HBO
Jim Mordecai was a star football player, a high school teacher, a Future Farmers of America bigwig, a landscape architect, and a respected and well-liked presence in his Bay Area community. He was also a tyrannical husband and father who sexually assaulted young girls (including his stepdaughters), manipulated and tortured relatives, and tore his multiple families apart.
Even that monstrousness, however, may have been the tip of the iceberg, since The Truth About Jim contends that he might have additionally been a never-apprehended serial killer—or, perhaps, even the infamous Zodiac.
From prolific true-crime director Skye Borgman (Dead Asleep, Girl in the Picture, I Just Killed My Dad, Sins of Our Mother), The Truth About Jim is a four-episode Max docuseries (Jan. 15) concerning Sierra Barter’s effort to investigate her step-grandfather and, in doing so, finally grapple with the secrets that have plagued her extended clan for generations.