Vito Guzzo Jr. , a former Colombo crime family mobster who served nearly three decades behind bars after pleading guilty to five murders, is now a free man—and those who know him are split on what happens next. Guzzo Jr. was released from prison earlier this year after being sentenced to nearly 40 years in … Read more
Most of what the outside world believed about Lowell, Massachusetts in the 19th century traces back to a single visit by a man who was there for less than 12 hours. He said as much in *American Notes*. He did not stay long enough to learn that the entire system ran on a supply chain … Read more
John Dillinger, the man the FBI once called Public Enemy Number One, was gunned down by federal agents outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago on July 22, 1934. The confrontation ended a nearly year-long manhunt and a crime spree that had terrorized the Midwest during the Great Depression. For years, Dillinger’s gang was accused of … Read more
Omar Sharif, one of the most famous actors of the 20th century, died on July 12, 2015, at the age of 83. The Egyptian actor, who had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, suffered a heart attack in a Paris hospital, according to his agent. Sharif was a global superstar thanks to his roles in “Lawrence … Read more
The Walton family, founders of Walmart, is the richest family in modern American history, yet they produced exactly one significant building, and it was not a home. The distance between Sam Walton’s modest fieldstone house in small-town Arkansas and his daughter Alice’s $800 million museum reveals more about the family’s trajectory than any financial report … Read more
While commanding the military division of the Pacific, he still found himself the target of the jealousy and ill will that had followed him from back east. When he learned that a letter circulating gave fellow officer John Schofield all the credit for the victory at Nashville, he decided to respond, not for himself, but … Read more
In the summer of 1944, a Japanese military manual that still held final tactical authority sent men into a situation that did not exist when it went to press. The doctrine was built on a brutal premise: a Japanese company would approach an enemy position under the cover of darkness, close to within 200 or … Read more
By 1963, Ray Nitschke was the most feared linebacker in professional football. He removed his front teeth before every game just to look more terrifying. He had fought through bars, through army duty, through two seasons on the bench. He was, by every visible measure, a man made entirely of violence and survival. That same … Read more
In the spring of 2026, a 95-year-old woman sat quietly in a wheelchair watching a young actor play her own son on a movie screen for the very first time, decades after burying that same son in real life. The woman was Katherine Jackson, matriarch of the Jackson family, and she had arrived at the … Read more
The two women barely looked at each other. A private war the public was never meant to see. The contempt between them was real, yet it never made it into the photographs. To understand what those two women were to each other by the time they stood together beneath their black veils, you have to … Read more