Everything in American Vandal comes back to one crucial question of who did the crime. The crime, in this case, being that someone spray-painted 27 phallic images on 27 faculty cars in the Hanover High School parking lot. The investigation into the crime various follows rabbit holes and leads to various dead ends all in search of who vandalized the school. While amateur investigative documentarian Peter Maldonaldo does a pretty good job of laying out all the possible suspects, these fan theories about who drew the graffiti on American Vandal may lead to the truth that Peter so craves.
The school's case is simple: Dylan Maxwell, a known vandal, took his vandalism to new heights and tagged 27 cars with graffiti and deleted the security footage to go undetected. As Peter lays out in the first episode of American Vandal, the school's story makes complete sense, and they even have a timeline of events that makes the entire story fit. However, the school's story isn't good enough for Peter, or the many fans of American Vandal who believe that they know who did it.
In fact, at one point during the documentary, Peter even addresses fictional fan theories from fake fans of American Vandal, one-by-one explaining how none of these outlandish theories could be true. But is there a crucial clue or theory that Peter may have missed along the way? Here's a look at the real American Vandal fan theories from actual fans of the Netflix series that deserve a second look.
The Mr. Kraz Theory
Mr. Kraz loves teaching, but hates being a teacher. He doesn't get along with the rest of the faculty and spends an alarming amount of time trying to relate to this students. While Peter seems to have a keen eye for detail, he never mentions that during the clip of Coach Rafferty winning Teacher Of The Year award, Kraz is seen storming out out of the auditorium. Perhaps the graffiti was Kraz's own personal revenge, or his plan to be accepted as the coolest teacher at Hanover High School? The biggest holes in this theory are that Kraz would have no way of deleting the security footage, but there's still plenty of reason to suspect him.
The Peter Maldonaldo Theory
Peter takes an in-depth look into every possible suspect except for one: himself. He outsources the investigation into himself to his friend Sam, but surely Peter should've expected that Sam wouldn't take the investigation seriously. Sam uses the investigation into Peter to joke about his best friend, but does raise an interesting point. Peter loves making movies, and none of his movies have been very successful. But, if Peter managed to manufacture the perfect crime and film the aftermath, he could make a film that might help him break into the movie industry. He also has a very weak alibi, claiming to have bought a ticket to London Has Fallen and was seeing it during the time of the vandalism. In reality, Peter's best defense is that there is seemingly no way he could've gotten his hands on the paint can used to vandalize the cars (since he wasn't invited to the party where the paint was found). But, is Peter Maldonaldo really looking for the truth, or is he taking control of the narrative to make sure that it doesn't come back to him?
The Christa Carlyle Theory
Peter Maldonaldo spends time diving into the theory that Christa Carlyle committed the vandalism as a form of political protest, but seemed to miss a crucial piece of evidence. The broken leg that is Christa's supposed alibi may not be as broken as people think. In one episode of American Vandal, the cast is seen on her right leg and is later seen on her left leg. This may just be a continuity error, but in a show where clues are hidden in the smallest details, it's shocking to see something so obvious go ignored. If she's lying about her broken leg, could she be lying about not being the vandal?
It may never be revealed who vandalized the Hanover High School parking lot. By the end of Season 1, Peter has a pretty strong idea of who the culprit is, but not enough concrete evidence to prove it. As long as the identity of the vandal remains unconfirmed, fans of American Vandali will be sharing theories online as they attempt to discover, once and for all, who drew the d*cks.
