The best true crime longreads of 2024

The New Yorker‘s Heidi Blake, with a new angle on the Whitehouse Farm murders; and Rolling Stone‘s careful explication of the long, strange case against Tupac Shakur’s alleged killer.   — Sarah D. Bunting, co-EIC of B.E., proprietrix of Exhibit B. Books

Published in 2022, THE UNRAVELLING OF AN EXPERT ON SERIAL KILLERS by Lauren Collins in The New Yorker. With the release of the docu-series KILLER LIES: CHASING A TRUE CRIME CON MAN, many returned to the article. And rightly so, I recommend the read above the watch. — Sarah Carradine, co-host of the Crime Seen podcast

Alexander Clapp’s piece on the central role of criminals from the tiny Balkan state of Montenegro in driving the European drug trade got much deeper into the weeds than I thought I wanted to be, but it still seemed too short. It digs not just into how the drug trade works today, but why Montenegrins of all people have become central to it, and the open warfare between rival gangs over control of the trade from South America. Clapp then shows how these gangs are connected to and supported by not just national governments, but by Vladimir Putin. The whole thing reads like the movie that Traffic was trying to be. — Dan Cassino, Professor of Government and Politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University

Amy Kaufman’s piece “For ‘Chimp Crazy’ director Eric Goode, ‘The end justifies the means,’“, which profiled the Tiger King and Chimp Crazy producer, and revealed the very sketchy methods he used to produce Chimp Crazy. — Andy Dehnart, founder of reality blurred

“Unraveling the 50-Year Mystery of the Body in the Basement” by Sarah Weinman — Elon Green, author of The Man Nobody Killed: Life, Death, and Art in Michael Stewart’s New York (coming on March 11, 2025)

The great Pamela Colloff’s “He Was Sent to Prison for Killing His Baby. What if He Didn’t Do It?” for the New York Times Magazine. I appreciate true crime journalism that challenges maxims we accept as true as this piece does for shaken baby syndrome. — Susan Howard, Best Evidence contributor (Instagram: @veronicamers)

“When my mother died, I thought her violent boyfriend had won. But she had secretly taken back control” – Naomi Westerman’s story of her mother’s final act of defiance against an abusive partner gripped me like a vise, and I immediately ordered her essay collection Happy Death Club. Selecting a New Yorker article – how daring. But putting aside that notorious Lucy Letby article, which is still rattling the British media discourse, there’s another outsider view of the particularly clubby and insular world of the English justice system, the examination of the Whitehouse Farm case was calmly thorough. And as a bonus – The Fence’s anonymous probation officer on what is a pretty weird job. — Margaret Howie, co-founder of Space Fruit Press

Because I was working on my own stuff this year (new book, the Rolling Stone feature story, other projects I can’t discuss yet) [!! — EB] I have been *terrible* at keeping track at true crime longreads this year. But it’s always great when there is a Pamela Colloff story and there was an excellent, infuriating one in 2024! I also admired Michael Hardy’s look at Othram, one of more prominent new DNA companies employing genetic genealogy. — Sarah Weinman, author & editor

It’s infuriating to me that Joe Hagan’s “RFK Jr.’s Family Doesn’t Want Him to Run. Even They May Not Know His Darkest Secrets,” a stringently reported examination of the allegations of misconduct and abuse against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., failed to move the admitted whale decapitator’s adherents. But given the miles of column inches devoted to the claims against or outright convictions of people who received voter support…just, I don’t know, dude. Well, wait, I do know — I’m going to keep advocating for and supporting accountability journalism and deep investigations, because I have to believe that bringing truth to power still matters. I just have to.— Eve Batey, Best Evidence co-editor, journalist, and sighthound person.

Unfortunately it’s firmly ensconced behind the New Yorker paywall, but Patrick Radden Keefe’s “A Teen’s Fatal Plunge Into the London Underworld” from the Februrary 5th issue was un-put-down-able. — Tracy Bealer, author of True Crime Fiction on Substack