At 2:31 p.m. Central Time on November 22, 1963, Air Force One sat on the tarmac at Love Field in Dallas, Texas. The body of the 35th president of the United States lay in a casket in the rear cabin. Twelve feet away, Lyndon Baines Johnson stood with his right hand raised and his left … Read more
Newly surfaced testimony from the late Major Richard “Dick” Winters has reignited public fascination with one of the most controversial figures of the Second World War, Captain Herbert Sobel, the reviled first commander of Easy Company whose harsh training methods and battlefield incompetence became the emotional core of the acclaimed HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers.” … Read more
On the morning of January 4, 1945, the headquarters of the US Third Army in Luxembourg was a converted chateau with cold radiators and a single roaring fireplace. Major General George S. Patton stood with his back to the room, warming his hands. He was the master of the battlefield and the savior of Bastogne, … Read more
In November 1935, a prince married an aristocrat inside Buckingham Palace. The newspapers described a quiet ceremony and a modest bride, the kind of stable union a shaky crown desperately needed. For nearly 90 years, that version of the story held. But it does not explain why the palace rushed a 35-year-old prince into marriage … Read more
On July 13, 1960, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, Lyndon Baines Johnson sat in his suite chain-smoking, surrounded by his closest aides. The Democratic convention had just nominated John F. Kennedy for president. Johnson, the most powerful Senate majority leader in American history, was about to receive a visit that would throw his … Read more
The deadliest men in the mafia were rarely the ones who appeared on magazine covers. They were the quiet specialists, the ones who worked in empty streets and closed rooms and left behind very little for history to hold onto. Five such figures stand out: Willie "Two Knife" Altieri, Joseph "Mad Dog" Sullivan, Anthony Bruno … Read more
Ellsworth Raymond Johnson, known throughout Harlem as Bambi, was the most powerful numbers man in his part of the city. At 22 years old, he had survived prison, street wars, and the brutal politics of the illegal gambling trade. He did not survive them by being careless. On October 21, 1938, he sat in the … Read more
In 1968, Frances Shand Kydd entered a legal fight over the future of her four children. On the other side was her husband, John Spencer, Viscount Althorp. Supporting him was a witness Frances could not dismiss as a stranger, a hostile official, or a palace courtier. It was her own mother, Ruth, Lady Fermoy. By … Read more
The photograph was taken in 1947, and most people have seen it without realizing how carefully it was made. Elizabeth and Philip, newly married, stand close enough to touch. Her expression is composed, careful, almost rehearsed in its contentment. His jaw is set with the quiet assurance of a man who believes the best years … Read more
Newly resurfaced testimony from one of Easy Company’s most decorated officers has cast a stark and unflattering light on Captain Lewis Nixon, the celebrated intelligence officer of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, revealing a bitter personal animosity that has long been hidden beneath the polished portrayal of the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. In a … Read more