John Sebastian Loraca was born in Sicily in 1901, entering a world shaped by poverty and tradition. As a teenager, he left the island and settled in the Pittsburgh area during a period of massive Italian immigration. He worked as a shoemaker and lived within the tightly knit Italian communities of neighborhoods like Bloomfield and … Read more
Es war ein Sonntagmittag in San Diego, und die Junisonne lag warm auf meiner Terrasse. Ich wollte meinen Enkelkindern etwas zeigen, das mir etwas bedeutete. Die Medaillen lagen auf dem Couchtisch: ein Bronze Star, ein Purple Heart, ein Army Commendation Medal. Zwei Jahre Vietnam steckten in diesem Metall, und ich hoffte, April und Leo würden … Read more
At dawn on July 15, 1988, Bolivian special forces and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents descended on a sprawling cattle ranch called El Sajal in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Inside the main house, a 62-year-old man in a silk robe drank coffee and watched the sun rise over his 400,000 acres of forest … Read more
In February 1943, the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia was still carrying the smoke of war. Oberst Ferrier Kessler, a 41-year-old staff officer with the 10th Panzer Division, spent two days cataloging equipment abandoned by the Americans in their worst defeat of the war. He walked past half-tracks, wreckers, and large GMC trucks with tires still … Read more
In January 1945, a frozen crossroads outside Houffalize, Belgium, became the setting for a confrontation that would test the fragile rules of war. Heavy snow blanketed the pine trees and the bodies of the dead. A group of German soldiers stood in the middle of the road with their hands raised after surrendering following a … Read more
On the evening of September 14, 1986, John Fecarotta was shot and killed on a sidewalk outside a bingo hall on Belmont Avenue in Chicago. He was 61 years old. He had spent his adult life inside the Chicago Outfit, working as a debt collector and enforcer for three decades. He had a wife and … Read more
On July 18, 1996, inside the recreation room of the federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, a man walked up to John Gotti and punched him in the face. The man was Walter Johnson, a bank robber serving a 10-year sentence. Gotti, the former boss of the Gambino crime family and the most famous mafia figure … Read more
At Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021, only 30 people were permitted inside St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. COVID restrictions had reduced the service to the barest minimum. The pews sat almost entirely empty. Cameras captured a lone Queen Elizabeth sitting apart from her family, masked and quietly devastated. Among those 30 mourners, seated … Read more
In March 1945, near Trier, Germany, the Third Army headquarters compound was busy with the constant movement of men and vehicles. The war was rushing toward its final phase, and the machinery of supply and command operated at full speed. In the middle of that ordered chaos, a young white lieutenant from West Point walked … Read more
Estava eu numa esplanada a olhar para o meu ex-marido a sorrir como não sorria há anos. Mal tínhamos assinado os papéis do divórcio há umas semanas, e ele já ali estava, a divertir-se com outra pessoa. Mas quando a mulher que segurava a mão do homem que partilhara a minha vida durante quase uma … Read more