From William Williams to Jimmy Lee Gray to Jesse Joseph Tafero and others, the executions of a number of death-row inmates have not gone as planned in the U.S.

Rickey Ray Rector always had a troubled mind—as an adolescent, he fought regularly with peers, and by 17, he was a career criminal. But over the course of four days, his disturbing behavior reached its peak when Ray shot five people with a .38-caliber pistol.

Veggie pizza, canned spaghetti and ice cream are among the last-meal requests from infamous killers. We talk to Ashley Lecker, author of a new book of recipes of some of these final meals, 'The Serial Killer Cookbook.'

Derrick Jamison, who spent 20 years in prison for murder before being exonerated on his execution day, and Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, tell us what it's like in the final hours leading up to an execution.

The true crime audience skews largely female, sparking some to question why the genre is so popular among some women. But in Rachel Monroe's book 'Savage Appetites,' she reverses that gaze, turning the lens toward four women who she thinks embody or challenge four classic archetypes of the genre: Detective, Victim, Defender and Killer.

Chris Watts, the Colorado man serving three life sentences for the brutal murder of his wife and two young daughters claims to have had a religious conversion behind bars and is now an evangelical Christian. Murderers David Berkowitz, Jeffrey Dahmer and Karla Faye Tucker also claimed to have found or rediscovered God after being incarcerated. We speak with experts about why so many notorious criminals might make such claims while behind bars.

In December 2012, protests broke out across India after news of a horrific gang rape exploded into global view. The crime—the gang rape of 23-year-old physiotherapy student, Jyoti Singh, committed by six men on a bus in the capital territory of Delhi—was so brutal that it shocked the world and jolted the Indian legal system into reconsidering its protections for women.

A&E True Crime explores the details about serial killer Ted Bundy's January 24, 1989 execution and the macabre hoopla, including celebrations and commemorative T-shirts, that surrounded it.

In 1991, Miguel Angel Martinez,17, Manuel 'Milo' Flores,17, and Miguel Angel Venegas, Jr.,16, each played a role in a triple axe-and-knife murder that rocked the small city of Laredo, Texas. The motivation behind the crime remains a mystery. Martinez and Venegas tell their stories in 'I Am a Killer,' available on Netflix. 

The execution of a prisoner on death-row usually results in the beginning of a new trauma for the family members they leave behind.