie. Yeah, I liked that. This is weird, man. It felt like therapeutic for me to feel something for her. And it's not that I've had any ill will against Carrie. It was just like I wanted to kind of grab her and go, oh, my God, what you've been through? Yeah, and then to have such strong criticism thrown her way. And look, I'm not going to shy away from it. Folks that have been listening to our show for 10 years know that way back in the first year we were doing this, I did make a comment about Carrie Bros. And she had commented regarding Stephen King. His short story A Good Marriage.
- [18:34]
Captain
Right.
- [18:34]
Nick
Which is a. Is a brilliant piece of literature. But he had said in an interview, the btk, Dennis Raider, his. That story inspired the Good Marriage story. Carrie went on the attack with that and said, look, you know, hasn't he sold enough books? What does he need to exploit our family to sell more books, to make more money? Hasn't he made enough money? And I can tell from her statements in this documentary she regrets that statement. My only critique of her was that statement. Maybe it was just me being a fanboy and enjoying Stephen King's book too much.
- [19:17]
Captain
Right.
- [19:18]
Nick
But I thought that. I'm a believer that most works of fiction are often inspired from real life situations, real life stories. This was no different. The thing with Carrie, though, that I. That I loved about her was I, look, it's not easy for folks to do this. I like to think that I have the ability to do so. But when you're wrong, say you're wrong, and even if it takes you a long time to get there, don't be afraid to tell people, look, I was wrong about this. And that's what she says. She says, Look, 10 years ago, I was very angry. I was very confused. Of course she was angry and of course she was confused. She was blindsided by her father. She woke up one day, the guy that she thought was just a normal dad, boring dad.
- [20:09]
Captain
Yeah.
- [20:10]
Nick
They had raised her, had taken her fishing, had hung out with her, had been the. The disciplinarian, had been the strict parent of the two. And then she wakes up one day and he's the most notorious serial killer of her region.
- [20:27]
Captain
Right.
- [20:27]
Nick
That flew under the radar for decades. I couldn't imagine the shock. And what I could tell from watching her in this documentary is she's still very much in shock. She's still very much confused about the situation. And I point that out because it's not a flaw. It would be weird if she wasn't confused about the situation. Yeah, she's still trying to grapple with the idea of this was just a normal dad for, you know, 20, 30 years. And then he's a light switch flips and he's a monster. Like, how do I reconcile that? How do I. What, what do I do here because I spent the first part of my life loving and respecting this man, and now I don't know who he is, and I have nothing but hatred for him. And then, and then that's all blurred by confusion and emotion is she has been down an incredibly difficult and rocky road, and I don't think that the general public at large has been sympathetic enough to her. No.
- [21:37]
Captain
And I think as true crime enthusiasts, right, people that are interested in this genre, when you see a killer like btk, we have all these questions and we're fascinated by even the littlest details. Well, what kind of car did he drive? What kind of house did he live in? Was he married? Well, what was she like? Oh, he had kids. I wonder how they're going to turn out. And then sometimes I think we forget that. So you got the serial killer. He has all his victims, and all those victims have families and friends, and so they become victims. But also the people that knew that person as something other than a serial killer, like a daughter or a wife, they become. They become victims as well. And I think sometimes we don't show them as much grace as we show the other victims.
- [22:34]
Nick
And the part that I liked about it was it did include enough of the BTK case, right. To inform you enough about the case and what BTK did and the capture of Dennis Raider. It. It gives you just the right amount of that because I. I think there's no way to tell Carrie's story without telling the bigger story of btk.
- [23:00]
Captain
Right.
- [23:00]
Nick
And so I thought it had just the right amount of that in there and how many episodes. I. I feel like it was just one long documentary. I'd have to look it up. It's been some time since I've seen it. But I will go out of my way to say this because I've seen people in the comments regarding Kerry Rossin. Some folks are quick to point out that, hey, you got on to podcasters. You got on you. You were critical of people who wrote books. You're critical of Stephen King saying that it was just a money grab or who are you to tell our. Our story? Look, she's explained that. She said I was angry. I was very angry. I was lashing out. When, you know, when we were kids. A great song by the band 311. Misdirected hostility. Very much. Carrie. Carrie was misdirecting her hostility. She was mad. Who was she mad at? She was mad and angry with her father. Mad and angry at her situation. And yes, she probably took it out on Some podcasters and some authors and things like that. But today, where the folks in the comments come after her and say, look, you. You came after these people and criticized them, and then you went on to release a book, you went on to do a documentary. Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black in that hypocritical. You, my friend, are now doing the misdirected hostility. There's nothing wrong with her writing a book. There's nothing wrong with her doing a documentary. And I'm glad that she has done both. And I'm glad and I'm relieved. And I think it's actually a wonderful thing that she can stand in front of us and say, look, I was angry. I was. I was wrong. I said some things that I regret.
- [24:53]
Captain
Well, I think she needs to grow up a little bit.
- [24:56]
Nick
I give her a lot of kudos for that. And, and I'm hoping. I'm hoping that I. I get the opportunity to meet her at a future crime con or at some future event, because I. I would just like to. Well, no, I would just like to tell her.
- [25:08]
Captain
She slaps you in the face.
- [25:10]
Nick
What she's done is. Takes a level of bravery that I don't think many people out there have.
- [25:17]
Captain
No. And. And she spoke up for Rex Herriman's family because, like, again, this ogre is arrested and we become fascinated with his life and every detail. And then we nitpick that family and how they act. In the BTK case, at least he confessed to the crimes, and so she gets more of the answers. And then in these other cases, these victims, the family of the killers, if they're being lied to by that killer, they're continued to be victimized by that killer. Maybe she doesn't have all the answers or know the full truth, but at least she has a better picture. And then she can, because again, there's going to be a lot of trauma when you think your world is one way and you wake up. And I mean, I couldn't imagine, you know, I mean, I've heard, like, stories that should be somewhat joyful where, like, somebody years down the line finds out that they have a kid that was looking for them and they never knew that they existed. Nobody ever told them. But even those situations, eventually the outcome turns out to be like, well, it's great. I have this daughter I didn't know about, and now I have this new, amazing person in my life. But there's a time period where the whole family is wrestling with this new reality. It's almost a reality shift in a way, but there can be positive reality shifts. But waking up to find out that your father is a sick, sadistic serial killer and that he did these horrible things and it's not like that information about his crimes weren't hard to find and find details about.
- [27:13]
Nick
I should say too here, Captain, that I was surprised there was some information in there that was new to me in this documentary. So where I think I had seen and read and heard it all with btk, there still was more information via this documentary. And once again, that was my father. The BTK Killer Available on Netflix and.
- [27:42]
Captain
We'Ll get back to our list right after this quick beer break.
- [27:57]
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Saving on your education should be a.
- [27:58]
Nick
Right, not a competition.
- [28:01]
Special Agent Rebecca Henderson
At University of Phoenix, you'll get the best scholarship or savings you qualify for.
- [28:05]
Olivia McKenzie
Simple as that.
- [28:07]
Special Agent Rebecca Henderson
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- [28:41]
Nick
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- [31:51]
Captain
All right. Happy new year. Happy 2026. I hope it's the best year of your life, you filthy animals. All right, so my number two and this is one that like I, I actually turned on because I, I mean I heard people were watching this but I, I thought it was just going to be more of a. A silly documentary. It's called Un Unknown Number the High School Catfish. You have a teen girl and you have a. You have her boyfriend. I think it's her first boyfriend. Where they start getting these harassing text messages from an unknown caller. Probably the first like I don't know, maybe 10, 15 minutes. You're just like oh, this is going to be some kind of silly ending. And it wasn't. It was felt really dark. It felt very sad. I know I said the there will be spoilers but if you've seen this, I believe I watched this on Netflix. So if you've seen this on your Netflix dial and you have passed on it, I would give it a watch. I thought that was pretty good. Like with Amy Bradley is missing documentary that was a three part series. Because of the true crime genre blowing up so big in the last 10 years, these producers took a lot of stories that could have been summed up in an hour and a half and turned them into six part series, eight part series, when maybe they shouldn't have been. This is a 1 hour and 34 minute documentary, so you can get through it in one sitting. And it's kind of like what you're saying about the Perfect Neighbor. This is one. As it's going, you stop and you talk to who, whoever you're watching it with, or you just talk to yourself about it. But I thought it, you know, it was well worth the watch. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 85%.
- [33:58]
Nick
Yeah, this is one that I've seen in the queue and have considered watching. It looks good. And yeah, I just haven't got to it yet.
- [34:07]
Captain
When I started it, maybe 10 minutes in, 15 minutes in, you're like, okay, this is a little silly. And I don't even know if I want to keep watching. Just keep watching. It's worth it.
- [34:18]
Nick
My number one here, captain, this one just came out, so maybe it's a little recency bias, okay. But I thought it was really good and the part of it was the opening, okay, this was the exact opposite of the last two, right? Where I said I thought maybe I'd sit down, might lose interest. I sat down with the intention of watching the Perfect Neighbor. The My father, the BTK Killer was just. I had some extra time later that night, wasn't tired yet, decided to put something on this one. I set aside some time to devote to it because watching the trailer, which is the majority of the trailer, is, is really the opening to this documentary and it gets its hooks in you right away where it's just like, all right, I'm going to sit down. I'm watching this. I don't care if it's terrible. I'm going to ride the storm out. I'm going to see it through till the end. And I think the title of it is highly suggestive of that mission to watch the entire documentary. So this was a standalone documentary originally, I believe on Investigation Discovery, the ID channel, which then once at some point becomes absorbed, I believe, by HBO Max. I watched it on HBO Max. How it got there, that's a mystery for another day. Anyway, this documentary is called Unsolved Mysteries. That's right. We'll. We'll have to have a sit down with the, the board members of those outfits. This documentary is titled the Secrets We Bury. And this is about the Carol siblings quest for answers about their missing father. So these kids, they grow up. The opening of the documentary and really a large part of the documentary focuses in on the youngest of the Carol siblings. And he's saying, look, it's that old story of my father went out for a pack of cigarettes one day and he never came home. Yeah, he left us. Mom said he was a bad guy. You can hear it in this guy's voice. He's saying, look, he didn't love us. Or if he did, he'd love something a lot more. He, he loved that thing that he, he left us for more than he loved us. And other than that, I don't know why he left. The youngest one is saying, I think he's 60 or in his early 60s when they're filming the documentary. He was born in that house and he's still living there when they're filming the documentary. I don't know if he ever, I mean, he would have moved out at some point to go off to college. He may have had his own home at some point, but I think later in life he was taking care of his mother and maybe that's how he ended up back, back there. I, I, I don't remember that detail of it, but it was very interesting that this man was living in the home that he was born into, that he grew up in. And he's saying, look, this backyard, this is where we played Wiffle Ball. This is where we had these memories. And the cool part of it is they are, they intertwine old family footage with current day filming from ID or hbo. And so you can kind of you, you get to see how that house in the yard and the property looked way back when and how it looks and compare how it looks today. He never knew his father. He, he doesn't have any memories of his father. And then you have two older siblings who have memories of their father. The, the middle child, he is saying, look, the older I get, the fuzzier it gets, the less memories and the more blurry the memories I have of my dad have become over the years. And so the three, they have this mystery of what happened to their father. It gets complicated very quickly into the documentary when you start hearing this story and how their mother remarried. They didn't like the stepdad too much. The stepdad has a kid with their mom who they still are, you know, their siblings with still to this day. It gets very difficult for me to give too many details here on this story without giving anything away. But the Secrets We Bury is a very appropriate and really the perfect title for this documentary. Again, it's a single standalone documentary, I think just under two hours, but it's really a story about uncovering not just the questions and the mysteries of their vanished father.
- [39:31]
Captain
Right.
- [39:31]
Nick
Revealing a darker family history than they had suspected and really deep seated secrets within this family and the family's history and especially about the father's disappearance. It's so brilliantly done. You know, I know we referenced earlier that the the Perfect Neighbor received the directing award at the Sundance Festival. The thing that I thought was so brilliant about this documentary was this is such a complicated story to tell. You have to be a freaking genius to be able to lay this out in, in such the masterful way that they did. So I want to give a shout out to Patricia Gillespie. She's also done a documentary called they Called Him Mostly Harmless. Some folks listening will know that one. Patricia Gillespie, you did a masterful job on this one, in my opinion. This one I would sit down and, and watch again. It's complex, it's shocking. It really, I think, challenges the viewer. By the end, it sticks with you and it has you still while it answers a lot of questions, it has you coming up with your own questions once you're able to absorb and take in all the information.
- [40:58]
Captain
And you said that one was on hbo.
- [41:01]
Nick
Correct.
- [41:02]
Captain
So that kind of is a nice segue into my number one, the king, the original king of true crime docs, I would say hands down, was hbo. But this one comes to us by the way of Peacock. And if you would have told me two or three years ago that Peacock was going to do some great true crime documentaries, I don't know if I would have believed you. But this one I thought was great. And we were talking before we did the list. Well, it could be a true crime documentary or it could be like a biopic. And as I'm looking this up to talk about it, they call it a docudrama, Devil in Disguise, John Wayne Gacy, based on a true story. I believe this came out in October. It's a eight part series, so it is long. I believe it's seven hours and 34 minutes. But this one was this. I can't say it enough. I thought it was great, it might just be okay. But this is what I started watching after Monster, the Ed Gein series. And that took. So we're not going to make a, a top three list of what not to watch, but you might watch Ed Gein and like it at the end of each episode. I wasn't excited to move on to the next one. It felt like, you know, you, you have documentary like Amy Bradley is missing. You watch the first episode. You don't Want to go to bed. You just want to hit play and watch the next episode. But with the Ed Geen monster series, it was just like, this is going to take me forever to get through. It took me weeks to get through.
- [42:54]
Nick
It felt like a chore. Like, yeah, sure.
- [42:57]
Captain
And. And look, I think. And it's not just true crime podcasters or I just think when true crime is a percentage of you, right? For some people, it's just 10% of who they are. For some people, it's 50% of what they are. But sadly, after, like, I want to say, maybe the second episode of the Ed Gein monster series, I was just like, I don't know if I want to continue to watch this. I'm. I didn't find it that fascinating. And then I knew that half the stuff that they were presenting didn't happen in real life.
- [43:31]
Nick
So.
- [43:33]
Captain
But I think I had this weight on me that was like, but hey, captain, You're. You're the captain of true crime. You. You have to watch this. So, like you said, that kind of felt like a chore. So then when I started Devil in Disguise, which the trailers were amazing, but I was just like, well, let's see how this goes. One of the things I really liked about it is the other. The other biopics about John Wayne Gacy, they normally focus more on the criminal side of him. The way they present this, you kind of see the multiple characters that he played in his own life. What did he call it? Because BTK calls it what, Cubism.
- [44:22]
Nick
Yeah. Bck. Dennis Raider, he referred to Factor X. And so cubism would be. What front does he choose to show you or choose to be in that moment? Right, Where Dennis Raider is one side of that cube, Factor X is another side of that cube. But it was Factor X that was within him. And according to Dennis, driving him to. To kill and to do the. The evil, bad stuff in his life, it wasn't him. It was Factor X.
- [44:53]
Captain
In this series, the character, the guy playing John Wayne Gacy talks about that, how there's multiple sides of him. You kind of see how he could be a successful person. You can also see how he could probably manipulate people. And. And then I actually think you learn a lot about it because it is. It is a long series. And so when you find out that there were so many victims and so many people trying to get the cops to look into this guy, and I think, again, it would be difficult to look into somebody, and on the outside, you just don't see the monster that they're hiding. So anyways, Devil in Disguise, John Wayne Gacy. It was on Peacock. It's eight episodes. Seven. Seven hours.
- [45:44]
Nick
But it looks great.
- [45:46]
Captain
It.
- [45:46]
Nick
I mean, it looks very well polished, well put together, and really packaged up nice. Like the. The cinematography on it looks incredible.
- [45:56]
Captain
Well, I also like things. And maybe this is a little bit a nostalgia, but, you know, if you grew up in the 80s, a lot of the decor that you were around was from the 70s and maybe from the 60s, because a lot of people that were buying homes in the 60s, you know, come from the Great Depression, so they didn't throw much away. So, you know, we live in this consumer world now where it's like you have to replace your couch every two years. I remember going to my friends houses and it'd be like, well, man, this couch looks old. Well, we got it from my grandparents, you know, and. And then that was just the couch that you always had. So I think there's a little bit of visually a nostalgia there for this. And it's also really good acting. And it kind of reminds me, like, if somebody said to me, all this, this was made by the guys that made Mindhunter, which it wasn't, but if it was, I go, yeah, that checks out because it feels similar. All right, so your top three are.
- [47:07]
Nick
My top three are in order, counting them down from three to one. The Perfect Neighbor on Netflix. My father, the BTK Killer, also on Netflix. And my favorite one of 2025, the Secrets We Bury, available on HBO.
- [47:26]
Captain
My number three is Amy Bradley is Missing, that's on Netflix. Unknown number, the High School Catfish, that's also on Netflix. And then my number one is Devil in Disguise, John Wayne Gacy. And that is on Peacock. I want to thank you guys so much for joining us here in the garage each and every week and each and every year, 10 years of true crime Garage. Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling your brother. Colonel. Do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners?
- [48:10]
Nick
We have some recommended listening and I'm excited about this one. Look, it's not lost on us that we just did an entire episode on, of course, recommended viewing. We know because you guys are hardcore into it. You've probably watched a lot of the same great documentaries and true crime materials that we enjoyed in 2025. This is new for 2026, and this is rare that I do this where I recommend something that I have yet to have enjoyed, because as of this taping, this is not out yet, but by the time it hits your earballs, it will Be out for your listening pleasure. And the reason why I know I can recommend this one is because it comes from one of our good friends, Mike Morford. He is from abjack Entertainment. They have great shows. We've collaborated with them over the years. We work with Jessica Betancourt, who does DNA Id done crossovers with their missing persons podcast. We've had Mike on our show for our Zodiac episodes because he's a Zodiac expert. And I've been lucky enough to be a guest on Beyond Bizarre True Crime. So their new show from Abject Entertainment is called Below the Surface. You are about to hear a preview for their brand new podcast, Below the Surface. It's hosted by Olivia McKenzie. And in every episode, you'll hear about a different fascinating bizarre case. Some are solved, some are unsolved, but there's always one common theme. There's a water connection. The first two episodes are out now and you can find Below the Surface everywhere you listen to podcast.
- [50:01]
Olivia McKenzie
A missing person, a strange death, a vanished vehicle, a series of unanswerable questions. In so many true crime mysteries, the answers remain elusive. But in many instances, the clues lead right to the water's edge. And sometimes the truth lies below the surface. Hi, listeners, my name is Olivia and I'm the host of the true crime podcast Below the Surface from abjack Entertainment, the podcast that features bizarre cases with a common theme, water. You can listen to Below the Surface on every major podcast platform or app. Be sure to subscribe today so that you don't miss an episode.
- [50:40]
Captain
Hey, we gave you a whole show for your eyeballs and we gave you a little bit of recommended listening for your earballs. It's going to be great. 2026. We have a lot of exciting things in store until the next episode.
- [50:55]
Nick
Be good, be kind, and don't litter.
- [51:35]
Special Agent Rebecca Henderson
My name is Special Agent Rebecca Henderson.
- [51:38]
Captain
Thursday on NBC.
- [51:40]
Special Agent Rebecca Henderson
There was an explosion at a top secret prison. Some of the most infamous killers broke free.
- [51:44]
Captain
The hunting party is back.
- [51:46]
Nick
We're going in loud. FBI.
- [51:48]
Captain
The stakes have never been higher.
- [51:50]
Special Agent Rebecca Henderson
The longer they're out there, the more dangerous they're going to become.
- [51:52]
Captain
And the killers, never seen anything like this before.
- [51:55]
Special Agent Rebecca Henderson
Not even close.
- [51:57]
Captain
Have never been more twisted.
- [51:59]
Nick
This is Next Level.
- [52:00]
Captain
The Hunting Party. The thrilling season premiere Thursday on NBC.