Butchers of L.A.: Release date & time, where to watch, and more 

Sundance is coming up with a new limited true crime docuseries titled Butchers of L.A., which is set to premiere this Thursday, June 26, 2025. The three-part docuseries tells the horrifying tale of the “Freeway Killers.” They committed a series of brutal murders in the ’70s and ’80s and terrorized Southern California over the two decades.

When authorities discovered 131 bodies across Los Angeles in the 1970s, there was widespread panic among the masses. While investigations had led the police to only one suspect, they soon managed to uncover 3 killers, each with a different tactic. Directed by David Harvey, Butchers of L.A. is an engrossing and disturbing retelling of the Freeway Killers case.

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Butchers of L.A. release date and how to watch?

The three-part true crime docuseries premieres this week on Thursday, June 26, 2025, at 10 pm ET/PT on SundanceTV. It will also be available to stream on Sundance Now and AMC+ for viewers without a cable connection or for those who prefer to stream content.

The docuseries will only air its first episode this week. Parts 2 and 3 of Butchers of L.A. will drop on July 3, 2025, and July 10, 2025, respectively.

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What is Butchers of L.A. all about? Plot synopsis and episodes explored

The official synopsis of the docuseries, as per SundanceTV, reads:

"From the early 1970s, gay men were being savagely murdered and their bodies carelessly discarded along Southern California’s highways. Initially, police suspected a single perpetrator, but the detectives’ investigation ultimately revealed that three killers were operating, independently of each other, in the same vicinity."

It further reads:

"With intertwined storylines and dramatic twists and turns throughout, Butchers of L.A. exposes three sadistic serial killers — Patrick Kearney, William Bonin, and Randy Kraft — and explains the truth behind these horrifying events."

The docuseries is directed by Harvey and produced by Mariana Ríos Sánchez from Peninsula Television. Sphere Abacus’ Jonathan Ford serves as the executive producer of the series.

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Details of all three episodes of Butchers of L.A. explored

Episode 1 of Butchers of L.A. is titled Trash Bags and it will open the series by introducing how the law enforcement agencies in the late 1960s and early 1970s discovered a pattern of murdered hitchhikers and young men. It was found that their remains were crudely disposed of in industrial-strength garbage bags.

When they began their investigations, it led them to an unassuming aerospace engineer, who lived a shocking double life as a sadistic killer. The second episode, titled, On the Freeway, will take the case forward. With Patrick Kearney behind bars, the police realized that there was another predator on the loose who was continuing to commit brutal murders.

An in-depth investigation led authorities to “The Freeway Killer” and his mobile torture chamber. However, these murders seemed to suggest that it is the work of more than 1 killer. This forced the authorities to finally acknowledge that there might be multiple Freeway Killers on the loose.

The final episode of the Sundance series, titled Keeping Score, will continue the nightmare of the law enforcement authorities. Their illusion that the matter was solved with Bonin behind bars was soon shattered. There seemed to be a third killer on the loose who continued the work of the previous two killers. But this third killer was by far the most methodical and calculated of them all.

The episode explores how this killer was caught due to a random police check and how impossible it had been to catch him before that moment.

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Don't miss Butchers of L.A. premiering this Thursday.