The BEST episodes of Very Scary People

#1 - The Golden State Killer: Hiding in Plain Sight, Part 2

Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 5/2/2021

#2 - The Black Widow (2)

Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/14/2023

#3 - THE NIGHT STALKER Part 2: I Will Be Avenged

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 7/26/2020

Through the record-breaking heat of the spring and summer of 1985 in California, a savage killer was on the loose. The Night Stalker had been linked to at least 15 murders from children to the elderly, male and female, wealthy and poor. Then police get a break – a tip from a teenage boy leads to the identity of the Night Stalker. Twenty-four hours later a mob of angry citizens track him down and capture him. But the man who terrified the nation for more than a year isn’t finished yet. His trial is a new, bizarre chapter that has some wondering if the Night Stalker will escape justice.

#4 - The Iceman Part 2: Trapping a Serial Killer

Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/30/2021

#5 - The Trailside Killer (2)

Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/16/2023

#6 - The Happy Face Killer (2)

Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 5/21/2023

#7 - The Iceman Part 1: The Murder Business

Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 5/30/2021

He was a family man, living in a New Jersey suburb with his wife and three kids. But unbeknownst to his neighbors, Richard Kuklinski held a dark secret: he was the “Iceman” – a cold-blooded killer who was part-time mob hitman for hire, and full-time psychopath. This intimidating, oversized killer managed to evade the police with ease for years. That is, until a few smart investigators started connecting the dots between seemingly unrelated murders and a mystery man known as “Big Rich.”

#8 - The Golden State Killer Part 1: Hunting Human Beings

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 5/2/2021

The Golden State Killer invaded homes, tortured and terrorized families, committed fifty brutal rapes and thirteen vicious murders, and was on the loose for forty-four years. Cold case Investigators chased down thousands of leads without ever getting their man. But a new forensic tool breaks the case and exposes this remorseless predator – Joseph DeAngelo – his family, his background, and his life story; and finally, scores of victims get a measure of long-awaited justice.

#9 - The Twin (2)

Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 4/30/2023

#10 - The Co-ed Killer Part 1: The Murder Capital of the World

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 8/2/2020

Santa Cruz, California was a mecca for the hippie generation in the early 1970’s, a beachside paradise where a university had recently opened. But this era of peace and love is shattered when female students began to go missing and their body parts start showing up around town. Police had no leads on who was committing these horrific crimes, but they soon realize that all the victims had something in common- they were last seen hitchhiking. A frantic public, desperate for answers, live in terror, waiting for the man they dubbed “The Coed Killer” to strike again. But no one could have expected that the person responsible, a local man, Edmund Kemper, was living among them, hiding in plain sight. He was a man with a dark history and a tortured childhood, a man who had killed years before and had now set his twisted sights on young women. Told through interview footage with Kemper himself, as well as those who lived through this crippling period, this episode takes viewers back to the time when The Coed Killer brought terror to Santa Cruz.

#11 - The Amityville Horror: Evil in the House, Part 2

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 5/16/2021

#12 - The Dating Game Killer: The Bite Mark, Part 2

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/23/2021

#13 - John Gotti: There Were Fatal Consequences (2)

Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 7/17/2022

#14 - The Trailside Killer (1)

Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/16/2023

From 1979-1981, the popular hiking trails of Northern California became the setting of a terrifying mystery. A man known as the Trailside Killer was raping and killing women in a place they had always felt safe. The cold-blooded attacks stunned the community and frustrated law enforcement. They had few clues as to the killer's identity, until one victim managed to get away and identified a middle-aged man living an ordinary life with his parents.

#15 - Dr Death Part 1: A License To Kill

Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 8/16/2020

Michael Swango – High school valedictorian; Distinguished Marine; Trusted Doctor… Serial Killer. For nearly two decades, this physician-turned-murderer left a trail of death and mayhem across two continents. Hear from the local and federal authorities who brought his reign of terror to an end, while facing down one of the most crafty and cunning medical serial killers in US history. Interviews include survivors from Michael Swango’s poisoning sprees, his former colleagues, families of his victims, federal and local investigators, and a Zimbabwe journalist who helped uncover a series of murders in a rural African hospital.

#16 - The Slave Master (1)

Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/23/2023

Beginning in the mid 80's, women in the Kansas City vicinity began vanishing. They had nothing in common, except, an odd connection to a man named John Robinson. He seemed to be a perfect father, husband, and businessman. But in reality, Robinson was a sinister serial killer, who nicknamed himself the, "Slavemaster." With a penchant for BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Sado-Masochism), he evaded arrest for nearly two decades by using elaborate cover ups and his sinister silver tongue. Robinson, among the first killers to use the internet as a stalking ground for victims, unfortunately claimed eight victims before an intense police sting operation could bring him down.

#17 - BTK Part 2: The Taunting

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 7/19/2020

B.T.K. stands for Bind, Torture, Kill., the name the serial killer gave himself. After terrorizing Wichita, Kansas with multiple killings from 1974-1991 he goes quiet. But he resurfaces in 2004 and residents of the midwestern city are once again petrified. For months he plays a cat and mouse game with law enforcement and the media taunting them as he seeks the attention he craves. But then… he makes a mistake. And when “BTK” is finally apprehended it is chilling to discover that he has been hiding in plain sight for years.

#18 - The Happy Face Killer (1)

Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 5/21/2023

When 23-year-old Taunja Bennett left home on January 21, 1990, her family thought they would see her in a few hours. That didn't happen. Then her sister watches a news report with a police sketch of a woman found dead in the Columbia River Gorge...and knew it was Taunja. That was the start of multiple female bodies found mostly in the Pacific Northwest and California which police never connect to each other. Then someone starts sending macabre letters signed with a happy face, which was the beginning of the end of the Happy Face Killer's reign of terror.

#19 - The Dating Game Killer: Smooth Talker, Part 1

Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 5/23/2021

In 1968, an 8-year-old girl is abducted and raped. The Los Angeles police were just moments from catching her attacker, but he eludes them and escapes to New York where he kills a young woman. This is the beginning of a monstrous killing spree of young girls and women. When police discover who is behind these horrific murders, they are shocked to find it’s a handsome, charming photographer. With a string of murders already behind him, incredibly, Rodney Alcala is chosen to appear on the national game show, “The Dating Game.” What happens next makes Rodney Alcala one of the most horrific serial killers in US history.

#20 - The Co-ed Killer Part 2: Thinking Murder All Day Long

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 8/2/2020

In April 1973, 24-year-old Edmund Kemper had murdered 6 coeds in and around the city of Santa Cruz, California, shaking the community to its core. But Kemper reached a breaking point, and what the public would soon learn, was almost impossible to believe. Told through interview footage with Kemper himself, as well as people who were there, this episode takes viewers inside the mind of a serial killer, from a childhood wrought with abuse through an early life of violence. Kemper outlines his motives for the killing spree and describes the terrifying methods he used to slaughter young women, operating right under everyone’s noses. As Kemper explains in great detail, he spared no one from his madness, not even his own flesh and blood. With his willingness to tell his story so openly, Kemper would go on, years later, to assist the FBI in profiling serial killers, offering insight into how, and why, killers like himself commit such horrific acts.

#21 - THE NIGHT STALKER Part 1: Summer of Terror

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/26/2020

The summer of 1985 was one of the hottest Los Angeles had seen in a century. But terrified residents weren’t sleeping with the windows open, they weren’t sleeping at all. A killer was on the loose. And though the 1980s were considered the decade of the serial killer – one man stood out. He was the Night Stalker – his crimes were random, vicious and committed in the name of Satan. His victims ranged from toddlers to the elderly. And as the city was paralyzed with fear, he went unchecked while police struggled to stop him. Then the L.A.P.D. get a tip, a teenage boy spotted a suspicious car leaving a crime scene. Would it be enough to bring the Night Stalker to justice?

#22 - The Slave Master (2)

Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/23/2023

#23 - Jim Jones: Unholy Massacre, Part 1

Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/21/2019

More than 900 Americans died in an isolated jungle in northern Guyana in November 1978; Jim Jones has gone down in history as a madman who drove his followers to suicide, but the truth is more complicated and tragic than that.

#24 - The Butcher Baker Part 2: The Girls Who Got Away

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/9/2021

#25 - The Cross Country Killer: He Could Make People Disappear (1)

Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 7/10/2022

While closing shop in Anchorage, Alaska, Samantha Koenig is approached by a man known in the community as a business owner and caring father who kidnaps her, triggering a manhunt.