In March 1943, beneath the North Atlantic, 44 men waited inside a steel cylinder barely 67 meters long, listening for a splash that would announce the next depth charge attack. They had not seen…
The sound came as it always did: a distant splash, then silence that stretched too long, then the crack. The boat shuddered from bow to stern, and the forty-four men inside the steel cylinder held still, listening to the next charge begin its descent. They had not seen daylight in six days. The diesel fumes … Read more
In 1871, a 17-year-old prisoner bought a revolver from another inmate, then waited for his moment. John Wesley Hardin, already a wanted killer, was being escorted to Waco for trial by two Texas…
By the summer of 1877, John Wesley Hardin had been running for nearly a decade. He was twenty-four years old, wanted for murders across Texas, and traveling under the name John W. Swain. On the night of August 24th, he boarded a train in Pensacola, Florida, unaware that the men who had been hunting him … Read more
In 1941, as Romania’s fascist regime began deporting Jews to a barren strip of land called Transnistria, Rabbi Alexandru Șafran brought Queen Mother Helen the lists—names of the dead from the Iași…
In the cold first hours of 1948, a sealed train raced away from Romania. Inside sat Helen, fifty-one years old, and her son, the last king. Soldiers searched them like common criminals. They had been forced to abdicate under the threat of guns. This was not an abdication. It was an expulsion. For the woman … Read more
On March 12, 1954, Frank Sinatra stood on the Apollo Theater stage before 1,500 people and joked that Harlem’s women were beautiful, its music hot, and its monkeys stayed in their cages. White…
At 10:27 on the night of March 12, 1954, Frank Sinatra stood on the stage of the Apollo Theater before 1,500 people and said something that stopped the music cold. You know what I like about Harlem? The women are beautiful, the music is hot, and the monkeys stay in their cages. Laughter came from … Read more
In 2012, Ethel Kennedy sat across from her daughter’s camera and refused to answer. Rory Kennedy, born six months after her father was shot, asked her mother about that night in June 1968. Ethel,…
It is 2012, and Ethel Kennedy is sitting in front of a camera held by her daughter, refusing to answer. Rory Kennedy has made her name with documentaries about difficult subjects — addiction, Abu Ghraib, poverty in Appalachia — and she knows how to make people talk. The film is for HBO, scheduled for October, … Read more
In February 1997, on a frozen Montreal sidewalk, a drunk Hell’s Angel named Donald Magnuson beat Leonardo Rzuto to the ground. Rzuto was the son of Vito Rizzuto, the mafia boss who supplied the…
On the fourth of November 1997, Scott Steinert and Donald Magnuson left a mansion on a private island outside Montreal and drove to a meeting with Maurice “Mom” Boucher, the leader of the Quebec Hell’s Angels. Neither man came home. The river kept them through the winter, and when it gave them back, it gave … Read more
In 1869, Sylvester Marsh watched a six-ton locomotive called Hero climb Mount Washington on a grade steeper than most staircases. It didn’t slide because a steel cog wheel gripped an iron-toothed…
The locomotive was called Hero, and it weighed six tons. From where Sylvester Marsh stood at the summit of Mount Washington, he could watch it climb toward him on a grade so steep that the track disappeared beneath the front of the engine. The slope was 37 percent, steeper than most staircases. Yet the engine … Read more
In 1901, photographer James Whitmore posed a six-year-old girl named Rose Hartley between her parents in his Lawrence, Massachusetts studio. Her father’s jaw was clenched; her mother’s eyes were…
Dr. Sarah Brennan’s hand hovered over the scanner, then pressed the button. The high-resolution scan slowly revealed the faded photograph on her computer screen, and she leaned closer, watching every detail take shape. The studio portrait was dated 1901, stamped on the back with the name Whitmore Photography Studio, Lawrence, Massachusetts. A well-dressed couple stood … Read more
In January 1978, burglars broke into what they believed was an empty mansion in River Forest, Illinois, and stole jewelry and heirlooms from a retired…
In the winter of 1978, a group of small-time burglars in Chicago made a catastrophic error. They broke into a sprawling mansion in the affluent suburb of River Forest, believing the owners were away in California and that the house was an easy score. They disabled the alarm, pried open a window, and ransacked the … Read more
On June 4, 1935, a German Shepherd named Duke was poisoned in a walled courtyard behind a Harlem laundry on 142nd Street. He barked three times, then went silent. The night man, Cain Whitfield,…
At 11 minutes past noon on Sunday, June 23, 1935, four men stood along the wall of a basement beneath a laundry on 142nd Street. There were five chairs in that room. Four of them stayed empty all afternoon. Nobody smoked. Nobody spoke. The boiler ticked as it cooled, and that was the loudest thing … Read more