In the winter of 1934, a federal surveyor named Harlon Goss was sent into the Gory River back country of central West Virginia. His assignment was a cadastral mapping project that had stalled three times in the previous decade. The assignment was routine. The terrain was not. Goss followed a creek drainage into a hollow … Read more
Across the high peaks of western North Carolina, there is a strange and well-documented phenomenon: mountainsides covered in thick forest that abruptly give way to open, grassy summits. These treeless expanses, known locally as “balds,” sit at elevations where trees should thrive, and their tree lines are so clean they appear almost drawn with a … Read more
In the autumn of 1910, the remote hollow known as Widow’s Bend in Grayson County, Virginia, had become the center of one of the most unsettling family mysteries in Appalachian history—a mystery that would culminate in the complete disappearance of six people and a scientific legacy that remained classified for over a century. The substantial … Read more
Few criminal couples in American history have captured the public imagination like Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Their names have become as familiar as Romeo and Juliet, inspiring countless books, songs, and films. During their lifetimes, they were blamed for nearly every high-profile robbery in Texas and neighboring states, prompting authorities to create a special … Read more
KRAKOW, Poland — Erich Muhsfeldt, the notorious SS officer who supervised the crematoria at Auschwitz and Majdanek and personally burned prisoners alive, was executed by hanging at Montelupich prison on January 24, 1948, bringing an end to one of the most sadistic careers in the Nazi extermination machine. Muhsfeldt was 34 years old when the … Read more
Patton: Wie „Old Blood and Guts” in 96 Stunden die drohende Katastrophe von Bastogne abwendete Es war der 22. Dezember 1944, als General George S. Patton ein Versprechen einlöste, das Militärexperten für unmöglich gehalten hatten – und damit möglicherweise das Schicksal des Zweiten Weltkriegs in Europa entschied. Die deutsche Ardennenoffensive, von Hitler als „Unternehmen Wacht … Read more
There is a name the Archdiocese of Baltimore will not put in writing. Not in the ledgers. Not in the ordination rolls. Not in the private correspondence that survived the fire of 1941. When a researcher named Coris Beaver went looking for him in the spring of 2008, three separate parish secretaries told her the … Read more
Allied soldiers advancing into the heart of Nazi Germany during the final, chaotic months of World War II made a grim and fateful decision that would stain the record of the victors even as it satisfied a deep and burning hunger for justice: when SS troops raised their hands in surrender, many were shot on … Read more
The story of what occurred in the eastern Kentucky settlement of Blackwood Junction during the winter of 1903 has been systematically forgotten. By that year, the once-thriving mining community of nearly 300 people had dwindled to fewer than 50 residents, and by May of 1903, it was officially abandoned and classified as economically nonviable. Official … Read more
The story people think they know about Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy is mostly about sex. The uglier story is about power, access, and what happens when access is withdrawn. Monroe reportedly met Kennedy only a handful of times. According to the friend she confided in, they spent one night together, and she said … Read more