Crime

Carrie Coon (left) as Jean Cole and Keira Knightley (right) as Loretta McLaughlin in the Boston Strangler movie

Women Who Shaped History

The Tenacious Women Reporters Who Helped Expose the Boston Strangler

A new film explores Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole's efforts to unmask a serial killer believed to have murdered 13 women between 1962 and 1964

Yemeni artifacts on display during a ceremony to celebrate their repatriation

The Smithsonian Will Temporarily House 77 Repatriated Artifacts Amid Unrest in Yemen

Until the items can be returned, the National Museum of Asian Art will keep them safe

One of the pieces of Cambodian jewelry returned by the estate of antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford

Looted Gold Jewelry Returns to Cambodia

Now back in Phnom Penh, the 77 items may have been worn by Angkorian royalty

Ihor Poshyvailo, director of the Maidan Museum in Kyiv and co-founder of Ukraine’s Heritage Emergency Response Initiative, along with his crew, salvages the remains of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary built in 1862 and shelled by the Russians in March 2022.

How Ukrainians Are Defending Their Cultural Heritage From Russian Destruction

The Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative and its partners are aiding in the fight to protect the country's history and to document attempts to erase it

Flamingo the king pigeon was rescued from Madison Square Park in New York City on January 30, 2023. 

A Mysterious Pink Pigeon in New York City Has Died

The bird may have been colored as part of a gender reveal

Flaco, a Eurasian eagle-owl, stands beside a trap with a rat inside. He tried to grab the rat and became briefly snared by the trap's wires, then got free and flew away.

Owl Escapes From Zoo, Becomes a New York Celebrity

A Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco has been on the loose for a week after his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo was vandalized

Two emperor tamarin monkeys were stolen from their enclosure at the Dallas Zoo on January 30, 2023. 

Animals at the Dallas Zoo Keep Mysteriously Disappearing

In just a few weeks, the zoo has had enclosures tampered with, a clouded leopard escape, two stolen monkeys and a suspicious vulture death

A fresco stolen from an archaeological site at Herculaneum, an ancient town near Pompeii that was buried by Mount Vesuvius' eruption

Italy Celebrates Return of Looted Artifacts Worth $20 Million

Some of the five dozen items had been on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

On the morning of August 14, 1932, the Keuka sank under suspicious circumstances, prompting speculation both at the time and in the decades since.

Once a Floating Speakeasy, This Shipwreck Tells a Tale of Bullets and Booze

The "Keuka" sank in 1932, just three years after its grand opening as a dance hall, roller rink and illicit party boat

Drummer boy John Clem (left) and Robert Henry Hendershot, who claimed to be the celebrated "drummer boy of Rappahannock" (right)

Why the Union Army Had So Many Boy Soldiers

A new book unearths the startling numbers behind underage enlistment during the Civil War

The Resurrected Christ Appears to His Mother by Peter Paul Rubens

Italian Police Seize Rubens Masterpiece From an Exhibition

Four people are under investigation for illegally exporting the painting and money laundering

A painting at Brazil's National Congress that was damaged during the attacks

Rioters Damage Art at Government Buildings in Brazil

The government has released a list of artworks that were harmed during the attacks

Both famous and lesser-known authors were targets of the scheme, which dates back to at least 2016.

Man Who Tried to Steal Over 1,000 Unpublished Manuscripts Pleads Guilty

A former Simon & Schuster employee used his industry knowledge to impersonate publishing professions

On January 12, 1928, Ruth Snyder was executed at Sing Sing prison for murdering her husband, Albert.

How a New York Tabloid Captured the First Photo of an Execution by the Electric Chair

In January 1928, Tom Howard of the "Daily News" smuggled a camera into Sing Sing, where he snapped a picture of Ruth Snyder’s final moments

Police in Boulder and Lakewood found all five pieces of stolen artwork in a hotel room.

Police Recover $400,000 Worth of Stolen Artwork in Colorado

The suspect allegedly broke into a locked truck that was transporting five high-end pieces across the country

The icory cosmetic spoon was used to pour incense onto fires as an offering to the gods or the dead.

For the First Time, U.S. Repatriates an Artifact to the Palestinian Authority

The item, an ivory cosmetic spoon, dates back to between 800 and 700 B.C.E.

Archaeological artifacts as well as bone fragments up to 5,000 years old were discovered at two Spanish homes.

Police Discover Hundreds of Stolen Artifacts at Two Spanish Residences

The collection includes bones, Paleolithic tools, an ancient Roman loom and more

Egyptian officials with the ancient sarcophagus on January 2, 2023

U.S. Returns Looted Sarcophagus to Egypt

The "Green Coffin" had been at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences since 2013

The 1923 Rosewood massacre resulted in the deaths of six Black people and two white vigilantes.

Untold Stories of American History

How History Forgot Rosewood, a Black Town Razed by a White Mob

A century ago, a false accusation sparked the destruction of the Florida community

Israel isn’t the first country where fingerprints found during archaeological research have elicited curiosity and spurred questions about who left them behind.

What Fingerprints Tell Us About Jerusalem's Ancient Artisans

In an unusual collaboration, archaeologists in Israel are working with police to analyze prints left on fifth- or sixth-century pottery shards

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