在这部美国连环杀手纪录片片中,美国的死刑与该国本身一样古老，当欧洲人来此定居时就存在了。在此期间，超过15,000名男女被处决，最终引发了对这一最终惩罚的激烈争论。
这部纪录片采用了主要犯罪和社会学专家的访谈和评论，从内部审视了美国死刑法的起源，执行方法，以及接受过死刑判决的邪恶面孔，包括Ted Bundy，Timothy McVeigh和John Wayne Gacy。此纪录片同时带观众一瞥监狱牢房和那些等待死囚命运的人的生活。
Wars have terrorized entire populations for thousands of years. The American West was home to ruthless killers who were idolized in fiction and folklore. Evil evolved to a hideous new form with the genocidal dictators of the 20th Century such as Hitler, Stalin and Mao Tse Tung who ordered the execution of tens of millions. But in the middle of the 20th Century a new and chilling phenomenon emerged in the post-war Western society: The Serial Killer! As if fashioned from our nightmares, they terrified and fascinated us. Lurking behind masks of bland normality, the serial killer often evaded capture for years, decades or eternity. These are America's Serial Killers!
