Ernst Kaltenbrunner was an Austrian Nazi leader and a high-ranking SS officer born on October 1, 1903, in Ried im Innkreis, Austria. He came from a nationalist family, and his father was a lawyer. He was educated at the Royal Gymnasium, the most advanced secondary school system in Germany at the time. During his school … Read more
Jadwiga Dzido was a member of the Polish resistance who was subjected to Nazi medical experiments during World War II. Born on January 26, 1918, in Sokolola, Poland, she grew up in Lukow in eastern Poland. Her father died during World War I, after which her mother worked in a pharmacy run by Teodozya Niewienska. … Read more
A 220-pound boxer entered a Harlem club and walked directly to table 9, where Bumpy Johnson sat holding court. The room braced for violence. None came. The boxer, known for knockouts and heavy hands, had heard the name Bumpy Johnson spoken with unusual weight around Harlem. He decided to test whether the man was truly … Read more
On April 1, 1967, a classified document was prepared at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Its code was 1035-960, and its title was "Countering Criticism of the Warren Report." The document was not an attempt to establish truth. It was a set of instructions for managing public opinion, and it would shape how Americans talked … Read more
Few travelers passing through Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., know the story behind the name. It honors William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan, the brigadier general who ran the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Donovan's OSS conducted secret operations across Asia and Europe, recruiting civilians and active-duty military personnel as covert operatives. … Read more
When President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas on November 22, 1963, the nation looked to one man to deliver justice. That man was his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the president's most trusted confidant and one of the most powerful law enforcement officials in American history. Bobby Kennedy had built the Justice … Read more
The 1960 presidential election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon was one of the closest in modern American history. It was not decided until the early morning hours of November 9, more than six hours after the polls closed, when NBC finally called Illinois for Kennedy. That state, and with it the presidency, was … Read more
On November 22, 1963, at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, the First Lady of the United States stood in a corridor still wearing her raspberry pink Chanel suit. It was soaked in her husband's blood. His brain matter was still on her stockings, her gloves, and her hands. Lady Bird Johnson, the new Second Lady, … Read more
On August 5, 1962, at 4:25 a.m., the Los Angeles Police Department received a phone call. Marilyn Monroe was dead. The caller was Dr. Ralph Greenson, her psychiatrist. He said she had been found in her bedroom at her Brentwood home, with empty pill bottles on the nightstand. The coroner would rule it a probable … Read more
On July 30, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson made an announcement that stunned Washington. No member of his cabinet would be considered for the vice presidency. Not Secretary of State Dean Rusk. Not Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Not Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman. Everyone understood the truth. There was only one target, one name Johnson … Read more