Umberto Albert Anastasia rose from the Brooklyn waterfront to become one of the most feared figures in American organized crime, helping to build the modern Mafia and leading the infamous Murder Incorporated execution squad. By the 1950s, he controlled the docks, the unions, and one of New York’s most powerful crime families. But on the … Read more
In the late 1970s, a growing feud between two powerful New Jersey mobsters from rival crime families threatened to spark a violent conflict on the waterfront. Joseph “Joe Bayonne” Zicarelli was a respected Bonanno crime family figure based in New Jersey. He had served as a soldier in the crew of Carmine Galante and acted … Read more
In the 1930s, with the clouds of war gathering over Europe once more, the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin pushed to demonstrate its technical prowess to the rest of the world. This was especially true in the air, where the Soviets established a number of endurance records for aircraft. To show how far the Soviet … Read more
Krakau – Am 13. September 1946 wurde der frühere SS-Hauptsturmführer und Kommandant des Konzentrationslagers Płaszów, Amon Leopold Göth, im Gefängnis Montelupich in Krakau durch den Strang hingerichtet. Der 37-jährige Österreicher, den Überlebende nur den „Schlächter von Płaszów” nannten, starb nur wenige Kilometer von jenem Ort entfernt, an dem er während der deutschen Besatzung Polens für … Read more
Maria Shriver spent decades believing she understood the shape of her own family. The revelation that shattered that belief did not come from a tabloid or a stranger. It came from a woman who had worked inside their home, and the secret involved a child who had been growing up alongside her own family for … Read more
In den frühen Morgenstunden des 9. April 1945, nur wenige Wochen vor dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs in Europa, wurde Generalmajor Hans Oster im Konzentrationslager Flossenbürg auf direkten Befehl Adolf Hitlers einer barbarischen Hinrichtung unterzogen. Der stellvertretende Chef der Abwehr, des deutschen militärischen Geheimdienstes, musste sich nackt ausziehen und wurde mit einem Fleischerhaken und einem … Read more
In December 1995, two handwritten letters left Buckingham Palace bearing the same crest and the same message. One was addressed to Prince Charles. The other went to the woman he had married fourteen years earlier. Inside was a sentence that would soon be read aloud around the world once the palace confirmed it to the … Read more
Nürnberg – Am 16. Oktober 1946 um 1:39 Uhr nachts starb in der Justizvollzugsanstalt Nürnberg ein Mann, dessen Name für die Bürokratie des Massenmords steht: Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Chef des Reichssicherheitshauptamtes und Nachfolger Reinhard Heydrichs, wurde im Alter von 43 Jahren durch den Strang hingerichtet – doch sein Tod war alles andere als schnell. Das Internationale … Read more
For more than 75 years, the diary of Anne Frank has remained one of the most widely read books in the world. Its account of a Jewish teenager's life in hiding gave a voice and a face to millions of victims of the Nazi genocide. Yet one question has gone stubbornly unanswered: who alerted the … Read more
At 11 p.m. on March 4, 1944, Lewis Buchalter walked into the death chamber at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. His face was pale and his hands trembled. He was 47 years old. He had controlled the largest criminal empire in America. He had ordered hundreds of murders. He had made millions. Now … Read more