Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Crime

Headline from the San Antonio Light, November 12, 1933

The Man Who Wouldn’t Die

The plot to kill Michael Malloy for life-insurance money seemed foolproof—until the conspirators actually tried it

Izzy Einstein (left) and Moe Smith share a toast in New York City

Prohibition’s Premier Hooch Hounds

Everyday Science and Mechanics (February, 1936)

Mobsters Tremble Before the Crime-Fighting, Red Flying Gondola

Science-fiction pioneer Hugo Gernsback predicted that, as long as police officers were stuck on terra firma, criminals always would have the edge

None

Pollster George Gallup Jr. Looks to the Year 2000

Ferdinand Pecora

The Man Who Busted the ‘Banksters’

Marc Bloch: Historian. French Resistance leader. Hero.

History Heroes: Marc Bloch

Scholar created a whole new way of looking at history, but found time to fight in two World Wars–latterly, aged 60, as a leader of the French Resistance

Upon his arrest for murder, Roscoe Arbuckle was booked into custody and denied bail.

The Skinny on the Fatty Arbuckle Trial

When the million-dollar movie comedian faced a manslaughter charge, the jury was indeed scandalized—at how his reputation had been trashed

The "Chandos Portrait" of Shakespeare–dating to c.1600 and one of only two that may have been painted from life–is thought to be the work of the playwright's "intimate friend" John Taylor of the Painter-Stainers' Company (though it may not show Shakespeare at all). Its be-earringed playwright, pictured without the usual ruff, seems to show an altogether tougher character than the figure that appears in more familiar likenesses.

William Shakespeare, Gangster

Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity and the Roots of Faked Footage

The horror movie franchise is just the latest in a long history of movies using so-called “recovered” films

Aftermath of the Black Tom explosion on July 30, 1916

Sabotage in New York Harbor

Explosion on Black Tom Island packed the force of an earthquake. It took investigators years to determine that operatives working for Germany were to blame

The Turkish flag flown, and rifles used, by Gool Mohammed and Mullah Abdullah during the Battle of Broken Hill, January 1, 1915.

The Battle of Broken Hill

While Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire were fighting World War I, two Afghans opened up a second front in an Australian outback town 12,000 miles away

A crowd gathers at the scene of the Wall Street bombing in September 1920.

Anger and Anarchy on Wall Street

In the early 20th century, resentment at the concentration of wealth took a violent turn

King Ananda Mahidol of Siam in 1939

Long Live the King

A gunshot rang out in the king’s bedroom in June 1946, ending one reign and beginning another. Uncertainty over how it happened has persisted ever since

Soldiers arrest Gavrilo Prinzip, assassin of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.

World War I: 100 Years Later

The Origin of the Tale that Gavrilo Princip Was Eating a Sandwich When He Assassinated Franz Ferdinand

Was it really a lunch-hour coincidence that led to the death of the Archduke in Sarajevo in 1914—and, by extension, World War I?

Marm Mandelbaum, the "Queen of Fences"

The Life and Crimes of “Old Mother” Mandelbaum

She had the eyes of a sparrow, the neck of a bear and enough business acumen to build an empire as the “Queen of Fences”

Ty Cobb

The Knife in Ty Cobb’s Back

Did the baseball great really confess to murder on his deathbed?

From the upcoming Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory: (l to r) Bruce Sinofsky, Damien Echols and Joe Joe Berlinger

Paradise Lost’s Joe Berlinger on the Roots of his West Memphis Three Films

The director of the award-winning documentary reflects on what it was like to film a “real-life Salem Witch Trial”

Mrs. Grace Humiston, a.k.a. "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes"

“Mrs. Sherlock Holmes” Takes on the NYPD

When an 18-year-old girl went missing, the police let the case grow cold. But Grace Humiston, a soft-spoken private investigator, wouldn’t let it lie

Anne Bonny (left) and Mary Read, as rendered in A General History of the Pyrates

If There’s a Man Among Ye: The Tale of Pirate Queens Anne Bonny and Mary Read

Renowned for their ruthlessness, these two female pirates challenged the sailors’ adage that a woman’s presence on shipboard invites bad luck

"I will not live in silence," said Thomas A. Drake, in Washington, D.C. in May. He was charged with retaining national defense information.

Leaks and the Law: The Story of Thomas Drake

The former NSA official reached a plea deal with the government, but the case still raises questions about the public’s right to know

Page 38 of 40