The life of the notorious Kray twins and the murder of British architect Joanna Yeates are among the latest true crime stories headed to Prime Video.
The Amazon streamer has struck a ten-title deal with London-based distributor Sphere Abacus for rights in the UK and Ireland. All the shows hail from British independent producers.
The package comprises Woodcut Media productions Krays: London’s Gangsters, The Murder of Joanna Yeates, The Crossbow Cannibal, Murder in Concrete, Confessions of a Female Serial Killer and Murdered or Missing?; Yeti Television’s Surviving the Tunisia Beach Attack; Wag Entertainment’s Murderer Behind the Mask, Middlechild Productions’ The Facebook Honeytrap: Catching a Killer and recently announced pick up The Wimbledon Killer, which is from Blink Films.
Single doc The Murder of Joanna Yeates launches first, a week today on April 22. It looks into the case of Yeates, who was found murdered on Christmas Day in 2010 after going missing from her home in Bristol. The case became a grim lesson how media frenzies can go wrong, with Yeates’ innocent landlord, Christopher Jefferies, accused of murder and put on trial by the press. A Dutch national living in the building was later jailed for the killing.
Krays: London’s Gangsters is a two-parter looking how twin brothers Ronnie and Reggie Kray built a criminal empire and turned themslves into underworld legends in London’s East End in the 1950s and 1960s. The doc includes never-heard-before audio of the brothers during their later imprisonments and explores the deep and complex relationship between them.
The Crossbow Killer profiles murderer Stephen Griffiths, Murder in Concrete looks into the case of a body discovered in a concrete tomb, Confessions of the Female Serial Killer explores the 10-day murder spree committed by Joanne Dennehy in March 2013 and Murder or Missing? looks at three generations of a family – including an eight-week-old baby – were killed as part of a money laundering scheme.
Surviving the Tunisia Beach Attack is billed as “the definitive account” of the 2015 massacre of tourists that claimed 38 lives in the less than 40 minutes, Murder Behind the Mask looks into how successful architect and seemingly happy family Graham Dwyer secretly committed a murder, and The Facebook Honeytrap explores how the doting niece of murdered British expat Christine Robinson ensnared her aunt’s killer.
As we revealed last month, The Wimbledon Killer looks into the murder of Rachel Nickell, who was stabbed to death in broad daylight on Wimbledon Common. It is one of two docs on the killing, along with Netflix’s Wimbledon Common (working title).
“We are extremely proud of the relationships we have built with a wide group of indies throughout the world,” said Will Stapley, Sphere Abacus Head of Acquisitions. “The producers included in this significant deal are best in class and we are sure that these diverse, high quality true crime titles will strongly appeal to Prime Video subscribers.”
Prime Video has shopped at Sphere Abacus several times in the past for true crime docs, taking a similarly large slate back in January 2024 in one instance.
Canada’s Bell Media recently completed a deal to buy Sphere Abacus, as Deadline revealed a few weeks back. Sphere Abacus had previously been sold to Sphere Media, in which Bell holds a minority stake.
