Netflix continues to be your one-stop shop for all things true crime. The streaming platform is adding even more twisted stories, and they should definitely be on your radar. According to a press release from Netflix, the producers behind Wild, Wild Country have a new series on the horizon, and this one promises to have you as on edge as the dark drama within the Rajneeshpuram did.
Per the press release, Mark and Jay Duplass, who produced directors Maclain and Chapman Way's Netflix series about the Oregon-based cult, will examine another strange story on America's timeline. The Duplass brothers will executive produce the four-part original documentary series Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist, which will deliver the tale of the so-called "pizza bomber heist."
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Haven't heard of this pizza-related true crime story? It's a doozy. In 2003, pizza delivery man Brian Wells walked into a PNC Bank in Erie, Pennsylvania and demanded $250,000 from the teller. He walked out of the bank with the money (well, some of it), but was caught by police shortly afterwards. That was when Wells revealed that he had a collar bomb strapped to his body. The bomb collar detonated, killing Wells, just three minutes before the bomb squad arrived.
I won't spoil the rest of this bizarre crime, but let's just say that not everything is what it seems — making for quite the compelling subject of a new Netflix series. It is directed by Barbara Schroeder with Trey Borzillieri co-directing as well as executive producing alongside the Duplass brothers.
Netflix's next addition to the genre is actually a continuation of an iconic true crime documentary series. The 2004 miniseries The Staircase, from Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, will receive new episodes in 2018. This documentary series is about Michael Peterson, a novelist who was accused of killing his wife Kathleen when she was found, dead, at the bottom of a staircase.
It's fitting that Netflix pick up this particular series for more episodes. The Staircase is, perhaps, the first true crimes documentary series in which fans were inspired to "solve" the case online. There are many Reddit threads dedicated to finding out what really happened to Kathleen. Some fans are even convinced that it was really a loose owl who knocked Kathleen down the stairs — a theory that was paid homage to on NBC's true crime parody series, Trial & Error.
How much sleep are we going to lose watching these true crime series? So much sleep. I can't wait to unpack more twisty mystery.