Dick Wolf Explores Five Brutal Murder Cases in New True Crime Series

Dick Wolf made the move from scripted procedural dramas to true crime with the introduction of Homicide: New York . Now, he’s moved the investigation into real-life solved murder cases from the Big Apple to the City of Angels with Netflix’s Homicide: Los Angeles, where the cases presented come from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s elite homicide bureau, which covers the largest county in the country and some of the most brutal crimes committed.

“We really try to give insight from [the detectives’] perspective, while still honoring the victims and the families and the tragedy that befell them,” executive producer Adam Kassen of Alfred Street Industries, the company who produced the series with Wolf Entertainment, tells Parade . “We showcase what it really takes to solve these cases. We feel like we’re giving a little bit more insight than you would typically have from their perspective, what it takes to solve these kinds of cases.”

What also makes Homicide: Los Angeles stand out from the myriad true crime series is that even as it unfolds the tragedy, it also looks to find some inspirational stories within them.

“We lean on the investigators a bit and their perspective in a way that maybe we don’t always see,” Kassen continues. “You really get their insight into not only how they approach the cases, the work that it takes to actually solve these cases, but also the emotional connection and the care that they have for the cases themselves, as well as to each other.”

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Read more of Parade 's conversation with Kassen below in which he talks about what they look for in selecting cases for coverage, how the families get involved, and more.

Is crime more interesting in these major cities? Why LA and New York?

Well, sadly, there’s not a big city you can’t go to without focusing on murder. It’s everywhere, all over. New York is an obvious choice as Dick and his shows have done a lot of his scripted work in that city. We started with New York, obviously, because of the connection that Dick has with Law and Order. It just made a lot of sense from his connection with the NYPD.

We wanted to also pair that with a city that was very different from New York. New York and LA are quite different cities but their homicide detectives both deal with murder. They’re very different cities and make up a very different topography and types of people. So, we thought it would be interesting to showcase two large cities that were different from each other on different ends of the country.

When you’re picking cases, because obviously there’s a lot to pick from, what is it that you look for? Do they have to be solved? Do you meet the investigators to make sure that they’ll be able to speak well on camera? What aspects of the crime and getting families involved do you take into consideration to have a successful episode?

For this series, we started with the investigators. We wanted to start with a group of homicide detectives that we felt were at the top of their game, that were people that really cared about their work, cared about each other and was a group that had worked together throughout the years. With Homicide: Los Angeles, it was the homicide bureau in the L.A. Sheriff’s Department, so we focused on them. We started talking to them, we asked them what are the cases that impacted you, that you want to talk about, that impacted your career, and that still remain with you today.

We try to show a variety of different types of cases, with different demographics throughout. We did look at cases where they were successfully solved, or cases where they were able to get some kind of conviction so you could showcase how they were able to investigate a case successfully from the moment they got it and what it took to actually solve it.

One of the things, though, that gets the emotional tug is when family members or people’s best friends speak to the camera. How hard is it to get the families involved? Or is it easy because they want to get recognition for their loved ones?

It’s a variety, right? You talk to the families, and we try to be very sensitive, first and foremost. To make sure that they know that we’re doing this and give them the opportunity to participate if they would like to, and to make sure that we have somebody from the family or somebody who was very close to them that can speak to the victim and give them voice in it. We think it is incredibly important, not just for the emotion of the show, but to make sure that they’re represented as a person because in the end, it’s a horrible tragedy that befell somebody and their family. And the weight of that is important for the audience to feel.

As you can see, it weighs on these detectives, as well, and we try to showcase that. They’re talking to the families, and they see the carnage firsthand. They’re the ones that can, hopefully, give some modicum of peace to the families. You talk to these detectives and a lot of them will say— Mark Lillienfeld says he does not like the “C” word. He thinks it’s a horrible word. He says the C word is closure. He doesn’t think that actually exists. You can’t give somebody closure but maybe you can give them justice.

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Homicide: Los Angeles Season 1 Cases:

Hunting Phil Spector

A murder at the mansion of music producer Phil Spector lands detectives in the crosshairs of one of Hollywood’s most sensational celebrity cases.

Kassen: “He chose to live in this large house, larger than any house in the area up in Alhambra. They talk a lot about his place and just how odd it was. They walked into the crime scene, how horrific it was, what they saw, and just as they started searching for evidence, it was like he was this massive wealthy packrat that had not only all these accolades up on his wall from his music career as a producer but just all sorts of stuff in it. They all talked about how very odd the house was.

“The people that we spoke with talk about him like he was this genius. They talk about the Wall of Sound that he created and all these amazing artists that he worked with throughout the years. But you hear all these accounts, also, that he was a control freak and would have these spats of violence and outbursts, and that he carried a weapon. Then we started talking to women that he dated or tried to date and some of the horrible things that he did to them. So, this was a behavior that just from talking to folks he had. This was a guy who was violent for a long time. Lana Clarkson was unfortunately murdered because of him.”

Race Car Killer

When a legendary race car driver and his wife are shot in their driveway, investigators zero in on a cold-blooded suspect for the shocking murders.

Kassen: “It was Mickey Thompson ’s business partner who was sued by Mickey and lost. It was revenge. It was that Mickey won. You had these people that were too hypercompetitive. Mike Goodwin was the perpetrator in this who got away with it for years and years until Mark Lillienfeld came on. It was a true cold case and Mark was able to do amazing work and solve it.

“One of the things that stuck out to me was they talk about that murder, and they talk about how Trudy Thompson [Mickey's wife] was shot first. It was done in a way so Mickey would suffer. He saw her murdered in his driveway. So, it was somebody that really wanted to enact revenge on him.”

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Murder at the Beach

After the discovery of a woman’s body on the beach, suspicion falls on her husband as the killer—until new technology helps the detectives crack the case.

Kassen: “ Ralph Hernandez was the homicide detective. It was a case that really stuck with him. He was very emotionally connected to the victim. Also, Teresa Broudreaux ’s husband, Ronnie Fematt , was a suspect for so many years. So, not only in this case did Ralph’s work finally catch the perpetrator [ Robert Yniguez] , it for the first time ever took some shade off of Ronnie. Throughout his whole life, even though he was never convicted of it, he was never arrested for it, there was always suspicion around him. Even with his own family. So what Ralph did on this case was not only get justice for Teresa, but he was able to get justice for Ronnie.

A Hollywood Affair

When a Hollywood studio executive goes missing, a tumultuous affair comes to light, leading investigators to suspect foul play.

Kassen: “ Ty Labbe was the main investigator on that. He worked with his partner John O’Brien , who we didn’t speak with. Gavin Smith was missing at first. Very quickly they were able to find evidence that led them to believe it was a homicide. But he first disappeared on May 1, 2012, and they didn’t find his body until October 24, 2014. It was found in Palmdale by a hiker walking his dog.

“It’s the amount of evidence that you’re able to compile as these investigators will tell you, but it’s also the prosecutor that you’re working with who feels like they can take that case beyond a reasonable doubt to court and are willing to do so.

“Until they found the body and were able to get Chandrika Cade-Creech to actually turn witness and say what happened, they didn’t feel like they had enough evidence to do so. They very much believed that this was a premeditated, first-degree murder case. That’s what John Creech was originally charged with. And they still say they felt like it was a travesty of justice that he was only found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. At least in the end, he had a federal drug charge, so that gave him an additional 40 years. So, they felt that he was sentenced to the right amount of years, but they felt very much this was a premeditated murder.”

The Disappearing Wife

A California senator’s daughter vanishes, leaving behind a horrifying, blood-stained car. Is her murder political payback, or something else?

Kassen: “ Jana Carpenter-Koklich 's body was never found. Karen Shonka , who was one of the lead investigators on that, and Ron Bowers , who was overseeing the prosecuting department at the time, he would say, I believe, at the time that was the first no body case that they were able to get a conviction on. So, they were able to get enough evidence, circumstantial evidence, to add up to actually being able to convict Bruce Koklich .

“It took two trials to actually do so. But, in the end everybody was convinced it was Bruce. They felt they had the evidence, and in the end, they were able to get the jury to convict.”

Homicide: Los Angeles is currently one of Netflix’s top streaming true crime series.

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