A&E Documentaries

The powerful two-hour special “Jonestown: The Women Behind The Massacre,” focuses on four women in Jim Jones’ inner circle who helped plan the 1978 Jonestown Massacre, one of the largest murder-suicide events in modern history which left 918 men, women and children dead. The special will explore the influence that Jones’ wife Marceline Jones and mistresses Carolyn Layton, Maria Katsaris and Annie Moore had on The People’s Temple and its tragic end. Drawing on exclusive interviews with Jonestown survivors and family members, including Jones’ biological son, as well as never-before-seen archival footage, photos, audio recordings, and the women’s personal letters, the documentary gives an intimate look into their roles within the church from its earliest days in Indiana to its expansion into northern California and finally its disastrous end in the secluded jungle of Guyana.

Ten years after the tragic disappearance and mysterious death of three year old Caylee Anthony, her grandparents, George and Cindy Anthony, open up to Elizabeth Vargas about their lives in the A&E special, “Casey Anthony’s Parents Speak.” Interviewed at the home where they raised their daughter Casey and where they still live, George and Cindy Anthony sit with award-winning journalist Elizabeth Vargas to dive deep into the years raising Casey, revealing the intimate and heartbreaking details of their lives a decade after everything went wrong. Along the way George and Cindy revisit locations that have come to define their lives, from the woods where Caylee’s remains were found, to the hotel where George almost ended it all. And for the first time ever, cameras will follow as they shed light on the complicated truth about their relationship with each other and the tension surrounding their differing opinions about their notorious daughter, Casey.

“The Plot Against America” looks beyond the headlines and goes into the heart of our country to ask the question, is America safe? Beginning in 2001, a shift in counter-intelligence spending meant that the United States took its eye off the spy game while Russia continued to dedicate vast resources to developing their army of spies. The documentary follows former FBI Special Agent Dennis Franks as he tracks down enemy “sleepers” who have been strategically placed throughout America, and builds a case to expose them.

“The Spy Who Raised Me” follows the emotional journey of Chelsea Dittrich, the U.S. born daughter of a former American-based Russian spy. Speaking with other children of spies as well as with her own father whose spying activities tore her family apart, she uncovers the effects this clandestine activity has on families and communities as a whole.