80 replies to this topic

[Sterling Blue]

"Deadly Women" is a series on Investigation Discovery, and the show is about female murderers. They cover about three women per episode. Although I watch the show, it's probably my least favorite series on Investigation Discovery, because 98% of the show consists of cheesy re-enactments with really bad acting. I tend to like true-crime shows that show footage (or at least a lot of photos) of the actual perpetrators and victims, not actors wearing awful wigs, trying to look like the people they're portraying. "Snapped" on Oxygen is a much better crime show about women who kill.

[katymo]

I actually really like this one compared to the others for some reason. They've covered a few I had never heard of. Men are known as the more violent sex, but damn women are evil sometimes! I'm just fascinated at what goes on in the minds of some of them, the planning and scheming it takes is diabolical.

[Sterling Blue]

I'm not crazy about this show, but I'm still watching it to see cases I've never heard of before. The cheesiest part of the show is in every episode when they do a closeup of the actress portraying the killer, the actress is looking down, and then the camera zooms in as the actress looks up at the camera with psycho eyes.

[Izz]

I watched this for the first time last night, and I agree that there are cases that are new to me. I was puzzled by the one about the woman who murdered 35 people, including her son, and kept their bodies in the basement. My questions are - Where did she get the coffins, zinc lined or not? How did she get the coffins in her wine cellar (which must have been HUGE)? No one noticed that she was constantly getting casket deliveries? Not even the people delivering them? What am I missing here?

[ginamarie]

The one they did about Dorothea Puente featured a mop on the head as a stand in for a wig. The actresses don't look much like the murderesses. The Diane Downs case is still horrifying. Never can get over that one.

[Suz at Large]

What's up with the awful makeup job on Candace (or whatever her name is - Delong?) the profiler? She's either wearing a bad wig or had a bad hair dye job, and her makeup looks like somebody at clown school applied it. She looks so bad it's distracting.

Now probably somebody's going to tell us that she's been really sick and I'm going to regret this snarky post. But still, the woman just looks strange. It did occur to me that since the producers seem to be aiming for a weird vibe with this series overall, maybe the woman's strange appearance is part of the plan. However, the MD who also appears looks normal and healthy.

[ginamarie]

Yeah, Izz....how could that escape someone? Or someones? And...did the zinc seal in the, er, smell or something? But wasn't she opening the caskets and stuff periodically?

Thirty-five? Maybe she was making her own life-size chess set or something. I have no clue.

[amnesia]

What I find most interesting about this show is that it uses NO photos or archival footage of the actual people involved; it's almost entirely done with actors. Every shot is either the actors performing re-enactments, or "talking head" interviewees. You are less likely to notice that the actor doesn't look like the real killer if you never see the real killer. In that sense it's the complete opposite of a show like Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege and Justice, which is assembled almost entirely out of still photos.

It's also interesting that the show doesn't make any attempt to depict arrests, trials, or any post-arrest events. After the murder is committed, the narrator tells us what kind of sentence the person got.

Although I watch the show, it's probably my least favorite series on Investigation Discovery, because 98% of the show consists of cheesy re-enactments with really bad acting.

You should check out some old episodes of Unsolved Mysteries. The re-enactments on that show are like high school theater performances. Personally I think Deadly Women's re-enactments are pretty good, although I agree with the poster who felt that the Psycho-style closing shots (of the killer staring menacingly into the camera) are pretty silly. Still, I give the producers points for doing a completely different style of true crime show.

[abbottrabbit]

I'm so glad there's a topic for this show now. I watch it almost entirely for the cheese factor and bad reenactments, which for some reason tickle the hell out of me.

At the same time, I almost always find myself looking the murderesses up after the vignettes, just to see how closely they kept to the facts (often not very -- with the husband and wife who tortured and killed a bunch of girls [including their daughter] in England, they actually only mentioned about half the murders they did [they also killed, if I recall, his first wife, his daughter from that marriage, at least one other female relative, and so forth]).

I also like the kinfd of quasi-historical aspect of it. So many of these shows focus on murders that have happened in the last twenty years, but this one seems to throw in at least one random crime from the past in each episode.

And since there's so much overlap between this and Snapped, it's always interesting to see how differently they cover the cases.

Edited by abbottrabbit, Dec 12, 2009 @ 9:21 AM.

[Ethereal Zoe]

I've seen several episodes of this show and I absolutely love it. It's odd to Google the stories afterwards and find out the real names of the folks involved and the more intricate details of the crimes.

I'm still haunted by the episode with Martha Beck and her lover. The Lonely Heart Killer, I believe.

[Suz at Large]

I've watched more of these episodes since I posted above, and in the more recent ones, Candace DeLong looks a lot better.

I agree, the reenactments are so cheesy. And I don't like it that we don't see real pictures of the criminals or any of their victims. Some of the segments were fairly unsatisfying to me; I felt they just skimmed over the stories, offering few details and little insight. It's an OK series, but certainly not must-see TV.

[dustoff]

I love this show. The cheese factor is what saves it from not being really creepy and nightmare fodder.

Fatal Attraction is an example of a show that has really horrific crimes and is too real.

Deadly Women - really nasty cases, but you can enjoy it because of the bad camera mugging.

[Myndela]

Fatal Attraction is an example of a show that has really horrific crimes and is too real.

Deadly Women - really nasty cases, but you can enjoy it because of the bad camera mugging.

I think you mean "Wicked Attraction", but I agree. The reenactments are so campy, but they work for the show.

[amnesia]

Some of the segments were fairly unsatisfying to me; I felt they just skimmed over the stories, offering few details and little insight. It's an OK series, but certainly not must-see TV.

I think it's an entertaining show, but you are absolutely right that their treatment of the cases is very superficial.

Deadly Women did a segment on the Piper Rountree case (woman who killed her husband and tried to establish an elaborate alibi by posing as her sister). I had just watched the 48 Hours Mystery episode on the same case, and the two shows seemed to be about completely different crimes. 48 Hours told the story in great detail and gave equal weight to both sides of the case, but Deadly Women just made Piper Rountree seem like a raving loon.

[snaggle]

I have a question. Do they use the same actresses in the re-enactments? I swear I see the same blonde woman playing a murderess in almost every episode. If not, they all look very similar.

[roamyn]

Report · Post#15
I have a question. Do they use the same actresses in the re-enactments? I swear I see the same blonde woman playing a murderess in almost every episode. If not, they all look very similar.

I've noticed that too.

But I disagree. I think alot of the actresses look like the killers.

Not sure why, but I really like this show. My daughter prefers this one to "Snapped", while I like both equally. (Though sometimes "Snapped" is too long & boring.)

90% of the cases, I have heard about. But there are still some that I haven't.

What I'd like to know is why they don't update the episodes. Sheresse Miller has been released from prison, due to the law that she cannot counter-question her accuser. That evidence has to be thrown out, not sure if they're re-trying her. I never thought she was guilty of murder in the first place. It was very slanted toward her as the murderess. "Snapped" did a better job on this case.

Sante Kimes is now being charged as well with another murder. SHE IS a psycho and "DW" did a good job with her case, for the most part. She committed so many crimes that it had to be reduced to fit.

Anyway, "DW" needs to update their cases.00


ETA: I'd like to see them cover the Mary Ann Cotton case, from 1860's Britain.

Edited by roamyn, Nov 6, 2010 @ 1:08 PM.

[bj1968]

ETA: I'd like to see them cover the Mary Ann Cotton case, from 1860's Britain.

I suppose that I could Google the name, but I'm feeling extremely lazy:) Could you please give me the cliffnotes version of the case?

[roamyn]

Mary Ann Cotton was an infamous British poisoner. She ended up killing around 30 people, including numerous husbands, children, mother, and step-children. Only like one of her children survived out of almost 20. I think she had to be delayed in her execution because she was pregnant again. So that would make it two children that survived.

Like Lizzie Borden, they even came up with a "nursery" rhyme for her, too.

[bj1968]

roamyn, thanks for the recap:) It sounds like the case of an American female poisoner from the early 20th century named Nanny Doss.

[NeonJungle]

At the same time, I almost always find myself looking the murderesses up after the vignettes, just to see how closely they kept to the facts (often not very -- with the husband and wife who tortured and killed a bunch of girls [including their daughter] in England, they actually only mentioned about half the murders they did [they also killed, if I recall, his first wife, his daughter from that marriage, at least one other female relative, and so forth]).

I also like the kinfd of quasi-historical aspect of it. So many of these shows focus on murders that have happened in the last twenty years, but this one seems to throw in at least one random crime from the past in each episode.

And since there's so much overlap between this and Snapped, it's always interesting to see how differently they cover the cases.

I do this, too -- look them up, read the real stories, and like viewing photographs. Likewise, enjoy seeing how the various crime shows depict the cases.

One episode of Deadly Women covered Dr. Linda Hazzard, and featured Gregg Olsen, who writes true crime, and I ended up ordering the book on the case, Starvation Heights.

[bj1968]

I was watching the DW marathon yesterday and during the one featuring the German-born killer from Ohio, I really noticed that one of the commentators seemed rather masculine, so I wrote down her name and was going to come here and ask did anyone know rather or not this person was transgerder. Turns out that my hunch was right and Diana Britt Franklin used to be Peter D. Franklin and she has impressive credentials as an author.

Off to read up on Mary Bell now...

[PJWatcher]

The recent countdown of the most Deadly Women named Gertrude Baniszewski as the #1 spot. As an Indianapolis native, I can tell you that it was a huge deal in 1985 when she was being released. The newspaper did long stories reminding readers of Sylvia Likens' living conditions before she died. A new generation was exposed to her misdeeds. She died just a few years later, but I will never forget the protests that surrounded her release from prison.

[always edina]

They got it wrong on the Darlie Routier case: she's on death row in Texas for killing ONE of her boys, not two.

[Suz at Large]

I just watched last night's new episode on my DVR. I'd heard of only one of the three cases before - the woman in California who killed her husband in 2000 so she wouldn't have to pay him alimony in a divorce.

True to form, they went back into history a few generations for the story of serial killer Louise Peete, who amassed quite a body count along her journey in life. She even served time for murder, was paroled, and then murdered again while out on parole. Which proved to be her last one; she was executed for it. Also, all four of her husbands committed suicide. (For real, not murder-staged-as-suicide.) And it amazed me that so many men were willing to marry her, not only when she was a cute young thing, but when she was at least 60. She must have had a powerful personality as well as some kind of serious sex appeal. She was one of the really deadly women who've been profiled on this series. For her it wasn't a one-off thing, murder was truly a way of life.

Before this show I also knew nothing of the much more contemporary Teresa Lewis case. The commentary on the show cast her as being impulsive and stupid as to the murder of her husband and son-in-law, although extremely manipulative of the two young men who did the shooting, and as being very evil by prostituting her teen daughter to those guys as further motivation to kill for her. The articles I read afterward disclose that there was a lot of opposition to her being executed, much of which centered around her very low intelligence, claimed by her lawyers to be on the borderline between normal and retarded (or challenged or whatever it's called now).

It's good to know the DW tradition of cheesy re-enactments continues. I just have to say, the actress who portrayed the young Louise Peete is a beauty. And unlike many of the actors on this show, I don't think I've seen her on any other episodes, unless she was just in the background.

[historylover]

They really released Gertrude? My God, that woman is evil! Another bad one was Terry Knorr, the one who killed 2 of her daughters, and the third finally had the courage to get the heck out of there and help put her behind bars.

I like this series. Especially Candice DeLong and Janice Amatuzio (sp).

NEONJUNGLE: How did you like the book? I have it and it was a good one!

[PJWatcher]

Yes, they actually did release Gertrude. She only served about 20 years and died about five years after her release. She moved to Iowa and changed her name.

The Theresa Knorr case has been done so many times - "Cold Case Files", notably. I've seen the case profiled on almost every true-crime show. Sadly, the youngest daughter, Terry, died of a heart attack not long ago. So, Theresa outlived all of the daughters she hated so much.

[Norgie]

Candace DeLong looks a lot better.

Well, her skin has had time to loosen up since her last face lift. Also, she's dyed her hair a more natural color. I have to admit, I am fascinated by Candace DeLong, she's just so bizarre! I wish more people knew who she was because I do a great impression of her. Not too long ago she had her own series, Facing Evil. Candace comes across as a tough bitch on DW but, when she went face to face with the killers on FE, she totally backed down and gave them the benefit of the doubt.

I think the re-enactments are pretty cheesy too, especially because you can hear the actors' Australian accents (the worst is when they try to sound like street punks) no matter how hard they try to sound American. The close ups of the killers' faces would probably have scared me as a kid but, now, they are just silly. Even so, it's entertaining and wonderfully campy.

[Rina99]

I think the re-enactments are pretty cheesy too, especially because you can hear the actors' Australian accents (the worst is when they try to sound like street punks)

Hah, for some reason I always thought the re-enactments were filmed in New Zealand! I love when they do southern characters, so awful. One of the funniest ever was from the recent batch. The actress attempting to portray a girl gang leader was spectacularly bad, even for this show.

And is it just me, or have the past few seasons featured some really graphic sex depictions? I don't remember them being so...straightforward in older episodes.

[Bleeding Love]

Have they always profiled quasi-famous cases or is this a new direction they're going? In the episodes tonight and the recent ones I've seen, I've seen cases that got media coverage (Clara Harris, Mary Winkler), cases I've seen on other crime shows (Diane Downs, Celeste Beard, Betty Broderick), and names I vaguely recognize but I don't know where from (Jessica McCord, Rachel Wade.) It amuses me when I'm watching a segment and I get halfway through and realize I know the case.

[Neeney]

I've noticed that most of the crime shows on ID get repeated in their other shows at sometime or the other. Watch Dateline or 20/20 or Paula Zahn or one of the other shows they show regularly and you'll see several repeated between shows.

Sometimes I know the cases on DW, but mostly I just recognize some of the stories because one of the other shows on ID has covered it.