Best movies & TV Shows like Murder in the Heartland

FBI agent Joel Campbell, burnt-out and shell-shocked after years spent chasing serial killers, flees L.A. to begin a new life for himself in Chicago. But five months later, Joel's best laid plans are abruptly cut short when his new hometown becomes the setting for some particularly gruesome murders--murders that could only have been committed by one man: David Allen Griffin. One of Joel's most elusive and cunning nemeses, Griffin has followed his former pursuer to Chicago in order to play a sadistic game of cat and mouse. Taunting Joel with photographs of his intended victims and leaving his crime scenes meticulously free of clues in order to keep the police at bay, Griffin derives as much pleasure out of watching Joel react to every movement as watching his victims die. But when Griffin moves into Joel's inner circle, Joel must quickly find some way to stop him before someone close to him becomes the next one to die.

A South-African preacher goes to search for his wayward son who has committed a crime in the big city.

Ruth Ellis lives with her ten-year old son Andy next to a night club. One night she meets David Blakely, and they start a love affair. However, for David with his upper-class background, it is impossible to uphold the relationship. He breaks up with her, something which makes Ellis, obsessed by him, very upset.

The fictionalized story of Daniel, the son of Paul and Rochelle Isaacson, who were executed as Soviet spies in the 1950s. As a graduate student in New York in the 1960s, Daniel is involved in the antiwar protest movement and contrasts his experiences to the memory of his parents and his belief that they were wrongfully convicted.

After a botched robbery results in the brutal murder of a rural family, two drifters elude police, in the end coming to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their vile atrocity.

Malcom's done with his life. Only the noise of Crystal Meth gives him a reason to keep going - everything else it has long regardless. Equipped with a bag full of weapons and self-made bombs, he makes his way to the nearby mall to really stir things up. On his personal war campaign, he not only changes his life radically, but also the fate of other people who are in the wrong place at the same time: a teenager whose favorite pastime is smoking pot in his dreary existence, a housewife, where their best days have been left behind, a greedy businessman whose only desire is to increase his wealth and a depressed pervert.

Detective Lucas McCarthy finally apprehends "Meat Cleaver Max" and watches the electric chair execution from the audience. But killing Max Jenke only elevated him to another level of reality. Now Lucas' family is under attack, his sanity in question, and his house haunted. Aided by a disreputable college professor, can Lucas reclaim his mind, house, and family?

Fact-based story of the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr., son and namesake of the famed pilot, and ensuing trial of accused and convicted killer, Bruno Hauptmann.

In the late 1940s, a murderous couple known as the 'The Lonely Hearts Killers' kills close to a dozen people. Two detectives try to nab the duo who find their targets via the personals in the paper.

Carlos DeLuna was arrested in 1993 aged 21 for the murder of Wanda Lopez, and protested his innocence until his execution, declaring that it was another Carlos who committed the crime.

Based on true events, The Lena Baker Story recounts one African-American womans struggle to rise above the challenges of her life, to face the choices she makes, and to ultimately triumph over her...Lena Baker was the first and only woman to be sentenced to death by the electric chair in the state of Georgia and was executed in 1945. She was pardoned posthumously in 2005.

After a long time in the army, an Afro-American soldier returns to his hometown, where, years ago, his brother was executed for the rape and murder of two white girls. The commando believes his brother to have been innocent and seeks a proof for that, but there are some people in the town who will stop at nothing to hide the secrets of their past...

A narrative feature film inspired by the events known as the Beltway sniper attacks.

Docu-drama based on the life of Ted Bundy, a serial killer who killed at least 19 young women during the 1970's (though some sources say as many as 30 to 35 were murdered). Set from his college student years, to his first victims, his capture, escape from prison (twice), his final killing spree to his trial, conviction and execution.

Set in a gritty and decadent 1970s America, American Boogeyman follows the elusive and charming killer and the manhunt that brought him to justice involving the detective and the FBI rookie who coined the phrase ‘serial killer’.

Charlie Cox should have stopped for gas in California. While he's on a cross-country trip with his teenage daughter, Joleen, his car hits empty in a creepy town in Nevada. With nary a drop of fuel to be found, Charlie and Joleen stop for the night at a dilapidated trailer park. There, Joleen catches the eye of two teenage boys, Jimmy and Pinky -- either of whom could be the serial killer currently terrorizing the town.

Two Los Angeles police detectives, cynical veteran Malloy and cocky rookie Dietz, hunt for a serial killer, an ex-cop named Taylor, whom randomly chooses his victims from a phone directory.

The crazed brother of a condemned killer sent to the gas chamber swears vengeance on those he holds responsible for his brother's execution.

The murder of an innocent, happy couple leads to a courtroom trial that would sentence the killer to death, but who really did it?

A police officer suspended and now accused of murder is forced to join forces with his court-appointed attorney to assemble the pieces of a deadly puzzle to find the missing link before time runs out.

The gory ax-murder of one mousy, suburban Texas housewife by another is nearly as shocking as the excuse offered by the bespectacled defendant's attorney: self-defense.

Two hospitalized young people discover that things can get even worse when the dilapidated institution is stranded by a severe storm and a maniac stalks the corridors butchering the patients and staff.

Nebraska 1958. Richie Stark was no ordinary killer. What made him different was that he wasn’t running from murder - he was looking for it! Laura Ferguson, his adolescent girlfriend, just wanted to escape, but after the senseless murder of her father, she soon found herself on a road to hell. This is the true story of two young delinquents who in just a few days in 1958 raised hell along the highway, fell in love, and slaughtered seven innocents.

This documentary tells the story of Rose West from baby to mother to murderer. This is a side to the world’s most notorious criminal that viewers have never seen before – her childhood. Using incredible first-hand accounts from people who knew her as a child; neighbours, teachers, friends and relatives, we’ll go through the key turning points in her upbringing that made her the killer she was to become. By intercutting between her harsh childhood and the psychopathic tendencies she presented in later life and the despicable crimes she would go on to commit, plus with the advice of on-screen psychologists; the viewer will get a better sense of why Rose West became the serial killer of at least 12 young women.

An anthology series centered around some of history's most famous criminal investigations.

See No Evil: The Moors Murders is a British two-part television serial directed by Christopher Menaul. It was produced by Granada Television and broadcast on ITV during May 2006. It tells the story of the Moors Murders, which were committed during the 1960s by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, from the view of Hindley's sister Maureen Smith and her husband David.

The story of an American Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent going undercover to stop an organization from trafficking people, and the struggles of three trafficked women.

Uncovers the extraordinary truth behind some of the Mafia's most notorious outlaws, and reveals how the FBI and law enforcement developed the techniques to crack the organization and bring it to justice. This is the story of the rise and fall of the Mafia, told by the people who brought it down.

Every episode documents a town and its people through a murder that tore through it. The townspeople not only become our storytellers, but they also hold the clues to the puzzle that has forever changed their lives and how they understand their home.

A unique look inside the mind of an infamous serial killer with this cinematic self-portrait crafted from statements made by Ted Bundy, including present-day interviews, archival footage and audio recordings from death row.

Candy Montgomery is a 1980s housewife and mother who did everything right — but when the pressure of conformity builds within her, her actions scream for just a bit of freedom. Until someone tells her to shush. With deadly results.

In 1970s NYC, the “Torso Killer” preys on women to fulfill his grotesque fantasies while eluding police. A docuseries dive into crime’s darkest places.

Chronicles the bizarre and psychologically complex story of six individuals who were convicted for the 1985 murder of a beloved 68- year-old grandmother, Helen Wilson, in Beatrice, Nebraska.

A four-part docuseries that sheds new light on the infamous 1958 Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate murder case, in which the teenage couple was charged and convicted of brutally killing 11 victims at random.

We all dream of possessing a part of that quaint small-town life. A friendly smile and wave from the neighbors as the kids run through the yards playing ball. Unfortunately, sometimes even paradise is visited by loss. Heartland Homicide tells the stories of these events, when big city crimes visit small-town America. Each episode uncovers the lives and circumstances of the victims while outlining and examining the convicted individual's motives, bringing the horrific events into the light with the people who were there.