Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer (2021) / Z-View
Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer has at it’s core the story of a serial murderer who tortured, sexually abused and butchered school-age girls and prostitutes. How the police came to understand that they were dealing with a serial killer (he reportedly killed between 80-100 women) in a time when police departments from different cities didn’t coordinate information, didn’t have access to the internet or DNA makes for an interesting documentary.
Sadly that is not the focus of Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer.
Unfortunately more time is given to the pornography in Times Square aspect. The pornography tie-in to the case is that several of the serial killer’s victims were prostitutes who worked Times Square. So we learn how Times Square in the 70s and 80s morphed from movie houses to porn shops and peep shows. We hear from folks in the porn industry who have no direct ties to the murders. Short shrift is given to how police captured the killer, the trial or events that led to learning there were many other unsolved murders that he committed.
As I said, Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer has at it’s core an interesting story of the capture of a serial killer, there’s just too much filler you have to go through to get there.
