Episode list

It was a crime that shattered America. A case so improbable that nobody ever dreamed it could happen. Despite a ransom being paid, after 72 days the body of American legend Charles Lindbergh's kidnapped baby son, was found murdered. A German carpenter was tried, sentenced and sent to the electric chair, but to this day it is not known if he acted alone?

He started out as a violent street thug, but soon became a ruthless leader, who rose to the top of the Mafia. He always kept one step ahead of the law and infamously once boasted, 'I buried hundreds of guys'. Even when finally imprisoned he found a way of securing his freedom.

On St Valentine's Day 1929, the brutal massacre of six gangsters in a Chicago warehouse signalled the emergence of Al 'Scarface' Capone as the undisputed Godfather of crime. He was vain, violent and notoriously ruthless. A man who won ultimate respect by exacting total fear.

His name struck fear into the hearts of New Yorkers and brought terror to the streets. He unleashed all his hatred on the one group which he considered had rejected him the most - women.

Within weeks, the hillsides around Los Angeles became the scene of a terrible carnage - more than ten strangled corpses. The police soon realised they were no longer dealing with a serial murderer but hunting something frighteningly new - two killers, who were out on a 'spree'.

John Herbert Dillinger was an infamous American gangster in the Depression-era United States.

Charles Manson with his cult followers pioneered a new revolution - a helter-skelter of bloody, calculated and remorseless killing that brought a new, sinister meaning to the term 'The Family'.

In November 1978, deep in the jungles of Guyana the Rev Jim Jones gathered nearly 1,000 devoted followers around him, and with a simple promise persuaded them to commit the greatest 'revolutionary' mass suicide of the 20th Century.

Army doctor Jeffrey MacDonald seemed to have everything. Then one night his wife and children were horrifically murdered. Had it not been for the determination of one person - his father-in-law - justice might never have been done.

He was young, handsome and successful. But when his wife was found battered to death, the American dream turned into a nightmare. Convicted of murder, it took him 12 years to establish his innocence and have his conviction overturned.

Neville George Clevely Heath (1917-46) was a sadistic psychopath, born in Essex, England, who was responsible for the murders of at least two young women. He was executed in London in 1946.

Women began to disappear in the Seattle area in the first half of 1974. It was not until July 1979 that a jury found Ted Bundy guilty and mercifully ended the reign of a savage killer who brutally murdered over twenty girls.

He was the double murderer who insisted on being executed. On 17th January 1977 after years of legal moralizing his wish was granted and he shot dead by a firing squad in Utah.

In 1934 he became a member of the SS. He killed not only Jews, but was also responsible for the calculated deaths of 27 RAF prisoners. Eventually, in 1959 he was found by Israeli agents in Argentina who flew him to Israel for trial.

Seven bodies were found in the crawl space under his home. Eight more were quickly uncovered in other parts of the house. Eventually, the remains of 28 bodies were discovered. H

As civil war raged across Russia in 1918, the deposed Tsar and his family were imprisoned. On 16th July they were massacred and buried in the forest. Almost immediately though, rumors sprang up that not all the imperial family were dead

When an unassuming US doctor living in London in 1910 fell in love with his secretary, he was tied to a wife who he hated. His solution was murder. Dr Crippen and his mistress fled abroad and when a body was discovered in the cellar

In 1963 a mail train was ambushed in England. In one of the largest robberies ever, the gang got away with more than £2.5 million in used bank notes. The stories of police attempts to recapture some of the robbers still hit the headlines today?

For three years Albert DeSalvo stalked the streets of Boston, leaving behind him a hideous trail of human destruction. It was a crusade of evil, of a maniac who might never have been caught had it not been for his confessions to another prison inmate.

In 1949 John George Haigh escorted Mrs Olivia Durand-Deacon to his factory in Crawley, where he shot her in the head and then heaved her into a previously-prepared vat of acid.

He had an obsession with disinfecting his flat. When he moved out four bodies were discovered there and two more in the garden. When arrested it became horrifically clear that he had also killed a mother and child in 1949 - a crime for which another man had already been hanged.

When the kidnapping of a 17-year-old girl was linked to the brutal murder of three British subpostmasters the police knew they were dealing with a ruthless and callous killer. For the girl, the abduction ended in unimaginable horror. For the police it would take another eleven months and a chance encounter before the 'Black Panther' was eventually cornered.

In late October 1964, thieves stole 22 gems from New York City's Museum of Natural History. Three of the stones were so famous they would be impossible to sell. Within 48 hours, aided by confidential police sources, two men in New York and another two in Miami were arrested.

Despite a massive police operation, he seemed to anticipate their every move. He loved to taunt and mock the detectives and killed with impunity. Eventually, he was trapped by bluff, but never caught. To this day no one has been charged.

In a cruel and callous kidnapping a woman became the innocent victim of mistaken identity. After many efforts to catch her abductors, the police were led to a lonely farmhouse - and two brothers with a ghastly secret.

The reign of terror that followed the first murder of a Leeds prostitute in 1975, cut a trail of fear across northern England. The 'Ripper' never struck twice in the same place. But thankfully, one evening he made a mistake.