Scène de crime: Les champs macabres du Texas

The 1970's saw a boom in Houston, Texas, construction grew, people flocked in, and a stretch of waste land was used to dump the bodies of several young women.

It's a very well made documentary, it's insightful Nd thought provoking, looking at several of the victims, the fact that they were largely ignored, and the potential suspects.

Very powerful interviews from those that were affected by the deaths, acts that still haunt people to this day. I thought Tim Miller in particular was a hugely impressive man, his words hit home.

Some pretty horrible crimes are explored, over a long period of time. What struck me was the way in which The Authorities jumped into action over the death of one young girl, the fact that it took that tragedy before anything really happened.

I liked that it was over three episodes, and that it wasn't stretched out into six or seven, Netflix does have a habit of fleshing things out.

Texan laws, insane or what.

8/10.

Obviously a hideously horrendous story, in terms of the victims and family left behind. However, this actual documentary... I don't feel it did any of that justice.

Sooo many shots of photos on a table, random streets, woods, the sky, etc etc. Genuinely in every five minutes of screentime, three minutes of that are just random scenery shots or the exact same repeated shots of headstones/photos.

I also felt it was really quite disjointed and jumped about on the timeline and victims with no real cohesion.

A LOT of time is spent with one of the victim's fathers. Of course the viewer feels deeply for him, but so, so much time is spent with him with not a lot of information gleaned from it. He seems incredibly miserable and I wanted someone to just say to him, "you can stop." The documentary also kind of jumps over the fact that he harassed and possibly drove a person of interest to suicide as he became obsessed with him and pinning the crime on him. That was... unsettling.

In relation to that, there's very, very little actual critique of the police department and the absolute farce of so much of the initial investigations. It's again kind of mentioned then glossed over.

And a more nitpicky critique - when they're talking about the court records and it's stated that the murderer "had sex with and then murdered (victim)" - Jesus wept, he did not 'have sex with', he raped her. A huge difference.

Again; a horrific story. Just... very poorly documented.

Docuseries finally on Netflix that's worth watching, tells a coherent story and comes together in the end.

I'm not sure all 3 episodes were necessary- I think all the information could have been sufficiently parsed out in 2 episodes, but 3 isn't an overreach.

It's crazy that these producers could tell a solid story yet not interject their insane political narrative into the stories- there are some vaguely political points but they're very relevant to the telling, and while it revolves around law enforcement, it is deservedly so- what the aforementioned police department did (or rather, lack thereof effective policing) deserves a spotlight and the attention of the public eye. It's one thing to espouse the common thread amongst departments of the time and claim runaway/wait 48 hours- which was incredibly obtuse and shortsighted even then, but even now, when we all know better to not at least acknowledge you're wrong and accept public responsibility for your department failings speaks volumes about your department.

My only concern is the lack of transparency and wishing there were more transparency among the departments and accountability to the public. Naming names would be a good start to getting public attention rightly focused on this group.

My request is that someone do an extensive documentary on Tim Miller and his Equusearch group- his is a fascinating story and one worth telling. Even though he's not particularly interested in the spotlight, the amount of good he's put into the world on behalf of his daughter is invaluable and I fear he's not much longer for this world. Keep fighting the good fight Tim- this may not be the path you chose but it is your path nonetheless. You've helped so many people through one of the most incredibly difficult times in their lives with experience, care and compassion and for that you deserve our unending gratitude and support.

This is no "making a murderer".

Starts slow, becomes intriguing, but by the final episode you'll be saying "huh?" "what?" " wait..". Because the storytelling is so convoluted.

By the end you'll be slightly confused and wondering why the story wasn't just told in a straightforward manner, as opposed to "drama" and "suspense" being artificially and unnecessarily imposed by withholding so much key information until the end.

So many times Necessary Information is doled out long after it is required. You'll be asking obvious question as it goes along that won't be answered.

Re: the skull fracture: "we have technology now that we didn't have then"...huh? You mean like...eyes? Was this just an interrogation technique? Oh no photos from '85? That's interesting ...so Where was the info about the '85 pathologist who presumably was incompetent or corrupt and botched the whole case? There's none!

The wrap up texts at the end felt tacked on and raised so many more questions. (24M lawsuit, the story of the final confession, the crime that he plead out to, the other girls, all were glossed over. The final 10 min could have been properly told in a whole other episode.

All in all a good true crime story very poorly told...the final outcomes were interesting and complex but it all wrapped up far too quickly in a way that makes you think they pretty much botched the whole story from the start.

I agree with most of the critiques. Lots of unanswered questions. I also had a problem with them saying the killer "had sex with" their victim and then killed them, implying possible consent? They were RAPED and then killed. That was unsettling. The ending was confusing to me, and I forgot about Reece, who apparently confessed to the initial couple of murders. Very disjointed. What's strange is that I grew up in that area during those years and really never heard a thing about these murders. Just maybe how someone went missing, but there wasn't very much publicity. I wish they would have stressed more how the small town cops totally bungled the investigation. It all seemed to wrap up very tidily and let the League City police off the hook. I wished it was them who were sued for $24M. I give it a 6, because it kept my interest, but if there were supposedly tens of victims, why not mention them too instead of just focusing on three families?