In Matt Ruskin‘s Boston Strangler (Hulu, 3.17), Boston Record-American reporters Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley) and Jean Cole (Carrie Coon) combat sexism and corruption among fellow Boston journalists and within the police ranks in order to investigate a serial killer who later became known as the Boston Strangler. Mclaughlin and Cole have to fight tooth and nail, but their diligence gradually prevails.

Boston Strangler is apparently a one-off feature.

In Ali Abbasi‘s Holy Spider, journalist Arezoo Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) arrives in the Iranian Holy City of Mashhad to investigate several murders of local street prostitutes. She uncovers evidence that suggests a serial killer, but her hunches are not taken seriously by male journalists and policemen. Cultural misiogyny blocks or restrains at every turn, but by posing as a prostitute and placing herself in danger Rahimi manages to identify and incriminate the killer, Saeed Hanaei (Mehdi Bajestani). Soon after police arrest him.

Wiki excerpt: “The 13 murders of Boston-area women, committed between June 1962 and January 1964, were initially assumed to be the work of one unknown person, dubbed ‘The Mad Strangler of Boston’. On July 8, 1962, the Sunday Herald wrote that ‘[a] mad strangler is loose in Boston’ in an article titled ‘Mad Strangler Kills Four Women in Boston’. The killer was also known as the ‘Phantom Fiend’ or ‘Phantom Strangler’, due to his ability to get women to allow him into their apartments. In 1963, two investigative reporters for the Record American, Jean Cole and Loretta McLaughlin, wrote a four-part series about the killer, dubbing him “The Boston Strangler”. By the time that Albert DeSalvo‘s confession was aired in open court, the name ‘Boston Strangler’ had become part of crime lore.”