The Coen brothers introduced the movie 'Fargo' as a true story, but later implied it was fiction. One case that bears a real life resemblance is the brutal 1963 murder of Carol Thompson in St. Paul.

Fargo (1996) opens with a disclaimer card that claims “this is a true story.” Except that it isn’t. We have a tendency to assume anything that appears on the screen before the film’s first frame to be ...