In 1893, a New York publisher opened a 200-room resort in Millbrook, New York, built partly to display his rare books and curios. Guests arrived by train and were carried from the station by…
The demolition crew that moved onto the former Bennett College campus in Millbrook, New York, in the autumn of 2021 faced a problem that had no graceful solution. In the center of their work site stood Halcyon Hall, a five-story wooden hotel from 1893, and it was so far gone that no one could safely … Read more
On March 17, 2009, Crocs filed its annual report, and buried inside was a sentence no company wants to print: its auditors had substantial doubt it woNaN
On March 17, 2009, a Colorado shoe company filed its annual report with federal regulators, and buried inside it was a sentence no company ever wants to print. Its own auditors had substantial doubt that it would survive. The cash, the report said, would last only through the end of March. Less than two years … Read more
In 1934, Nell Barrow cut her brother Clyde’s hair on the side of a Texas dirt road while the engine stayed running. He was the most wanted man in the state. The family brought clean shirts, a warm…
Clyde Barrow’s sisters cut his hair on the side of a dirt road in Texas, using a comb and a pair of shears while the car engine idled. He was the most wanted man in the state. When word came that there was a place to meet, the family went — clean shirts, a pan … Read more
On November 6th, 1895, outside St. Thomas Church in New York City, 300 policemen struggled to hold back thousands who had gathered since dawn to glimpse the bride. Inside, 400 of America’s…
The bride was twenty minutes late, and the crowd outside St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue had begun to murmur. Three hundred policemen strained to hold back the thousands who had gathered since dawn, pressing against the barricades for a glimpse of her. Inside, four hundred of America’s wealthiest citizens waited in the pews, and … Read more
On June 19th, 1944, Lieutenant Commander Jimmy Flatley watched his radar light up with 268 Japanese planes, the largest formation ever assembled, all NaN
On June 19, 1944, at 1400 hours, Lieutenant Commander Jimmy Flatley watched his radar screen light up with the largest formation of Japanese aircraft ever assembled for a single attack: 268 planes in four separate waves, all heading directly for Task Force 58. American pilots would call what followed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. The … Read more
In the summer of 1945, captured German field marshal Gerd von Rundstedt told a British interrogator that the Atlantic Wall he had commanded was a gigaNaN
In the summer of 1945, in a small office at Wilton Park in Buckinghamshire, a captured German field marshal answered a question put to him by a British interrogator. Gerd von Rundstedt was sixty-nine years old, recovering from a heart attack suffered during his initial questioning, and he had served in three different German armies … Read more
In 1866, in an isolated cabin in Newton County, Arkansas, James and Martha Blackwood’s infant son Samuel was noted by a visiting doctor to have a gaze that made sustained eye contact nearly…
The cabin door stood open against the autumn chill, and the men who crossed the threshold that morning were not prepared for what waited inside. Reverend Elijah Porter had come to check on the Blackwood family, accompanied by Dr. William Hargrove and two local men, Silas Jenkins and Michael Turner. They found Martha Blackwood in … Read more
In May 1934, Deputy Ted Hinton helped ambush Bonnie and Clyde on a Louisiana highway. After more than 100 rounds tore through their stolen Ford, the two outlaws were dead in the front seat. Then,…
The order came from his own boss, and Ted Hinton, the youngest deputy on the ambush team, understood exactly what it meant. Bonnie Parker’s body had to be moved. The scene had to look better for the photographers. So he did it. He repositioned her, arranging her against Clyde Barrow in the front seat of … Read more
In January 1856, on a Georgia rice plantation eight miles south of Savannah, two thirteen-year-old enslaved twins watched a pregnant woman named Ruth collapse in the fields. When she couldn’t…
The twins had been on the plantation for exactly twenty-eight days when they watched Ruth die. Not the moment of her death—that came later, in a corner of the sick house, with only the other women around her. What they watched was the moment her life stopped being worth saving to anyone who kept the … Read more
In December 1995, 19-year-old Céline Faggard left her home in France, hoping to reach her cousin’s hotel in England in time for Christmas. When train NaN
Selene Faggard was nineteen years old, a French woman from the quiet town of Besançon near the Swiss border, when she set out on December 18, 1995, to spend Christmas with her cousin in Britain. Her father was a farmer, and she had grown up in a close family with two brothers and a sister. … Read more