PN1501 In the final weeks of World War II, as Germany collapsed and surrendering troops filled the roads, one man disappeared without a trace. His name was Hans Kammler, an SS engineer who had built some of the Reich's most secret weapons. Some said he took his own life. Others swore the Americans captured him. Behind … Read more
Few criminal couples in American history are as famous as Bonnie and Clyde. Their names are recognized around the world, yet the real story behind the legend is far darker than most people realize. The pair were thieves and fugitives first, and they did not hesitate to kill in order to escape the authorities. Their … Read more
The names Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow have become almost as familiar as Romeo and Juliet. Books, songs, and movies have told and retold their story. During their lifetimes, they were blamed for nearly every high-profile robbery in Texas and neighboring states, and a special unit was created to catch them. For several years they … Read more
Eleanor von Schwarzenberg was born Eleonore Elizabeth Amalia Magdalena on June 20, 1682, in the town of Melnik, in the region then known as Bohemia and now part of the Czech Republic. Her father was Prince Ferdinand August of the House of Lobkowitz, one of the oldest and most respected aristocratic families in the region, … Read more
The Old West of popular imagination—clean streets, clear-cut heroes, and dramatic showdowns—largely ignores a far messier reality. Behind the famous lawmen and dusty legends lay a complex world where moral lines blurred, money often dictated justice, and many of the people who built the frontier were written out of the story entirely. Lawmen and outlaws … Read more
Wyatt Earp remains the best known of all the frontier lawmen of the American West. Soft-spoken and possessed of nerves of steel, he survived countless gunfights through extraordinary patience and a resolute manner. But Earp was not only the famous lawman of Dodge City and Tombstone fame. He was also a buffalo hunter, miner, car … Read more
The names Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow have become as familiar as Romeo and Juliet. Their story has inspired countless books, songs, and movies. During their lifetime, they were blamed for almost every high-profile robbery in Texas and neighboring states, and a special unit was even created to catch them. For several years, all they … Read more
In March 1940, Nazi Germany approved the creation of a special combat unit made up exclusively of men serving prison sentences for poaching and related crimes. The decision followed consultations between Adolf Hitler and SS leader Heinrich Himmler. The unit was intended to fight partisans in mountainous areas. Before long, murderers, psychopaths, sexual deviants, and … Read more
Maria Antonia of Austria was born on January 18, 1669, in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. Her father was Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. Her mother was Margaret Theresa of Spain, daughter of King Philip IV of Spain and Mariana of Austria. Both of her parents came from … Read more
On the morning of April 30, 1942, at Royal Air Force Duxford in Cambridgeshire, a Rolls-Royce test pilot named Ronnie Harker stood on a damp concrete apron studying an aircraft he had never flown. It was American, shipped across the Atlantic in pieces in a wooden crate stamped with the address of a factory in … Read more