Since Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premiered in 1999, it has gained a reputation for having “ripped from the headlines” stories. While for most of those SVU episodes are based on real life , the headlines are for current cases that have had pop culture ripples, some of them are a bit older.

Law & Order: SVU does not often address cold cases or use cold cases for its inspiration, but when it does, those cases are not adapted straight for the TV screen. Instead, SVU takes aspects of them that the audience may be familiar with and offers a twist.

The New York Ripper Murders

Season 2, Episode 21 “Scourge”

A woman comforts a sick man in the SVU episode "Scourge" Image via NBC

The season 2 episode “Scourge” sees a spree killer who exhibits symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia

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