In 1888, a series of gruesome murders shocked London: The perpetrator was dubbed “Jack the Ripper”. This was the Victorian era when puritanism reigned and forensic science was in its infancy.

Crimes That Made History

Paris, January 1907. Albert Soleilland is accused of the rape and murder of a little girl – Marthe. The press details every step of the case as if it was a show.

In 1924 Hanover, the discovery of a hundred bones catches the authorities’ attention. The press covers the case and a suspect – Fritz Haarmann – is quickly arrested.

In 1929, seven members of Bugs Moran’s gang are assassinated in a garage by Al Capone’s henchmen.

In August 1933, Violette Nozière, 18, killed her father by poisoning in Paris. After a short period on the run, she was charged with murder and swiftly confessed to the crime, saying her motive was that he abused her.

On May 18th, 1936, Abe Sada killed her lover by “erotic asphyxia” then cut off his member and carved his name in her flesh. In a militarized Japan, the press was very interested in this crime with erotic and transgressive accents.

On 8 July 1947, the US Air Force announced the discovery of a “flying disc” which had crashed in the Roswell area of New Mexico. This was the birth of the flying saucer phenomenon.

On October 1972, an Uruguayan plane crashed into the Andes. 72 days later, 16 survivors are found! The incredible rescue fascinated the media across the world. How did they survive? An unspeakable truth gradually emerges: to survive.

1978 Guyana: Reverend Jim Jones holds an apocalyptic mass. Its outcome was the sacrifice of 918 members of the Peoples Temple – an American cult founded in the middle of the 1950s. The entire world was horrified by the journalists’ accounts.

On 31 August 1997, Princess Diana died alongside her companion, Dodi Al-Fayed, in a car crash in Paris, whilst being pursued by paparazzi. Her untimely death prompted an outpouring of grief in Britain and elsewhere in the world.

Pluto

Crimes and bloody tales that made the headlines usually reveal a lot about the hidden fantasies of their time. From Jack the Ripper to the Andes crash, the ten episodes of this collection shed a black light on a page of history that left a mark on time.

The Jonestown Massacre: An American Apocalypse (1978)

Full Episodes

Season 1, 10 episodes