In November 1992, Madeleine Duncan Brown stood convicted of forgery in a Texas courtroom, a conviction later overturned on a legal technicality. The woman who had spent years claiming to be the secret mistress of President Lyndon B. Johnson, and who alleged he foretold President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, was publicly discredited. She died on … Read more
In the summer of 1986, the Spanish royal family welcomed the Prince and Princess of Wales to Mallorca for what was presented as a diplomatic family holiday. But according to royal biographers and long-running accounts, the trip became something far darker for Princess Diana. The invitation came from King Juan Carlos I, a monarch who, … Read more
In the autumn of 1864, a Union commander executed a maneuver so audacious it bordered on institutional heresy, severing his own supply lines with deliberate intent and vanishing into the heart of enemy territory with sixty thousand men, leaving his superiors in Washington paralyzed with a mixture of terror and disbelief. This was not the … Read more
Before Franklin Roosevelt ever wrote to Alleta Sullivan, she had already written to the Navy first, asking whether all five of her sons were gone. The Navy anticipated that the Sullivan family tragedy would become a symbol for rallying the war effort, a story that could be used to demonstrate the depth of American sacrifice … Read more
A woman was last seen walking into the forest with her boyfriend on July 4th weekend in 1983. It took more than four decades before anyone was held to account for her death. Teresa Joanne Peroni was 27 years old the summer she disappeared. She stood about 5’4″ with blue eyes and long dark hair. … Read more
A massive figure at 6-foot-5 and nearly 300 pounds, Richard Kuklinski was a presence that demanded attention. But it was not his stature alone that earned him the nickname “The Iceman”—it was the cold, methodical way he killed. Kuklinski’s early life offered few signs of the violence to come. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, … Read more
The story of Edward VIII’s abdication has been told many times. For most of the world, it is a complete romance. A king gave up his throne for love. But one detail is often overlooked. Queen Elizabeth II, known for her patience and self-control, never closed the distance between herself and the uncle who changed … Read more
The summer of 1964 was brutal in New York City. A relentless heat wave smothered Harlem, where fire hydrants sprayed arcs of water over children and old men fanned themselves on stoops. On 118th Street, a former speakeasy was being gutted and reborn as a community center, a project Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson was determined to … Read more
In the summer of 1876, atop a hill overlooking a dry river in Montana, a captain rode up to the mutilated body of America’s most famous cavalry officer and said something that has never been softened in the historical record. Looking down at George Armstrong Custer, dead alongside more than 200 of his men, Frederick … Read more
In late August 1944, a column of American tanks sat motionless in a village in eastern France, not because of enemy resistance but because they had run out of fuel. Crews were draining gas from some tanks and pouring it into others so that a single vehicle could continue toward the front line. On the … Read more