In 1946 Harlem, Bumpy Johnson walked beside his wife when a police car blocked their path. Two officers stepped out, claiming a routine check. They toNaN
In the autumn of 1946, on a Thursday evening in Harlem, Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson walked down the sidewalk with his wife beside him. He was one of the founders of the African-American criminal underworld in Harlem, a man feared by gangs and respected on the streets, but to the police he was target number one. … Read more
In 1863, a 23-year-old wagon driver from London named Benjamin Basinger Hopkins was handed command of Company G, 5th Illinois Cavalry. His colonel, HaNaN
The image of a Civil War cavalryman usually conjures a blue- or gray-clad rider, sabre raised, charging across a battlefield on a foam-flecked horse. Figures like Jeb Stuart and George Armstrong Custer embodied that dashing, reckless ideal. But some of the most distinctive characters in the cavalry were found not in the saddle, but on … Read more
In May 2013, a 43-year-old lawyer sat in the passenger seat of his Range Rover in a Southlake, Texas shopping center while his wife loaded bags into tNaN
On the evening of May 22, 2013, a 43-year-old man sat in the passenger seat of his Range Rover in the parking lot of an upscale shopping center in Southlake, Texas, one of the wealthiest suburbs in America. His wife was loading shopping bags into the trunk beside him. Families walked past in the early … Read more
On December 1, 1945, at 8 a.m. in Aversa, Italy, twelve American soldiers raised their rifles toward a 54-year-old German general tied to a wooden poNaN
On the morning of December 1, 1945, in the courtyard of a prisoner-of-war compound in Aversa, Italy, twelve American soldiers stood at attention with rifles ready. A few feet away, tied to a wooden post, a 54-year-old German general in field uniform awaited the order that would end his life. A Signal Corps camera recorded … Read more
On April 18th, 1886, a 230-pound woman lay bleeding in a dusty El Paso street between two brothels, clutching a gunshot wound to her groin while the petite red-haired madam across the porch stood…
On April 18th, 1886, a woman the size of most men lay screaming in the middle of Utah Street in El Paso, Texas, clutching her groin with both hands while blood ran through her fingers into the dirt. Across the porch, a woman half her size stood in a doorway holding a Colt 44 that … Read more
On September 11th, 1989, a foil-wrapped dish of baked ziti sat uncollected on Darlene Mayhew’s porch in Palmetto Reach, Florida. Her neighbor had lefNaN
On the evening of September 11th, 1989, in the small Gulf Coast town of Palmetto Reach, Florida, a Pyrex dish of baked ziti sat wrapped in foil on Darlene Mayhew’s front porch. Her neighbor had left it there at six o’clock, as she did every Monday since Darlene’s husband had died that spring. Darlene always … Read more
In 1988, sixteen-year-old Teresa Burns was sent home from school to change clothes. She caught the bus, walked through her front door at 10:30 that moNaN
On January 11, 1988, sixteen-year-old Teresa Burns came home from school in Mishawaka, Indiana, to change her clothes. It was a routine errand, a quick stop between the morning bus and the afternoon classroom. She walked through her front door around 10:30 in the morning. Her brother Steve found her on the kitchen floor at … Read more
In November 1982, at a Las Vegas computer show, a small booth drew a crowd with a machine running a program called AutoCAD. The price tag read $1,000.NaN
In November 1982, on the floor of Comdex in Las Vegas, a booth few expected anyone to notice began drawing a crowd. The machine was a Victor 9000 with a screen of 800 by 400 pixels, and on it ran a technical drawing program, the kind an engineer or architect would use, with precise lines … Read more
In 1871, Princess Thyra of Denmark, daughter of the man known as Europe’s father-in-law, was secretly pregnant by a young cavalry officer named Vilhelm Marcher, a man with no claim to any throne….
The letter arrived at the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen in the autumn of 1871, and when its contents became known, the calm of the Danish court shattered. Princess Thyra, the eighteen-year-old daughter of King Christian IX, was pregnant. She was unmarried. The father was not a prince, not a foreign heir, not a diplomat’s son. … Read more
On October 11, 2004, Sandra Puit arrived at her daughter’s house in Cookeville, Tennessee, and found the back door swinging open in the wind, a kitcheNaN
On October 11, 2004, Sandra Puit knew something was wrong before eight in the morning. Her daughter Angela called her every day on the drive to work. That morning, the phone did not ring. Sandra drove thirty minutes from her home in Monterey to Angela’s house on Crestwood Drive in Cookeville, Tennessee. The front door … Read more