Murderers and Their Mothers

TV Show · Crime · Documentary

In this series each episode explores a different killer's disturbing childhood and their unnatural maternal relationships. Presented by crime journalist Donal MacIntyre, with in depth analysis from leading psychologists, criminologists and first hand witnesses, Murderers And Their Mothers investigates the most infamous serial killers, asking whether these murderers were born or made.

2016 · 48m

Starring Donal MacIntyre

EPISODE 1

Daniel Bartlam: The Coronation Street Killer

At 14 Daniel Bartlam savagely killed his mother with a claw hammer and then sought to cover his tracks by setting fire to her body.His parent’s divorce led to menacing behavior, and the mom was desperate to keep it a secret, to her own dreadful fate.
EPISODE 2

Fred & Rose West – The Killer Couple

Fred and Rosemary West raped, tortured, murdered and dismembered twelve women. Why did the Wests embark on their path of depravity? Were they born to kill, or did their mothers make them into monsters thanks to childhoods full of incest and abuse?
EPISODE 3

Jed Allen – The Wolverine Killer

Jed Allen, presumably had a stable life, but in May 2015 he killed his mother, step-father and six year old sister. MacIntyre and Dr. Yardley explore Jed's dysfunctional childhood with his mother to discover the trigger that led him to commit murder.
EPISODE 4

Harold Shipman – The Angel of Death

Dr Harold Shipman was UK's most prolific serial killer with at least 215 known victims. Was Shipman simply addicted to murder, or did his upbringing and the circumstances of his mother's death turn him into a mass murderer?
EPISODE 5

Joachim Knychala - Frankenstein

Joachim Knychala, aka ‘Frankenstein', butchered and desecrated his victim’s bodies with an axe. MacIntyre and Dr. Yardley explore Knychala's twisted relationship with his mother to see whether they were the cause of his murderous misogyny.
EPISODE 6

Dennis Nilsen: The Kindly Killer

One of Britain's most infamous killers, Dennis Nilsen murdered 15 young men, some as young as 14, in London during the late seventies and early eighties. Nilsen held on to the corpses of his victims for weeks on end, talking to them on his return home from work and sleeping beside them. But what led this seemingly normal civil servant to start killing for company?

Faking It Specials
The Case Of: JonBenét Ramsey
Rose West: Born Evil?
Ken and Barbie Killers: The Lost Murder Tapes
Moors Murders
Killers Behind Bars: The Untold Story
The Beverley Allitt Tapes
The Grindr Killer Scandal: A Faking It Special
Serial Killers

Donal MacIntyre

Presenter