True Crime: Decoding the Evidence

Course Overview

Course No. 30500

Join forensic experts as they re-examine history’s most intriguing unsolved crimes using modern investigative techniques.

This 8-lecture course examines:

• Infamous serial killer cases like Jack the Ripper and Zodiac
• Hollywood scandals and mysterious deaths
• Ancient murders analyzed with modern forensics
• Unusual murder weapons and forensic challenges
• Historical assassinations shrouded in myth

Video Lectures

01: Jack the Ripper (29 min)

Profile the 1888 Whitechapel murders that created the world’s most infamous unidentified serial killer.

02: The Coldest Cases (28 min)

Apply modern forensics to prehistoric murders, medieval regicides, and WWI casualties.

03: The Black Dahlia (25 min)

Investigate the brutal 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short that became a Hollywood noir legend.

04: Death in Tinseltown (22 min)

Explore the unsolved 1922 killing of director William Desmond Taylor and Hollywood’s dark side.

05: Zodiac: A Cult of One (25 min)

Decipher cryptic ciphers left by California’s 1960s-70s puzzle-loving serial killer.

06: Weird Weapons (22 min)

Examine murders committed with uncommon substances that challenge forensic detection.

07: Recovering the Romanovs (27 min)

Separate fact from fiction in the 1917 execution of Russia’s royal family.

08: Death in the Old West (28 min)

Reconstruct frontier mysteries from outlaw assassinations to vanished prospectors.