Would you watch a true crime program if you personally knew the people?

[glovestrains]

as in they were family or Friends

i probably wouldn't

Also my partners old boss was that awful man who kicked the pensioner to death for thinking his house was a b and b last month and my partner has been deeply affected by the news coverage.

I was friends with someone who commited a murder/suicide. I couldn't read the news at the time. It was so difficult to believe the person I thought I knew could do what they did. Think watching a documentary on it would stir up too many emotions and memories. I could never watch one.

Not me but a mate of mine (I now live over 100 miles from where I was born and bred-moved to where I am now 7 years ago and this happened a few years before I met her)

She knew a guy through her (now ex)
partner-he killed two sex workers (she knew them both-one she didnt get on with but would have a chat in the street with the other),cleaned himself up and headed to her house (he lived a 5 ish minute walk from her house)

She got a bad vibe (a bit creepy but nothing she could put her finger on) from him but put up with him for her bloke

Apparently,this guy was laughing and joking like nothing had happened-they cracked a few beers open and he left a few hours later

It ended with him getting life-and they think he did many more but can't prove it-he was a long distance lorry driver-not the ripper-so they think he killed women up and down the country

She point blank refuses to watch anything to do with the case

I remember the case in the news-at the time it was massive

Yes 😄

I knew (worked with) a serial killer (he killed two women that we know of).

He was found guilty of one of the murders and up until now there hasn't been any further investigation from the police.
Looking back over the time myself and others worked with him, we believe there are many more victims and have approached the police with what we know - the police simple didn't care and didn't investigate a full year of his life as the killer was given a long sentence.

It has been mentioned lots of times that the two women he killed were not his only victims.

ITV turned it into a drama a couple of years ago and completely messed it up.

I have watched a couple of the documentaries on it and again they all miss out this period of the killers life and the fact that he had regular access to hundreds of women.

I know deep down that one day they will find another body, if not more.

So sorry to hear that, @JuneShitfield . It's so difficult to process, isn't it? I've lost a good friend to cancer, which was very painful. But this was on a completely different level.

I knew someone who was murdered in horrific circumstances. Every time his circumstances were shown on national and local news they used a photo of himself he had shown me on his phone.

I couldn't watch the news for months and occasionally it still gets shown. At some point there will be a documentary or similar and I will never watch.

Yes. Would and have!

Someone to do with DH is in a multi episode documentary. These well known documentaries deal with unsolved cases. This person is a major part of the story and was the one who approached the team for help.

DH and i both watched it. It was weird to see them on TV talking about it all.

If I knew the victim well, probably not.

I (sadly) know 2 Men who've committed serious violent crimes and while there hasn't been documentaries I soaked up all the news stories I could about them both as I couldn't reconcile the people I knew with the monsters they'd shown themselves to be. One was a schoolmate and the other the son of a family friend. Both now serving long sentences in prison, thankfully.

Thank you. I'm sorry to hear about your friend, too.

Yes, it is difficult and a very different kind of difficult to losing someone to cancer or another illness.

I've just got to the stage where I let the tougher periods be difficult and painful, and accept that it'll pass.

Avoiding mentions of the event, or my friend, online or in the media is definitely part of the strategy.

I don't want to watch anything about Rachel Nickell's murder. At the time I worked for the same company that her partner, who was a truly lovely guy, worked for. We were all quite shocked. Just very, very sad that the investigation was handled so badly. I cannot begin to imagine how he and his son suffered.

Someone I went to school with was raped and murdered by a well known serial killer.
I would watch a program about him up to the point where he abducted her. I want to understand how he was allowed to get away with such a career of violence for so long and I think it is important to look male violence, and society’s toleration of it, in the face.
But I don’t need to know the details of what she went through in her final hours and I think it would be more respectful to her not to watch that.

I have. There have been several documentaries about my close friend that was murdered by her ex in 2016. I've been asked to participate in them due to my involvement in his prosecution and have refused, but my other friend has participated in two of them.

She was stalked and later murdered by her ex and her family are using these documentaries in tandem with a charitable trust they've established to raise awareness about stalking and harassment and have been involved in lobbying for change in the ways the police handle these cases because there were terrible failings in hers. It's making a genuine difference which is the only reason I can tolerate them.

It's strange to watch them. So much of what happened isn't communicated because you just can't give the whole story in an hour. I also don't think any of them have really portrayed how she was feeling during the stalking or made it clear just how terrified she was for a prolonged period of time, because they tend to focus on her murder and his capture.

If anything was being made without her family's consent or participation, I wouldn't watch it.

Depends totally on the crime of course. A former classmate was involved in a bizarre fraud which was entertaining to watch in a documentary, though I felt sorry of course for those affected by her actions . I don't think I could watch a true crime where someone I knew and cared about was the victim.

I read the book of someone who had been kidnapped and ransomed, I used to know them when I was a child. I don't think I ever watched the tv documentary, but over the months it happened, I was anxious for their family whenever it came up on the news. I wanted to know if she was OK, our families weren't in touch anymore. We were all so shocked and very relieved when at least one person survived. The book made me cry but I wanted to understand more about what had happened, it was terrifying.

I never watch true life crime documentaries, family or strangers... fantasy stuff no problem but i don't want to know what can happen to ordinary people or that ordinary can v easily (and do) become monsters.

I don't know, is the honest answer.

I'd be very intrigued but don't think I could!