In November 1986, a 26-year-old woman died in a Philadelphia hospital at just 82 pounds, her mother the only person at her side. Five years earlier, she had been the highest-paid model in the…
On the 18th of November, 1986, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a 26-year-old woman died in Hahnemann University Hospital. She weighed 82 pounds. Her mother was by her side. The woman had appeared on the covers of American, British, and Paris Vogue. She had shot campaigns for Armani, Dior, Versace, and Yves Saint Laurent. At 18, she … Read more
In 1878, the rough-and-tumble town of Dodge City boasted a cast of legends, including Sheriff Bat Masterson and Marshal Charlie Bassid. Amidst this chaos, young lawman Wyatt Herb found himself…
The shot came without warning. Doc Holliday stepped through the saloon door in Las Vegas, New Mexico, with a cocked revolver in his hand, and opened fire before anyone even knew he was there. Charles Wright was behind the bar serving customers, but he recognized his old enemy from Dodge City in that instant. Wright … Read more
In October 1839, five armed overseers entered the Ohoopee River bottomlands in Wilkinson County, Georgia, chasing a fifteen-year-old girl named Celia who knew those swamps like her own breath….
The first man to die went without violence. Nathaniel Cruz had been shaking with fever since the second day, and sometime before dawn on the fourth, his breathing simply stopped. The other four sat staring at his body in a clearing deep in the Ohoopee River bottomlands of Wilkinson County, Georgia, understanding for the first … Read more
In 1859, two white traders were found shot dead in the mountains near Carson City, arrows placed in their wounds to make it look like an Indian killing. Sarah Winnemucca, a fourteen-year-old…
The shots came without warning. Three prisoners, their hands bound, broke from the armed men who had come to take them to California. Before anyone could react, the guns went off. Two of the prisoners fell wounded. The third staggered back with his hands raised, but the firing continued until all three lay dead on … Read more
In 1845, on a Georgia plantation, a baby was born with her eyes already open, too knowing for a newborn, and the old women whispered that this child would either save them all or doom them trying….
The rope snapped. It was old hemp, maybe weakened by weather, maybe blessed by the ancestors, maybe touched by God himself, but it frayed and gave way, and Lily crashed to the ground, gasping for air. The noose had been around her neck, she had felt it tighten and cut off her breath, had felt … Read more
On June 25, 1863, General Robert E. Lee sent cavalry commander Jeb Stuart orders to screen the Confederate army as it marched north into Pennsylvania. The exact wording remains debated, but Stuart…
At roughly 8:00 on the morning of July 3, 1863, Colonel Edward Porter Alexander received an order that would place him at the heart of the largest artillery bombardment ever attempted on the North American continent. General James Longstreet had chosen him to command the First Corps artillery during what would become known as Pickett’s … Read more
In 1823, Stephen F. Austin hired ten men to guard a Brazos River colony with no fort, no garrison, and no soldiers within a hundred miles. They brought their own horses, rifles, and powder, served…
On the night of January 28th, 1918, a party of riders came into the village of Porvenir in Presidio County, Texas, on the bank of the Rio Grande. They were Company B of the Texas Rangers under Captain James Monroe Fox, four local ranchers, and troopers of the 8th US Cavalry. Before dawn, they took … Read more
On August 2nd, 1876, inside Nuttle and Man’s Saloon Number 10 in Deadwood, Wild Bill Hickok sat at a poker table with his back to the door. Short of money, he asked bartender Harry Young for $50…
On the afternoon of August 2nd, 1876, inside Nuttall and Mann’s Saloon Number 10 in Deadwood, Wild Bill Hickok sat at a poker table with his back to the door and daylight across his shoulders. He was short of money. So he turned to the bartender, Harry Young, and asked for $50 in pocket checks … Read more
In 1841, an enslaved woman named Ella Lanina Bowmont vanished from Foresight Estate near Savannah, and the man who owned her never called the police. Instead, Thomas Harrington offered his…
The letter was written in a hurried but educated hand, dated the fourteenth of October 1841, and addressed only to Father William. Reverend James Sullivan, assistant to Reverend William Stokes of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Savannah, set down what he had seen and heard that night with the weight of a confession he could … Read more
In December 1887, schoolteacher Wesley Coyle walked 41 miles to a remote West Virginia hollow to teach the Nettle children, and at his first meal he watched the family set a bowl of food on a trap…
The door of the Nettle house stood open, and the main room was clean. The plank table was set for six, six wooden plates in a row, and on the trap door in the middle of the floor sat a small clay bowl holding a portion of food that was not spoiled and not old—it … Read more