Summary
Bosch: Legacyseason 3 is set to air onPrime Videochannel, Freevee in March 2025, and it’ll be the final season of the popular crime series. However, executive producer and author of theBoschbooks,Michael Connelly, is busier than ever and has recently launched a new true-crime series calledThe Wonderland Massacre & The Secret History of Hollywood.Connelly has spent over 30 years writing crime fiction, but he is no stranger to the real thing as he started his career as a crime reporter, and knows all about the real dark underbelly of Hollywood.
The Wonderland Massacre & The Secret History of Hollywoodis a four-part true-crime series currently airing on MGM+ in the US.It features Michael Connelly interviewing former homicide detectives includingMitzi Roberts, who was the inspiration for Renee Ballard, about a horrific mass murder in Los Angeles back in the 1980s.
The Wonderland Massacre & The Secret History Of Hollywood
Episodes
The Heat of a Cold Case, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Up In Smoke, The Last Man Standing
Created by
Directed by
Allison Ellwood
Michael Connellyinitially developedThe Wonderland Massacre & The Secret History of Hollywoodas anAudible podcast series. However, the resounding success of the series led toMGM+ launching a documentary seriesabout the famous cold case. The crime took place inside the house of a small drug gang in Laurel Canyon and the series examines how justice isn’t always served in the City of Angels. This particular murder investigation featured some stranger than fiction elements that led to the case not being solved.
The series follows the ‘missing’ witness in the case: a man calledScott Thorson, (who is the author ofBehind the Candelabra).The murder took place in 1981, and it baffled the lead detectives on the case: Det. Tom Lange and Det. Bob Souza. They had to deal with thieves, drug addicts and porn stars in an investigation that eventually led to a powerful criminal who became the prime suspect in the case.
Tom Lange and Bob Souza Key Facts
Michael Connelly Was A Crime Reporter Before He Wrote The Harry Bosch Novels
Michael Connelly is most famous for creating the gripping and hard-hitting crime book series based on Harry Bosch. His books were adapted into the popular Prime Video series,Bosch,in 2014 and over a decade later, the Bosch-verse is expanding and shows no signs of slowing down, despite the announcement thatBosch: Legacywould be ending after season 3. The character ofRenee Ballard will be set up in theBosch: Legacyseason 3 finale, before her spin-off series airs in the Fall of 2025. Connelly is an executive producer on both shows, but his career didn’t start out in books or television, and instead, his writing career was focused more on real life.
Before becoming a well known novelist and television producer,Michael Connelly was a crime reporter who covered homicide cases in Florida and Los Angeles.He would speak to a number of detectives and his articles delved deep into the real stories behind the brutal murders. Connelly’s experience in this field gave him inspiration for his future novels. In 2006, he wrote a non-fiction book calledCrime Beat, which told the real life stories he encountered in a decade working as a reporter. Michael Connelly revealed his ultimate ambition was to become a novelist in aninterview with Crime Timeback in 2006:
Yes, it was all part of a master plan. Just kidding. Journalism was a means to an end. I studied fiction with the novelist Harry Crews. But I fell in love with Raymond Chandler when I saw Robert Altman’sThe Long Goodbye. I read all his novels, and was drawn to LA; I devoured Ross MacDonald and Joseph Wambaugh.
