Librarian Recommended

The thing about true crime programming is that true crime is one of only a handful of topics that appeals to a huge cross-section of people. True crime programs draw in patrons of all genders, races, age groups and economic backgrounds. Something about the mystery of it appeals to all kinds of minds.

So, where do you start when you want to present some type of true crime programming, but don’t “just” want to a book club? My recommendation is start local, and start cold.

What I mean by that is that no matter where you live, it is highly likely that that there is at least one unsolved murder or big robbery that has happened near you. Most police and/or sheriff’s departments will have a publicly available list of the cold cases they are still working on, even if those cases have not had any real movement in many years. In most places, these will be the cases your patrons probably have vaguely heard of, if they have been in the community for a long time, or have never heard of at all. The cases you are not likely to hear about in a bunch of podcasts or Dateline NBC type shows.

For my most popular true-crime program, I selected the 4 cases in my city that have been open the longest (these having occurred in 1969, 1978 and 1982). I then used the resources readily available to me as a librarian, which my library provides for free to all our patrons to research them. This meant diving into microfilm, digital newspapers, and archived local news pieces to get as much info as I could before condensing the cases to their most pertinent bits. Mind you, I listen to a LOT of true crime podcasts, watch tons and tons of true crime shows, and I have never ONCE seen one of these cases covered by mainstream media at large, so for 90% of my patrons, these are brand new cases they have never heard of.

Cold cases are also a very good place to start because they are inherently a mystery that your patrons will walk out of the room wanting to solve. Guaranteed that at least a few of them will then read up on these cases (hopefully using your library resources) to learn as much as they can – because maybe THEY will be the ones to find the thing that no one else has found! If nothing else, it will make them more aware of their community and its history, even if that history is dark.

Cold cases are also fun as a time capsule of how far crime solving has come! Imagine being a 20-something patron, who is used to things like 911, DNA, Genetic Genealogy and more hearing about police trying to solve a case when none of that was available! Minds are blown when they realize you had to LOOK UP the number to the police department in a BOOK before you could call them! MADNESS!!!!

Once you have your research, the rest is easy. Make it an old school “I am going to talk, you are going to listen and then we will discuss” type of program. Use a simple PowerPoint. Let them ask questions, speculate wildly and then start working on your follow-up program, because I am telling you, I have never had so many people ask me when “the next one” is in my 13+ years of programming!