Best crime TV factual errors of all time

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Bull picture

Free Fall - S1-E16

Factual error: Almost all the people being shown skydiving have no experience doing it, but the instructor allows them to jump out of the plane unassisted after only giving a theoretic introduction into the subject. First time skydivers are always assisted in some fashion, usually through a tandem-jump or a parachute opened by a line attached to the plane.

Tanngrisnir

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Murder on the Orient Express picture

Episode #1.1 - S1-E1

Factual error: The series is set in 1933, as the initial captions show. Yet the locomotive pulling the Orient Express is a JNR Class C58: the C58 series was built starting from 1938 (C58 239 used here is from 1940).

Sammo

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Bonnie and Clyde picture

Night Two - S1-E2

Factual error: In the scene where Bonnie gives Clyde the unloaded pistol through the jail bars, that gun was not manufactured until after 1972. It is a Bauer .25 ACP semi-automatic stainless steel pistol. Bonnie and Clyde's reign of lawlessness ranged from 1931 to 1934.

blooiris

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Riverdale picture

Chapter Seventy-Nine: Graduation - S5-E3

Factual error: Archie revealed that he joined the Army to avoid repeating his senior year and was shipping to Basic Combat Training the following morning. Before leaving he would need to wait for his background and medical checks to be completed (including getting his dropped murder charge reviewed for suitability), which could take weeks. Also, the Army usually requires a diploma or GED to ship to basic. There were brief periods when the Army was accepting dropouts but it was not when this episode took place.

AD

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Code of a Killer picture

Show generally

Factual error: The detective constable is addressed as "Sir" by uniformed constables. They actually hold the same rank. Detectives do not outrank uniformed officers in Britain.

Necrothesp

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Kleo picture

Show generally

Factual error: The German series is set in 1987 in Berlin before the wall came down. It shows a suitcase going through airport security that wasn't set up until after 2001.

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Liar picture

Season 2 generally

Factual error: DI Renton is a Metropolitan Police officer 'parachuted' into Kent to solve a big case. This hasn't happened for many decades. Local police forces investigate their own crimes without help from the Met.

Necrothesp

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The Frankenstein Chronicles picture

Season 1 generally

Factual error: Many elements of Marlott's trial and execution are incorrect. The judge sits with two assessors (a European practice, not a British one). He is addressed as 'Your Honour' instead of the correct 'My Lord'. He instructs the jury to find Marlott guilty and then goes straight to sentencing, which would never happen; a judge can instruct a jury to acquit, but not convict. He puts the black cap on himself, instead of an attendant doing it. The form of words for the death sentence is incorrect. The chaplain (who appears to be Catholic, not Anglican) gives a speech at the scaffold.

Necrothesp

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Sherwood picture

Show generally

Factual error: The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has red fabric within the crowns on his rank insignia. This would be correct for most British police forces, but the Metropolitan Police uses blue fabric instead.

Necrothesp

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NCIS: Los Angeles picture

The Livelong Day - S5-E7

Factual error: When the stolen freight train is braking, the air pipe becomes disconnected. This should trigger the brakes on the train, but the train keeps going with no brakes. When the train is being slowed with no brakes working, why are there sparks coming from all wheels on the train? (00:32:00 - 00:38:00)

M1CGP

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Eric picture

Episode #1.6 - S1-E6

Factual error: In Episode 6, Vincent comes out of his apartment building and before he reaches the curb, and has a chance to hail a cab, one is waiting for him. There was no ability to book a yellow cab in the 1980s.

bnemirow

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Queen of the South picture

Cuarenta Minutos - S1-E2

Factual error: When they're traveling to the farm to rescue her friend, (when a drone is filming from above following the truck down the road) there is light snow on the ground. Throughout the series in different parts, when they speak they're blowing mist/fog from it being cold. It isn't cold, snowing or any fall leaves in Mexico. Nor do those things hardly ever occur in southern Texas either.

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The Rockford Files picture

The Countess - S1-E4

Factual error: Two cops (the bowtie guy that cuffs Rockford and the one that watches him being taken away from his trailer) report to HQ saying that the protagonist is a suspect for a 157, to which Rockford reacts saying he did not murder anyone (and it is in fact what he is accused of). But homicide is in CA police code 187, not 157. A 157 is an entirely different felony. (00:21:00)

Sammo

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Adam-12 picture

Sunburn - S6-E20

Factual error: 19 1/2 minutes in. They pull over a car and run the plate. Malloy tells the driver the car is registered to a Volkswagen. He should have said the plate is registered.

terry s

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Next picture

FILE #1 - S1-E1

Factual error: Paul tells Shea that he has a condition called Sporadic Fatal Insomnia. Later, Shea finds a fork in a bag labelled Abby. Paul explains that Abby is his daughter, and he wants to test her DNA, because she has a 50-50 chance of contracting the disease. This is false. Sporadic Fatal Insomnia is not hereditary. Fatal Familial Insomnia is genetic and is the inherited form.

toroscan

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