Driving from New York City toward Long Island, you pass over the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway just after emerging from the Manhattan tunnel. Directly below lies one of the largest cemeteries in the country: St. John Cemetery in Queens. Few people realize how many former mob figures are buried there. Founded around 1872, the cemetery has been … Read more
On April 17, 1961, CIA Director Allen Dulles sat in his office at Langley before dawn, reading the first cables from Cuba. For three years he had kept a secret from the American public: the training of 1,400 Cuban exiles to invade their homeland and overthrow Fidel Castro. He had also kept key details from … Read more
An antiques appraiser browsing a long-abandoned estate sale in San Francisco made an unexpected discovery inside a 1906 family photograph. What he found in the reflection of an ornate mirror would eventually connect a forgotten portrait to a century-old unsolved murder. Marcus Chen, 42, had spent two decades appraising antiques. His trained eye could spot … Read more
In the autumn of 1891, a former deputy named Merritt Sable rode into Baron Hollow, a remote settlement deep in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, to take a job no one else wanted. The previous sheriff, Ogden Crawl, had vanished three months earlier, leaving behind his badge, his horse, and a half-eaten supper. No … Read more
Dr. Elena Harris was sorting through boxes in the dimly lit attic of a Berkshire estate when her fingers touched something flat and hard: a photograph in a tarnished silver frame. An archaeologist specializing in Victorian domestic life, she had been called to catalog the contents of the Philadelphia mansion before its scheduled demolition. The … Read more
Sie war die erste Frau, die aus dem Vernichtungslager Auschwitz-Birkenau fliehen konnte, und sie zahlte für diesen Akt des Widerstands mit einem Schicksal, das selbst unter den Gräueln des Holocausts beispiellos ist: Mala Zimetbaum, eine junge belgische Jüdin polnischer Herkunft, wurde nach ihrer spektakulären Flucht und erneuten Gefangennahme am 15. September 1944 vor den Augen … Read more
In 2018, Marcus Jefferson returned to his grandmother's house in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to sort through her belongings after she passed away. The 42-year-old high school history teacher spent a sweltering summer day in the attic, opening boxes filled with old letters, faded receipts, and clothing that smelled of mothballs and time. Then he found … Read more
Der deutsche General Anton Dostler, der im Zweiten Weltkrieg die summarische Hinrichtung von 15 amerikanischen Kriegsgefangenen angeordnet hatte, ist am Morgen des 1. Dezember 1945 in der italienischen Stadt Pomezia durch ein Erschießungskommando der US-Armee hingerichtet worden. Der 54-Jährige war damit der erste deutsche Offizier, der nach dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs von einem alliierten … Read more
Der deutsche General Anton Dostler, der im Zweiten Weltkrieg die summarische Hinrichtung von 15 amerikanischen Kriegsgefangenen angeordnet hatte, ist am Morgen des 1. Dezember 1945 in der italienischen Stadt Pomezia durch ein Erschießungskommando der US-Armee hingerichtet worden. Der 54-Jährige war damit der erste deutsche Offizier, der nach dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs von einem alliierten … Read more
Dr. Sarah Bennett had spent 17 years cataloging photographs at the Charleston Museum of History. She believed she had seen everything the 19th century could offer, from stern patriarchs in formal dress to fading tintypes of Civil War soldiers and cabinet cards of society ladies in elaborate gowns. None of them had ever made her … Read more