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Crime

The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg looted books across occupied Europe. Pictured here is a room full of stolen texts in Riga, Latvia.

New Digital Project Details 150 Belgian Libraries Looted by the Nazis

During WWII, a special ideological unit stole some 250,000 to 300,000 books for research and propaganda purposes

Erle Stanley Gardner is best remembered as a novelist. But he was also a lawyer deeply concerned about victims of injustice. “It is too easy to convict innocent persons,” he wrote in a 1959 letter to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

The Case of the Autographed Corpse

The author of the Perry Mason novels rose to the defense of an Apache shaman who was falsely convicted of killing his wife

A police barrier tape hangs in front of Dresden's Royal Palace, which houses the Green Vault.

Authorities Arrest Three Suspects in $1 Billion Dresden Jewel Heist

Investigators linked the November 2019 burglary to an organized crime syndicate

Jane Johnson emancipated herself and her children by walking away from her former "master", John Hill Wheeler, into the free city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Courageous Tale of Jane Johnson, Who Risked Her Freedom for Those Who Helped Her Escape Slavery

A dramatic court scene in Philadelphia put the abolitionist cause in headlines across the nation

Prominent local businessman July Perry was among the 1920 Ocoee massacre's victims.

The Little-Known Story of America’s Deadliest Election Day Massacre

A new exhibition on the 1920 Ocoee massacre examines the Florida city’s history of voter suppression and anti-black violence

A hydrothermal area called Porcelain Basin in Yellowstone National Park's broader Norris Geyser Basin.

Boiling Chickens in Yellowstone’s Hot Springs Is Illegal

Three men are now banned from visiting the national park after pleading guilty to several charges

The Sistine Hall, originally constructed as part of the Vatican Library

Vatican Library Enlists Artificial Intelligence to Protect Its Digitized Treasures

The archive employs A.I. modeled on the human immune system to guard offerings including a rare manuscript of the “Aeneid”

This month's book picks include A Demon-Haunted Land, South to Freedom and The Light Ages.

Books of the Month

The Heiress Who Stole a Vermeer, Witchcraft in Post-WWII Germany and Other New Books to Read

These five November releases may have been lost in the news cycle

Installation view of "Russian Avant-Garde at the Museum Ludwig: Original and Fake, Questions, Research, Explanations"

Why a German Museum Is Displaying Fake Paintings From Its Collections

A taboo-breaking exhibition at Cologne’s Museum Ludwig spotlights misattributed Russian avant-garde works

The statue, which stands across from the New York County Criminal Courthouse, inverts the myth of Perseus slaying Medusa.

Why a New Statue of Medusa Is So Controversial

The gorgon, seen holding Perseus’ severed head, stands across from the court where Harvey Weinstein was tried

The stolen items' owner estimates their value at around $645 million.

A Stolen Mao Zedong Scroll Was Found Cut in Half

Prior to the defacement, the nine-foot-long calligraphy work was valued at an estimated $300 million

The house that served as Buffalo Bill's lair in Silence of the Lambs is on sale for $298,500.

You Could Own the House of Horrors From ‘Silence of the Lambs’

The property appeared as serial killer Buffalo Bill’s lair in the classic 1991 film

U.S. Representative Deb Haaland offered to stand in for the missing and deceased.

Portrait Project Memorializes Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

A new exhibition available to view online features 94 photographs, as well as original artwork

Sea turtle eggs, rumored to have aphrodisiac properties, are frequently poached from Costa Rican beaches

3-D Printed Sea Turtle Eggs Reveal Poaching Routes

Scientists put GPS locators inside plastic eggs to find trafficking destinations in Costa Rica

European authorities recovered 200 rare books, including valuable first editions of works by Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton, last week.

Stolen First Editions by Galileo, Newton Discovered Beneath Floor in Romania

Authorities have recovered 200 rare books pilfered in a 2017 London heist

Smoke billows over Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921.

Lawsuit Seeks Reparations for Victims of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

Led by a 105-year-old survivor of the attack, the plaintiffs detail almost 100 years of lasting harm

The vast trench dug by treasure hunters is visible at the center of this image.

Treasure Hunters Destroy 2,000-Year-Old Heritage Site in Sudan

Illegal gold diggers dug an enormous trench at Jabal Maragha in the eastern Sahara Desert

Speaking with BBC News, Frans Hals specialist Anna Tummers described the painting as a "wonderful example of his loose painting style. ... It was very playful, daring and loose."

Thieves Steal 17th-Century Masterpiece for Third Time in 32 Years

Frans Hals’ “Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer” was previously purloined in 1988 and 2011

The age-of-consent campaigns of the 1880s and 1890s represent a vital yet little-known chapter in the history of suffrage.

100 Years of Women at the Ballot Box

What Raising the Age of Sexual Consent Taught Women About the Vote

Before many women could vote in the United States, they lobbied male legislators to change statutory rape laws and gained political skills in the process

Susan B. Anthony (seen here in 1898) was fined $100 for casting her vote in the 1872 presidential election.

100 Years of Women at the Ballot Box

In 1872, Susan B. Anthony Was Arrested for Voting ‘Unlawfully’

President Donald Trump posthumously pardoned the pioneering activist on the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage

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