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Granny Blackwater’s grandson was Thomas, a boy she had raised from infancy after his parents died. He grew up in her remote Kentucky mountain cabin, learning the healing arts with the same diligence he applied to farming and hunting. Thomas was her entire world. The trouble began when Vernon Crawford, the county’s political boss, decided … Read more

Roger Staubach was the best quarterback available in the 1964 NFL Draft, and every team in the league knew exactly why he fell to the tenth round. He wasn’t injured. He wasn’t a bust. He was on his way to Vietnam. For four straight years while he served his country on the other side of … Read more

On March 14, 1952, Bumpy Johnson’s world collapsed in the span of a few seconds on the steps of a Harlem grocery store. His wife, Mayme, seven months pregnant, was pushed aside by a low-level Italian collector named Vincent Esposito. She fell down four concrete steps. The baby, a girl, did not survive. Bumpy Johnson … Read more

Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn was catastrophic for the Seventh Cavalry, but what happened to his body and those of his men in the aftermath was so gruesome that military officials worked to hide the details from the American public. The victory for the Lakota and Cheyenne … Read more

When George Armstrong Custer died at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876, he left behind more than a military legend. The same flamboyant cavalry commander who had become the Union’s most celebrated young officer during the Civil War also left a complicated financial legacy and a marriage built on intense devotion, … Read more