WMG / American Crime Story

Subjects for future seasons

Serial Killers

• The Alphabet murders during the Seventies
• Ted Bundy
• The Nightstalker murders
• Ed Gein
• The Manson murders
• The BTK killer
• Green River killer
• The Boston Strangler
• The DC Sniper shootings
• Jeffrey Dahmer
  • Jossed for Dahmer as Ryan Murphy made Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story about that story (under the Monster heading rather than American Crime Story).
• The Servant Girl Annihilator
• The Zodiac Killer
• H.H. Holmes
• The Unabomber
• The Phantom Killer
• Robert Durst
• The Cleveland Torso Murders
• The Axeman of New Orleans

Murders, Bombings and Shootings

• Leo Frank and the murder of Mary Phagan
• The Trayvon Martin shooting
• The Boston Massacre
• The JonBenét Ramsey case
• The murder of Michele Avila in 1985
• Columbine shooting
• Aurora theater shooting
• The murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer
• The trial of Phil Spector for the murder of Lana Clarkson
• The Boston Marathon Bombing
• The murder of Eric Garner
• Scott Peterson
• The Sylvia Likens case
• The West Memphis Three
• Sacco and Vanzetti
• Virginia Tech shooting
• Sandy Hook shooting
• JFK assassination
• Martin Luther King assassination
• Lizzie Borden
• Timothy McVeigh
• The Slender Man Murders
• Casey Anthony
• Martha Moxley
• Bernhard Goetz
• Kevin Cooper
• Vincent Chin
• Yoshinori Hattori
• The Sterling Hall bombing
• Roland T. Owen
• Diane Downs
• Jodi Arias
• Clarence Ray Allen
• The Shooting of Rekia Boyd
• The Murder of Harry and Harriette Moore
• Ken McElroy
• The 1996 Honolulu hostage crisis
• The Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting
• Eric Rudolph, the Olympic Park Bomber
• The Menendez Brothers
  • Jossed as ABC recently made an 8 episode mini-series focusing on the Menendez murders
  • Jossed even more as the second season of Monster is about the Menendez brothers
• Priscilla Ford
• The Cleveland School Massacre
• Joe Campos Torres
• Matthew Shepard
• Karyn Kupcinet
• Anna Mae Aquash
• Amanda Milan
• George Floyd

Kidnappings

• The Patty Hearst kidnapping and trial
• The kidnapping of Peggy Ann Bradnick in 1966
• The Lindbergh Baby kidnapping

Rape and Sex-Related Scandals

• The career-ruining rape accusation against comedic actor Fatty Arbuckle in the early days of the film studios
• The Michael Jackson pedophilia accusations
• The Catholic Church sex abuse scandal
• McMartin pre-school
• Jerry Sandusky
• Harvey Weinstein
• Roger Ailes and the sexual harassment and assault accusations towards him by Fox News employees.
• Duke Lacrosse Case
• Miranda v. Arizona^note Miranda was arrested for alleged kidnapping and rape, but gave his confession without being informed of his right to an attorney or to remain silent. Prompted the creation of the Miranda warning.
• Andrew Tate

Conspiracies, Cover-Ups and Misconduct

• The Salem Witch Trials
• 9/11
• Rodney King
• The Waco Siege
• The Clinton Impeachment
  • Confirmed.
• The Nuremberg Trials
• The Watergate Scandal
• The probe into Donald Trump's presidency & possible collusion with Russia
• The Investigation into the Church of Scientology
• Ruby Ridge
• Bloody Christmas
• Iran-Contra
• The Army-McCarthy Hearings
• Elizabeth Holmes and the collapse of Theranos
• Chelsea Manning leaking confidential documents to Wiki Leaks

Organized Crime

• Al Capone
• John Gotti Jr. "The Teflon Don"

Robberies and Theft

• Bonnie and Clyde
• The Hollywood Bandit (Scott Scurlock)
• Gideon v. Wainwright

Riots

• The Stonewall Riots
• The Compton's Cafeteria Riot
• The Attica prison riot
• The Tulsa race riot
• The Cambridge riot of 1963
• The "Long Hot Summer of 1967"
• The 2021 Capitol storming

White Collar Crime

• Bernie Madoff
• Charles Keating

Censorship

• Larry Flint
• Lenny Bruce
• Scopes "Monkey Trials"
• United States vs. One Book Called Ulysses
• Miller v. California

Discrimination

• Dred Scott v. Sanford
• Plessy v. Ferguson
• Korematsu v. United States
• Brown v. Board
• Loving v. Virginia
• Lawrence v. Texas
• Obergefell v. Hodges

Other

• Jack Kevorkian
• Roe v. Wade

There will be a season about the Trial of Clay Shaw

And it will be made as a more historically accurate answer to Oliver Stone's JFK, showing how the trial actually happened. JFK has gotten considerable criticism for being Very Loosely Based on a True Story, portraying New Orleans DA Jim Garrison as a fearless and devoted truth-seeker who nearly exposed a sinister conspiracy—even though most historians view the trial as a complete farce that nearly destroyed an innocent man's life.

And it's a shame, since the real story includes some pretty bizarre details that were very much Freakier Than Fiction (Garrison officially alleged that the Kennedy assassination was a "homosexual thrill killing", for starters). The real Shaw was also a pretty fascinating figure, being a successful businessman, a decorated Army veteran, a playwright who published his first play at the age of 16, and (as revealed after his death) an active CIA informant. It would be pretty cool to see a miniseries delve into all of the historical facts that the movie left out, and it would make for a pretty daring Spiritual Antithesis to a classic film.

The season about Hurricane Katrina will be centered around/allude to events at Memorial Hospital:

Memorial Hospital (now known as Ochsner Baptist Medical Center) was poorly equipped to handle the hurricane, and as a result lost power for several days after the storm. Doctors and nurses tried their best to help patients, as well as citizens who took shelter in the hospital, with limited supplies and no electricity. There was a severely delayed government response in evacuating patients, which made the situation far worse.

Most importantly, there was a great controversy that resulted from the poor conditions. Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses were accused of giving critically ill patients a lethal dose of medications. They were arrested for second-degree murder after investigations at Memorial Hospital. Of the 41 bodies recovered at Memorial Hospital, 23 of the bodies were found to have an extremely high level of morphine which indicated possible euthanasia. However, a grand jury refused to indict the defendants, and the prosecution was dropped.

Full information about the Memorial Hospital euthanasia scandal here

• Partially confirmed for season 3, as Paulson was rumored to be cast as Dr. Anna Pou.
  • Ultimately this did happen, but not as part of American Crime Story. This story was dramatized as Five Days at Memorial, with Vera Farmiga as Dr Pou, not Paulson.

The season about Hurricane Katrina will be centered around/allude to the Danziger Bridge shootings:

Considering the first season's interest in racial injustice and an alleged police cover-up, it seems unlikely that the shootings won't be at least mentioned in the show, and will probable be depicted in some way. Considering the officers responsible didn't go to trial until 2010 though, it seems unlikely that the show will actually be about the shootings specifically.

Season Four will be relatively Lighter and Softer

After three seasons involving murder, spousal abuse, serial killers, hate crimes and gross miscarriages of justice, both audiences and the creators might become emotionally numb to the series. So for S4, they'll go with something along the lines of the Scopes trial, the Ulysses obscenity trial, or Gideon v. Wainwright, cases that were socially significant but don't involve murder, rape or other violent crime.

• Jossed, since it's Season 3 that goes in a different direction and focuses on the Impeachment of Bill Clinton and the fallout of his affair with Monica Lewinsky. This may even end up meaning Season 4 will return to something violent.