Gifts for true crime fans.

Start with the kind of fan they are

“Likes true crime” covers a lot of people. Before you pick anything, work out which of these you are buying for. Most fans are two or three at once, and the sections below follow the same order.

• The listener. Podcasts on the commute, in the kitchen, while falling asleep. Give them something to do with their hands while an episode plays.
• The armchair detective. Pauses the documentary to argue with the timeline. Give them something to solve.
• The reader. Has opinions about Ann Rule and owns two books about the same case. Give them the book they don’t have yet.
• The one who knows the obscure cases. Bored of hearing about the same five killers. Give them the cases nobody else covers.
• The dark-humor friend. The one with a skull somewhere in the kitchen. Give them something that makes visitors ask what it is.

For the listener: something for their hands

If they listen for hours, give them something to do while they listen. Coloring is the one that fits the subject. These books are drawn by hand, one real case to a page, with the details of the case drawn in around the portrait: the objects, the places, the dates. It’s a page to look at while the episode plays, not a blank shape to fill.

If you want to add something small: dense line work like this suits colored pencils and fine-tip pens better than broad markers. A pack of either makes the book feel like a finished gift rather than a first step.

For the armchair detective: puzzles, trivia and case files

If they are the one pointing out what the police missed, give them something with an answer.

Outside our shelf, boxed murder-mystery games feed the same instinct. Hunt A Killer, for one, sells fictional cases as boxes of evidence (letters, newspaper clippings, autopsy reports) to be worked out at home. One difference worth knowing before you buy: those cases are invented. Everything in the books above happened.

For the reader: the books they may not have yet

Every serious true crime reader has a shelf. These five come up again and again when fans talk about where the genre comes from. Check which ones are missing before you buy.

• In Cold Blood, Truman Capote, 1966. The murders of the Clutter family (Herb, Bonnie, Nancy and Kenyon) in Holcomb, Kansas, on November 15, 1959, and the two men who did it, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith.
• Helter Skelter, Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry, 1974. The Manson Family murders of 1969, written by the prosecutor who tried Charles Manson.
• The Stranger Beside Me, Ann Rule, 1980. Rule and Ted Bundy worked together at a Seattle crisis center, answering calls from people at risk of suicide. She met him in 1971, years before he was identified as a killer.
• The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson, 2003. H. H. Holmes and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, told alongside the story of Daniel Burnham, the architect who built the fair.
• I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara, 2018. Her hunt for the Golden State Killer. McNamara died in April 2016; the book came out on February 27, 2018, and Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested on April 24, 2018, two months later.

For a reference rather than a story:

For the fan who knows the obscure cases

Some fans have heard the Bundy story more times than they can count. For them, the gift is a case they don’t know, like Lizzie Halliday or Douglas Gretzler.

For the dark-humor friend

True crime gifts under $20

Four of the books above cost under $13 on Amazon.com on September 29, 2026. Amazon changes prices without notice, so check before you order.

• American Female Serial Killers (coloring): $11.69
• American Female Serial Killers: The Encyclopedia: $12.61
• Bloody Alphabet: $12.99
• True Crime Activity Book for Adults: $12.99

Stocking stuffers and Secret Santa

For a stocking, go small: Serial Killers: 130 Facts & Trivia is the shortest book in the series at 50 pages, and it works as a quiz for the rest of the family on Christmas afternoon.

Secret Santa is where true crime gifts go wrong. A serial killer coloring book is a good joke for someone you know loves the genre and an awkward one for a colleague you have spoken to twice. If you’re not sure, the activity book is the safer choice: it reads as a puzzle book first.

What not to buy

Murderabilia, meaning objects made, owned or signed by killers, is a real market, and the reason most fans stay away from it is the families of the victims. eBay banned its sale in May 2001. Anything with a victim’s name or face on it belongs in the same category. A simple rule: the story is fine, the souvenir isn’t.

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Questions people ask

Sources

Every date and name on this page was checked against at least two of the following. Where they disagree, the disagreement is stated in the text rather than resolved silently.

1. Clutter family murdersWikipedia
2. Inside the brutal murders that inspired a foundational work in the true crime genreSmithsonian Magazine
3. Helter SkelterEncyclopaedia Britannica
4. Helter Skelter, Vincent Bugliosi and Curt GentryW. W. Norton & Company
5. The Stranger Beside MeWikipedia
6. The Stranger Beside Me, Ann RuleGoodreads
7. The Devil in the White CityWikipedia
8. The Devil in the White City, reviewKirkus Reviews
9. I'll Be Gone in the DarkWikipedia
10. I'll Be Gone in the Dark: inside the HBO documentaryTIME
11. MurderabiliaWikipedia
12. EBay will prohibit sales of 'murderabilia'Houston Chronicle
13. Captured by true crime: why are women drawn to tales of rape, murder, and serial killers?Social Psychological and Personality Science (SAGE), 2010
14. Captured by true crime: why women are drawn to tales of rape, murder and serial killersScienceDaily
15. My Favorite MurderWikipedia
16. About My Favorite Murdermyfavoritemurder.com
17. Hunt A Killer: murder mystery gameshuntakiller.com
18. This business made a killing by mailing murder mysteriesInc.