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Arlene Gottfried: The Wandering Eye of New York
Some people take pictures of sunsets, flowers, and perfectly plated meals. Arlene Gottfried? She took pictures of life—raw, unfiltered,...


Iceberg Slim: From Exploiter To Author
A factual and unflinching account of Iceberg Slim, from his early life as Robert Beck to his years in the criminal underworld and his later reinvention as a writer whose work continues to influence literature and culture.


Marjoe Gortner: The Evangelist Who Pulled Off the Ultimate Hustle
Marjoe Gortner was ordained at four, earned $3 million for his parents by his teens, and then let a film crew document every manipulation trick in his playbook. The documentary won an Oscar. His parents kept the money.


The Battle of Trafalgar: Nelson’s Final Triumph
In 1758, in the quiet Norfolk village of Burnham Thorpe, a frail and sickly baby was born to the Reverend Edmund Nelson and his wife Catherine. The child was christened Horatio, and few could have imagined that he would grow into one of Britain’s most celebrated naval heroes. From an early age, Horatio Nelson was marked by ill health, yet his resolve and courage would come to define the very spirit of the Royal Navy during its age of supremacy. A Boy Sent to Sea At the tender


Deadshot Mary: The NYPD Detective Who Took Down Criminals with Grit and a Gun
On June 20th, 1938, pedestrians near bustling Herald Square in Midtown Manhattan were treated to a scene right out of a dime store novel....


The Mirage Tavern: Chicago’s Undercover Sting That Exposed Rampant Corruption
If you found yourself in Chicago in 1977 and wandered into a small drinking establishment at 731 N. Wells Street, you might have thought...


Girl Gangs of Old New York: Marm Mandelbaum and the Underworld Women of the Gilded Age
In mid-19th century Manhattan, the Five Points neighborhood had gained international infamy as a crowded, disease-ridden, crime-infested...


Archduke Ludwig Viktor: A Habsburg Rebel in a Conservative Era
In the heart of the 19th-century Habsburg Empire, Archduke Ludwig Viktor Joseph Anton of Austria stood out as a nonconformist in one of...


Hans Schmidt: The Only Catholic Priest Executed in the United States
Black and white image of a woman and a man, newspaper snippet about a murder confession, vintage cars, and a historical city backdrop.


Mickey Cohen: From Newsboy to Kingpin of Los Angeles
Meyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen is one of the most infamous figures in American organised crime, a man whose journey from a Brooklyn newsboy to Los Angeles’ most recognisable gangster is packed with violence, political intrigue, and larger-than-life personality. Unlike many of his contemporaries, who remained rooted in the East Coast’s criminal underworld, Cohen’s trajectory took him across the country, first as a hopeful boxer and later as a ruthless enforcer. Early Life and Box


The Girl in the Box: The Harrowing Kidnapping of Colleen Stan
On the morning of 19 May 1977, a 20-year-old woman named Colleen Stan stood on the roadside in Red Bluff, California, having already turned down two rides she didn't feel good about. She was hitchhiking from her home in Eugene, Oregon, to Westwood, California, to celebrate a friend's birthday. When a blue van slowed to a stop and she saw a young woman holding a baby in the passenger seat, she felt safe enough to climb in. That decision would cost her seven years of her life.


Mary Jane Rathbun AKA Brownie Mary: The Grandmother of Medical Cannabis
In the heart of San Francisco, where activism and counterculture have long thrived, an elderly woman in polyester pantsuits became one of...


That Time The NRA Fought For Tougher Gun Control (When The Black Panthers Had Guns)
The debate surrounding gun control continues to be one of the most contentious and polarising issues in the United States. Today, the...


James Van Der Zee: Capturing the Spirit of Harlem and Beyond
Photography is often described as a way to freeze time, but for James Van Der Zee, it was much more than that. His images didn’t just...


Dame Edith Sitwell: The Grand Eccentric of English Letters
There are eccentrics, and then there is Dame Edith Sitwell—an aristocratic poet, critic, and all-around formidable presence in...


The Hidden Cousins of Queen Elizabeth II: The Tragic Story of Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon
Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon were Queen Elizabeth's first cousins, institutionalised in 1941 and listed as dead in Burke's Peerage decades before they actually died. Nobody noticed for 24 years.


Diogo Alves: The Aqueduct Murderer and His Preserved Head
In the dimly lit corridors of the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Medicine, a peculiar relic sits preserved in a glass jar—a severed...


When the U.S. Government Poisoned Over 10,000 Americans (On Purpose)
The federal government sometimes proved willing to go to unethical lengths to prevent alcohol consumption. While the government never...


The Mitford Sisters: Scandal, Wit, and Unwavering Eccentricity
The Mitford sisters were an aristocratic anomaly: six daughters of Lord and Lady Redesdale ( Farve and Muv to their children), raised...


JFK's First Casket: The $4,000 Bronze Coffin That Was Dumped in the Ocean
Jackie Kennedy watched as JFK's original casket was loaded onto Air Force One in Dallas. What happened to it next is one of the strangest footnotes in American history.


The Making of The Warriors: A Gritty, Nocturnal Odyssey Through 1970s New York
It’s June 26, 1978, and a film crew is preparing for the first night of what will be a gruelling two-month shoot. They aren’t on a...


The Golden State Killer: A Life of Crime Unmasked
For more than four decades, the man who came to be known as the Golden State Killer terrorised communities across California, committing...


Huey P. Newton: The Revolutionary Mind Behind the Black Panther Party
In the late 1960s, in a modest office in West Oakland, a young man sat in a wicker chair with a rifle in one hand and a law book in the other. It was not a theatrical pose, although it would become an iconic image. It was a statement. For Huey P. Newton, politics was never abstract. It was lived, studied, tested, and defended on the streets of Oakland, in courtrooms, in prison cells, and later in lecture halls. His journey from a self described struggling student to co founde
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