# Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer (2021)

> A three-part Netflix docuseries revisits the 1970s New York hunt for the Torso Killer, a predator who preyed on women while eluding police.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/116404

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 3
- Episode runtime: 50 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary, crime
- Created by: Joe Berlinger
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Malcolm Reiman, Vernon Geberth, Melinda Chateauvert, Scott Watson, Ralph Bracco, Scott Hall-Watson, Rebi Paganini, Khalif Cotton
- TMDB rating: 6.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16027926/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: graphic
- Tone: sober, unsettling, grim, somber, forensic

## What critics say

Audiences rate this miniseries mixed, with its true crime account of the Torso Killer seen as a grim, somewhat uneven documentary.

## Synopsis

Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer (2021) is an American true crime docuseries created by Joe Berlinger for Netflix. Across three roughly fifty-minute episodes, this limited series revisits the 1970s New York investigation into the so-called Torso Killer, a predator who preyed on women while eluding police. Former NYPD homicide commanders Malcolm Reiman and Vernon Geberth appear as themselves, reconstructing the hunt alongside author Melinda Chateauvert, who speaks to the lives of the sex workers targeted. Dramatized sequences cast Scott Watson as the suspect Richard Cottingham, and detective Ralph Bracco and Deedah Goodzari are part of the investigative and community story. The engine of the series is the slow accumulation of victims, missed leads and frustrated detectives, presented through interviews, archival texture and reenactments. Its atmosphere is gritty, somber and unsettling, set in the seedy, dangerous streets of 1970s Manhattan. Fans of The Jinx, Mindhunter and Making a Murderer will find resonance in its sober, forensic approach to real predators and the institutions that failed their victims.

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