I chose “The FBI Files” which is an American television series which is about past FBI cases where reenactments of interviews are showed. The particular episode I watched was about a case in 1992 where a 12-year-old girl, Polly Klass, was abducted by a stranger in her house during a party with her friends. The episode was released on October 20th, 1998. FBI Files is a true crime documentary series showing the operations and behind of scenes of the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

On October 1st, 1993, Polly Klass was enjoying a party in her home with 2 of her friends. During the night, a mysterious man walked into the room in which they were playing brandishing a knife. He tied all of the girls up and assured them that he was just there to take money. However, he managed to take the girl that was hosting the party. Technology was not very advanced at the time, especially in the crime-solving world. There was not much information to go off of when the FBI finally arrived. They had a brief description of the man provided by the other 2 girls but no solid evidence leading to any breaks in the case. Weeks passed with no luck, the only hope came from the community passing out missing person fliers. Randomly, the dad of the missing girl had got a call from an unknown number claiming that they were the girl. This lead was quickly shot down when the agents found out it was just one of the missing girl’s friends playing a prank. Later, he had received another call from a man stating that he was a kidnapper. He claimed that he would release the girl if he received money. The FBI set up a SWAT team after tracking down the call. They arrested a man named James Heard. It was later found that he was not a kidnapper at all, and he was just posing as one to maybe somehow obtain money using a threat. As time went by, one suspect slowly started to emerge. The FBI had knew this was the man who kidnapped Polly Klass, but there was just not enough evidence to know it was him. They sent him to jail for unrelated reasons related to the case. Technology became more advance, and the FBI finally had enough evidence to charge Richard Allen Davis with kidnapping. The court that heard this case found Mr. Davis guilty on 10 counts including kidnapping, robbery, burglary, murder, and attempting to commit a life act on a child. He was sentenced to the death penalty and is currently still on death row to this day.

Although this show is more based on the investigations of cases, you can see where the law applies to every little part. Every little thing Mr Davis did was a violation of the law. When he broke into the house, he committed burglary. It was known that he pulled onto a private roadway when he was driving around with the girl. The police at the time stopped him for trespassing. James Heard, the man who made a fake call to the father was arrested for Attempted Extortion and posing as a kidnapper. Before Mr Davis was arrested for kidnapping even when the FBI knew he had done it, he still wasn’t charged because there clearly wasn’t enough evidence to perhaps win a case. It shows how much goes on in the legal system and what really goes on in the minds of those that are bringing the case to court. This show really depicts the Criminal Law of the United States with all the examples that were shown.


In conclusion, I thought this show was really great and recommend it for anyone who is interested in law and how cases are solved. This show accurately displays what happens when a criminal act is committed, and how our police track down the suspects to ultimately bring justice to the victims. This has given me another view of our Justice system in the US. Seeing the FBI withhold on charging Mr Davis because of the lack of evidence really humbled me because it showed that sometimes people can really get away with committing these crimes. This show makes me want to pursue this field even more with all the information and investigation and work that goes into it.