Five original true crime documentaries to watch on Tubi

Horror fans are very well-versed in the joys of Tubi, which offers hundreds of genre films that can all be watched for free (with ads, but hello, FREE). But did you know that Tubi also offers a lot of great true crime documentaries as well, many of them Tubi Originals?

Interested in the stories of The Golden State Killer? Chris Watts? Jeffrey Dahmer? The Green River Killer? There’s a Tubi Original doc for each of these cases, plus many more. Let’s take a dive into their true crime vault to see what’s there.

Evil Among Us: The Golden State Killer is the newest documentary to be added to Tubi. The Golden State Killer A/K/A Joseph DeAngelo terrorized California from 1974 to 1986. During that period of time, he is thought to have committed at least 120 burglaries, 51 rapes and 13 murders. He was known under several monikers, including the East Area Rapist, the Night Stalker, then the Original Night Stalker (this due to Richard Ramirez, who was also christened the Night Stalker).

He somehow managed to evade capture until 2018, despite the fact that he was especially brazen. He made horrific phone calls to his victims after raping and terrorizing them, and even made taunting phone calls to the Sacramento PD. He was thought to have attended a town hall meeting where a man stated that the unknown attacker would NEVER succeed if he tried to attack his family. A couple of months later, that very man and his wife became victims.

When DeAngelo was finally captured, it was all due to DNA. Investigators located members of his family through forensic genetic genealogy. It’s a fascinating story from beginning to end, and one with the ending we hope for in all serial killer cases.

In Suburban Nightmare: Chris Watts, we look at an entirely different kind of killer; a family man who, as it turns out, killed not only his pregnant wife, but his two young daughters as well.

When Nicole Atkinson drove Shanann Watts home after a business trip to Arizona, she didn’t expect it would be the last time she would see her friend. When Shanann missed her doctor’s appointment the next day, Atkinson tried to find her, then notified Shanann’s husband Chris, as well as the local police department. Once police arrived at the Watts’ residence, they almost immediately began to suspect Chris, who, as we can see on video, was acting very squirrely. There was no sign of mother or daughters.

Five days later, Chris was arrested, and confessed that he had killed Shanann, who was four months pregnant at the time. He claimed that he did so after discovering that she had strangled their two daughters, and that he then disposed of all three bodies at an oil storage site being leased by his employer. It’s a chilling story, and the perfect example of a man who thinks he is much craftier than he actually was.

You probably can’t consider yourself a true crime junkie if you aren’t at least a little familiar with the story of Jodi Arias, who is covered in Tubi Original Love You to Death: The Jodi Arias Story. Jodi is not a serial killer, and her only victim was her on again-off again boyfriend Travis Alexander.

The two met at a business conference in Vegas, and quickly became romantically involved to the point where Jodi converted to Mormonism. It seems that she was somewhat obsessed with Travis, and seemed set on making their relationship a serious one. Travis, on the other hand, did not seem to think theirs was a lasting relationship, probably because they were very sexually active together, and his religion frowned upon that. According to his friends, Jodi was possessive. Although Travis eventually broke up with Jodi, they did frequently reconnect physically.

Everything came to a grisly end when Travis’s body was found in the bathroom of the room he rented in a house, five days after his murder. It was a bloody scene; Travis suffered 27 stab wounds, a gunshot wound to the head and a slit throat, and his friends immediately gave Jodi’s name as a suspect.

Jodi’s reaction and the way she was caught are both very compelling stories that make you wonder how someone could kill the person they claimed to love in such a brutal manner.

Tubi examines a true crime case with no solid suspects

Suburban Nightmare: JonBenet Ramsey takes a look at one of the most famous unsolved murders in recent history. It’s been 27 years since six-year-old JonBenet was killed and her body, covered with a white blanket, hidden behind a closed door in the family basement.

The case captivated (and confounded) everyone, and continues to do so to this very day. John and Patsy Ramsey were very comfortable financially, had two young children, JoBenet and nine-year-old Burke, and lived in a large, very nice home. It all seemed perfect.

On the morning of December 26, Patsy found a ransom note on the stairs, and subsequently found that her daughter was missing. There are so many bizarre circumstances in this story. The note was extremely long and rambling, and the $118,000 it demanded was almost exactly what John had received as a Christmas bonus the prior year.

Despite the fact that multiple law enforcement personnel conducted a search of the home, the child’s body was found by her father later that day. It was determined that she died due to strangulation and a skull fracture. Over the years, several different people have been suspected of the murder, including JonBenet’s brother Burke, but none of the theories stuck, and it is still an unsolved mystery.

Evil Among Us: Ted Bundy digs into the history of one of the most prolific serial killers in America. By the time he was apprehended for the final time in February of 1978, Theodore Robert Bundy had kidnapped and killed at least 30 women across seven states.

Bundy was handsome and charming, two traits that worked in his favor when he was on the hunt for female victims. He favored using fake injuries to ask for help from women, and he managed to barely evade capture multiple times. When he was captured, he managed to escape twice. After the second escape, Bundy travelled to Florida, where he bludgeoned four young women at Chi Omega sorority, killing two of them.  He then broke into the home of Cheryl Thomas, which was only eight blocks away, bludgeoning her and causing permanent injuries.

Less than a month later, he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed 12-year-old Kimberly Dianne Leach before he was captured and tried for murder. He was executed in Florida in 1989, but his story lives on as an example of the ultimate serial killer who was finally apprehended and punished for his vile crimes.

Those are just five of the true crime documentaries available to watch on Tubi, check out their online library to find more.

What sort of true crime documentaries would you like to see on Tubi? Give us your wish list in the comments section.