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One step into the grounds of Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, and the scale of Edward L. Doheny’s ambition becomes clear. Fifty-five rooms, more than forty-six thousand square feet of living space, and sixteen acres of perfectly manicured gardens. The estate was built as a wedding gift in 1928 for his only son, Edward “Ned” … Read more

During World War II, no soldiers were more feared by the Allies than the men of the SS, the Schutzstaffel. The SS was a paramilitary organization notorious for running concentration camps, but it was the Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the group, that became infamous for its brutal fighting and its willingness to fight to … Read more

Nearly thirteen thousand years ago, the Ice Age was ending. The glaciers were retreating, and forests were spreading north for the first time in tens of thousands of years. In the Levant, people had begun building permanent stone villages. In Europe, others painted animals on cave walls and hunted reindeer across open grasslands that were … Read more

John Jacob Astor lay dying in his Manhattan mansion in the winter of 1848, the city outside murmuring with carriage wheels and iron shoes. He had crossed the Atlantic decades earlier with flutes wrapped in cloth, mastered the fur trade, gambled on distant ports, and quietly bought the land that would become some of New … Read more

On June 14, 2015, at 6:00 a. m. , surveillance cameras at a gas station near Highway 29 captured 22-year-old Kelly Tyler filling her gray Subaru Forester. She bought water and energy bars before turning onto the narrow road leading to the Thai River hiking trailhead. It was the last digital footprint she left in … Read more

Naya Rivera became famous as Santana Lopez, the sharp-tongued cheerleader on Glee, but the life of the woman behind that role was shaped long before she ever set foot in McKinley High. Born on January 12, 1987, in Santa Clarita, California, Naya Marie Rivera was the daughter of Yolanda Rivera, a former model who recognized … Read more

For seven decades, Armour & Company had been the undisputed heart of Chicago’s meatpacking empire, and one of the wealthiest industrial dynasties in America. But in January 1900, the family that had built it was traveling in two private railway cars attached to the Santa Fe Express, carrying the body of a thirty-one-year-old man from … Read more

Viimeinen normaali ääni, jonka muistan, oli vedenkeittimen vihellys. Oli tiistai. Tein hänelle teetä, niin kuin hän sen halusi: hunajaa, ei maitoa, koska hänellä oli ollut pitkä päivä. Höyry huurusti keittiön ikkunan, ja kaupungin valot sumentuivat kultaiseksi mössöksi. Meidän asuntomme. Kahden vuoden ajan se oli ollut turvapaikka. Nyt se tuntui vain lavasteelta, joka odotti kohtauksen alkua. … Read more

In 1898, Andrew Carnegie, the man who controlled America’s steel industry, made a decision that baffled his fellow millionaires. While New York’s wealthiest families competed to build extravagant palaces in the fashionable districts around the 50s and 60s, Carnegie bought land at 91st Street and Fifth Avenue, an area so undeveloped it was practically suburban. … Read more

In 1970, during the height of the Vietnam War, a young American sailor stepped off a helicopter into the dusty haze of a small coastal town in South Vietnam. His name was Michael Madrid, a US Navy sailor in his twenties, carrying the quiet weariness of a man who had already seen too much. After … Read more