# The Murders at Starved Rock (2021)

> A three-part documentary revisits the 1960 Starved Rock murders and the doubts that have haunted the prosecutor's son for six decades.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/114909

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 3
- Episode runtime: 58 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary, crime
- Created by: David Raccuglia
- Network: HBO
- Cast: Rod Thorson, Andy Hale, Steve Stout, David Raccuglia, Crystal Lujan
- TMDB rating: 6.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8045494/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: somber, probing, unsettling, contemplative, haunting

## Synopsis

The Murders at Starved Rock (2021) is a three-episode American true crime documentary miniseries created by David Raccuglia for HBO. It revisits the brutal 1960 killings of three women in Starved Rock State Park in LaSalle County, Illinois, following the decades of questions that have troubled the son of the prosecutor who built the case. Host and creator David Raccuglia guides viewers through the record, while local author and historian Steve Stout and crime analyst Andy Hale weigh in on what the evidence can and cannot prove. Rod Thorson appears among the principal voices, and dramatized reenactments feature Crystal Lujan as Mildred Lindquist. The engine of the story is a convicted man's effort to clear his name after sixty years behind bars, pressed against a town that has never stopped arguing over what happened. Each hour peels back old court files, witness accounts and weathered landscape to test whether a verdict can hold after so long. The tone is sober, probing and unsettling, with a lingering sense of doubt rather than tidy closure. Fans of The Jinx, Making a Murderer and The Staircase will find resonance in its patient reexamination of a contested conviction, its ordinary small town setting and its refusal to offer easy answers. Set in the Midwest across 1960 and the decades since, it is a compact, grounded piece of HBO nonfiction for viewers who want a cold case weighed carefully.

## Shows like The Murders at Starved Rock

- [The Yogurt Shop Murders (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/184406)
- [Lo que la verdad esconde: Caso Asunta (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/76639)
- [The Confession Killer (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/81020)
- [Interrogation (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/81425)
- [The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/55155)
- [Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/194967)
- [Sophie: A Murder in West Cork (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/104775)
- [Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta? (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/92998)
- [The Alcàsser Murders (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/76523)
- [Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/181591)

---

Site overview: https://ember.film/llms.txt