JCS, formerly known as Jim Can’t Swim, is a popular true crime YouTube channel based in the US. The channel focuses on producing educational documentaries about specific individuals involved in crimes. JCS primarily analyses publicly released recordings of interviews or interrogations by the police to provide insights into the criminals’ behaviours, mindsets, actions, and the techniques of the interrogators involved.
The channel’s oldest videos include a three-part documentary series about Christopher Lee Watts, a Colorado oil field operator who killed his family in 2018. The series covers the incidents leading up to Chris’s first interrogation, his lie-detector test, and the final confession.
JCS’s most-watched video, “What pretending to be crazy looks like”, focuses on the interrogation of Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz, who feigned mental illness to avoid punishment. The video debunks common misconceptions surrounding “pleading insanity” in the US criminal justice system.
In January 2022, JCS faced a setback when many of its popular videos were removed by YouTube, and the channel received a strike. Despite support from the community, YouTube refused to reinstate the videos or remove the strikes. JCS announced plans to abandon the platform and move to a different one. However, in a turn of events, their most-watched video and others were brought back up on 19 January 2022, after the four-member crew at YouTube reviewed their case. JCS thanked their supporters and confirmed that they would continue to post on YouTube.
After a year-long hiatus, JCS returned to YouTube on 12 December 2022, with a video titled “Yeardley’s ex-boyfriend”.
While some of their videos are yet to be reinstated on the platform, JCS continues to be a leading source of true crime content for those interested in understanding criminal minds.
Dennis Relojo-Howell is the managing director of Psychreg.
