On August 24, 1814, the dinner table was set at the President's House in Washington. The wine was chilled. The British Army was a few miles from the door. A boy stood in the dining room. He was the servant of President James Madison, and he was also the property of James Madison. He had … Read more
Lester Joseph Gillis was born on December 6, 1908, in Chicago, the son of Flemish Belgian immigrants. Most of the world never learned that name. By the time anyone outside Chicago cared who he was, he was already going by something else: Babyface Nelson. The nickname sounds almost gentle, almost harmless. That mismatch is exactly … Read more
On the night of October 16, 1944, a German column moved south along the Aachen–Vaalserquartier road in western Germany. The infantry walked; the vehicles rolled without lights, blacked out against the threat of American aircraft and artillery observers. Ahead of them, three miles to the south, the glow of Aachen burned on the horizon. The … Read more
On December 16, 1944, more than 200,000 soldiers of Adolf Hitler's Sixth Panzer Army surged forward through the pre-dawn darkness in the forests east of Elsenborn Ridge, Belgium. Within hours, American gunners along a single ridgeline would begin firing a barrage so relentless that it would help decide the entire outcome of Germany's last great … Read more
Vincent Asaro died on November 16, 2022, in a rented apartment in Brooklyn. He was 86 years old and alone. He passed quietly in his sleep, with no bullets, no bombs, and no federal marshals at the door. The Bonanno capo who was alleged to have engineered the biggest cash robbery in American history slipped … Read more
On a moonlit night on the southern plains, a Comanche war party might be riding toward a lonely ranch. Killing the people there was the easy part, and it came first and fast. What the warriors intended to do with the captives they took on the long ride home was the reason grown men on … Read more
In July 1939, a 13-year-old girl watched an 18-year-old cadet leap over tennis nets at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth and decided she would marry him. Princess Elizabeth never once changed her mind. Her mother had other plans. Queen Elizabeth, the most admired woman in Britain, wanted a Grenadier Guard for her daughter, an … Read more
In April 1945, in Erfurt, Germany, three weeks remained before the end of the war in Europe. General George S. Patton was doing what he had always done: moving between his lines without announcement, without the noise of a staff entourage, and without a prepared schedule. He wanted to see the truth as it was, … Read more
It was 4 a.m. on March 6, 1836, and the darkness outside the Alamo had come alive. Some 1,800 soldiers lay pressed against the cold Texas ground, close enough to hear the centuries-old pulse of the walls above them. They had been still and silent for more than an hour, waiting for a signal that … Read more
Joseph Barboza was violent, useful, and disposable. To the Mafia, he was muscle. To the FBI, he was a witness. To the men wrongfully convicted because of his testimony, he became something much worse. His life started in New Bedford, moved through boxing rings, prison cells, Boston gang wars, and federal protection, then ended on … Read more