Short review of some documentaries I watched recently

Jon Venables: What Went Wrong? (2011)
In 1993, 2-year-old boy James Bulger was abducted, tortured, and killed in England by 2 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. Both were convicted and sent to prison. 
Several years after being released, Jon Venables was imprisoned again for possession of child pornography. The documentary, as you can tell from the title, focuses on him and tries to find out what went wrong—why he ended up in prison again. 
This is a rather interesting documentary, which raises the question of how to handle young offenders, and makes people think about the effectiveness of rehabilitation programmes in the UK. However, the documentary doesn’t go far enough in investigating the story of Jon Venables, and seems to treat it mostly on the surface. It also doesn’t explore the difference between the 2 boys—at the time, Jon seemed very emotional and scared and asked for comfort from a police officer, whereas Robert appeared coldly calm (based on the recording) and blamed everything on Jon, but the documentary doesn’t quite say what happened to Robert after prison and doesn’t question why it was Jon, not Robert, who violated the law and got imprisoned again. 
At the same time, using child pornography is not a “normal” crime like, say, burglary or drug dealing—I mean, you don’t look for child pornography unless you are a paedophile or have such tendencies. To say that he committed a crime again because the system had failed him is not very convincing, and that aspect in Jon isn’t explored either. 

The Ripper Hoaxer: The Real Story (2006)
Between 1975 and 1980 in England, there was a serial killer who killed 13 women and attempted to murder 7 others, mostly but not only prostitutes. He was nicknamed Yorkshire Ripper. 
During the period of 1978- 1979, a man sent letters, and even a recording, to West Yorkshire Police, claiming to be Yorkshire Ripper. He was not, but the police fell for the hoax, which changed the course of the entire investigation, and allowed the real killer to kill more women.  
The documentary is captivating—as the title suggests, it is not about the killings or about the real killer, but about the hoaxer and how the hoax changed the direction of the investigation and let the real killer escape 9 times, whose file was dismissed for not having the “right” handwriting or the “right” accent. The film narrates the events objectively and lets contributors speak, without openly condemning the police, but still exposes their gullibility and incompetence. 
The documentary also has footage of the hoaxer speaking, so the audience can hear him talk for himself. 
If you like true crime, this is a very good documentary. 

Mystery of the Man on the Moor (2017)
Picture this: in 2015, a body was found on Saddleworth Moor. This was a man estimated to be in his 60s- 70s, he was not from the area, and he was not wearing the proper clothes to walk on the moor. Nobody knew who he was—he had no ID, no bank card, no passport, no mobile phone, no form of identification, not even a wallet. His picture got no response from the public, and his fingerprints didn’t match any record. 
The police found CCTV footage of him at the train station earlier, walking around aimlessly for an hour or an hour and a half, without seeming to be in a panic or any anxiety. 
Who was he? Why did he travel to Saddleworth Moor? What was he doing there? Did he commit suicide or was he killed? The documentary follows the police as they investigate the case and try to answer these questions. As the filmmakers got access to the police from early on, instead of making the film after the events, they could follow the stages of the investigation, find out things as the police discovered more facts, and also capture their emotions, especially their excitement and puzzlement, as the grappled with the case. 
As the story unfolds, it becomes stranger and stranger; once a question is answered, there appear 10 other questions. 
I want to write more about the man, his life and death, but I shall not spoil the documentary, as it is worth watching. Highly recommended.