Stéphane Bourgoin, a self-described French expert on serial killers, lived in a world of make-believe. While making low-grade films, he learned what hooked an audience: shock, sex, and gore. In the true-crime world, he discovered that playing a victim attracted advocates, financial support, and fans. So, he told a story (with multiple variations) about finding his friend/girlfriend/wife murdered/beheaded/dismembered in Los Angeles—whatever scenario worked. With one hand, he mesmerized with his “poor-me” account, and with the other, he convinced cops, the FBI, and some documentary makers that he was a legit expert on society’s most extreme offenders. He validated his tales with fake credentials, building a lucrative decades-long career via plagiarism and fraud.

It's not that he lied about everything. That was the key. He did interview a few serial killers (we see some clips of him with Gerard Schaefer and Ottis Toole), and he grabbed what he could from publications by actual experts. He also interviewed FBI profiler John Douglas. It wasn’t hard to stretch the truth about his expertise: His eight interviews turned into 30, then 70-plus. Nobody checked if any of this was true or if the interviews had any clinical value. This went on for years, as Bourgoin was touted as France’s leading authority on serial killers. He’d gone from filmmaker to criminologist. He claimed to........

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