On the afternoon of May 6, 1910, a 42-year-old woman in a long dark coat arrived at a side entrance of Buckingham Palace carrying a letter. It had been written to her nine years earlier by King Edward VII, on the day he ascended the throne. In it, he promised that if he ever became … Read more
Jerry Hall was 21 years old and already one of the world’s most successful models when she met Mick Jagger in 1977. She had built her own career, earned her own money, and traveled in the highest circles of the fashion world. He was the frontman of the Rolling Stones, 25 years her senior, and … Read more
In the summer of 1941, Germany had been invading the Soviet Union for only three weeks, yet the Wehrmacht had already advanced deeper into Soviet territory than almost anyone thought possible. Entire armies were encircled, the Red Army was losing hundreds of thousands of men each week, and Stalin had shut himself in his office … Read more
On the evening of February 19, 1986, a heavy-set man pulled his white Cadillac into the parking lot of a Salvation Army halfway house on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He reached for his briefcase and never saw the two Colombian gunmen step out of the shadows. Seven bullets tore through his body as … Read more
On October 3rd, 1978, a man named Paddy Dugan stumbled into the 596 Club on 10th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen. He was drunk and laughing, unaware that he would be dead within 90 minutes. By the end of the night, his head was in a paper bag, his hands were in a bucket of cold … Read more
More than 30,000 people in Tasmania identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander in the 2021 Australian census, a living rebuttal to a narrative that declared their ancestors extinct. Language revival programs are active, land transfers continue, and in 2023, UNESCO removed a 1982 document that had labeled Tasmanians an extinct race. The extinction story, … Read more
In February 1981, a car pulled up to the curb at Broad and Walnut Streets in Philadelphia, right next to a group of police officers. The driver threw open his door and ran. In the back seat sat Jimmy DeGregorio, a meth cook for the Pagans Motorcycle Club. For the past several minutes, he had … Read more
On October 22, 1983, the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, was the toughest prison in the federal system. It was the successor to Alcatraz. In the control unit, the most restrictive cell block in America, an inmate named Thomas Silverstein was being escorted in handcuffs by three officers. In a moment planned with the … Read more
On December 19, 1930, a cold Friday on Magadee Creek Bridge in Franklin County, Virginia, two brothers drove cars loaded with locally distilled liquor. Forrest Bondurant, 29, drove one. His younger brother Jack, 20, drove the other, scared and proud at the same time. Then two deputies stepped out from the brush. Charlie Rakes and … Read more
On June 27, 1982, Frank Fiala stood outside the Plaza Suite disco in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn, surrounded by nightlife and the glow of a club he believed was about to become his. He had arrived in a Rolls-Royce. The closing on the real estate deal was scheduled for the next day. Hundreds of … Read more