Murder

In "Lady in the Lake," Natalie Portman plays a fictional journalist who investigates a pair of mysterious deaths. The cases are inspired by the real-life disappearances of Esther Lebowitz and Shirley Lee Parker.

The Real Story Behind the Baltimore Deaths That Inspired 'Lady in the Lake'

A new mini-series offers a fictionalized take on two unrelated 1969 cases: the mysterious disappearance of bartender Shirley Lee Parker and the murder of 11-year-old Esther Lebowitz

President Ronald Reagan, pictured waving to a crowd shortly before John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate him on March 30, 1981

The History of Presidential Assassination Attempts, From Andrew Jackson to Teddy Roosevelt

Before last weekend's attack on Donald Trump, would-be assassins unsuccessfully targeted Ronald Reagan, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and seven other sitting presidents or candidates for office

An 18th-century illustration of a jury of matrons

How All-Female 'Juries of Matrons' Shaped Legal History

Courts called on these jurors to determine whether women sentenced to death were pregnant or faking it to avoid execution

Arsenic tests for the Lydia Sherman trial of 1872

What a 100-Year-Old Lie Detector and 150-Year-Old Arsenic Tests Tell Us About Forensic Science Today

An exhibition at the National Museum of American History examines how humans influence and judge investigation techniques

Richard Loeb (left) and Nathan Leopold (right) sought to plan "the perfect crime."

'The Crime of the Century,' a Century Later

In the summer of 1924, the Leopold and Loeb murder case triggered a media frenzy and a debate over whether anyone can truly know what’s inside the mind of a cold-blooded killer

The 1892 People's Grocery murders are “what opened my eyes to what lynching really was,” Ida B. Wells later wrote.

How the Murder of a Black Grocery Store Owner and His Colleagues Galvanized Ida B. Wells' Anti-Lynching Crusade

The saga of People's Grocery stands as a powerful reminder of the centrality of Black radicalism to the food justice movement

On May 21, 1924, Nathan Leopold Jr. (left) and Richard Loeb (right) murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks. Leopold later described the pair's motive as “a sort of pure love of excitement, or the imaginary love of thrills, doing something different.”

Why Leopold and Loeb Committed Cold-Blooded Murder in the 'Crime of the Century'

A century ago, two Chicago teenagers killed an acquaintance named Bobby Franks for the thrill of it. The case captivated the nation and continues to fascinate the public today

A romanticized 1920 depiction of the capture of Blackbeard, one of history's most notorious pirates

Who Were the Real Pirates of the Caribbean?

During the Golden Age of Piracy, thousands of sea dogs sought fame and fortune. But the reality of a pirate's life was less enticing than movies and television shows suggest

An 1890 portrait of Lizzie Borden

How Lizzie Borden Got Away With Murder

Class, nativism and gender stereotypes all played a role in Borden's acquittal for the 1892 killings of her father and stepmother

Julianne Moore as Mary Villiers and Nicholas Galitzine as her son George Villiers in "Mary & George"

The Real Story Behind 'Mary & George'

The new mini-series dramatizes the Villiers family’s scandalous rise to power at the court of England's James I

Tobias Menzies (right) as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in "Manhunt"

The Real History Behind Apple TV+'s 'Manhunt' and the Search for Abraham Lincoln's Killer

A new series dramatizes Edwin Stanton's hunt for John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators in the aftermath of the president’s 1865 assassination

Rasputin with his acolytes in 1914

What Really Happened During the Murder of Rasputin, Russia's 'Mad Monk'?

Aristocrats plotted to kill the Siberian peasant, who wielded undue influence over Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra. But the conspiracy backfired, hastening the coming Russian Revolution

The archive was found by a direct descendant of Herman Matzinger, the doctor who performed McKinley's autopsy.

Newly Discovered Papers From President McKinley's Assassination Are for Sale

The archive belonged to Herman Matzinger, who performed the autopsy on the 25th president and conducted a bacteriological analysis to rule out the possibility of poison-tipped bullets

Paola Magni in 2022, taking a water sample from Italy’s Lake Bracciano—the site of the mysterious death of a local teenager, ten years before.

The Scientist Using Bugs to Help Solve Murders

At crime scenes around the world, the forensic entomologist Paola Magni is taking her field into uncharted waters

The Zone of Interest envisions the everyday lives of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his family, rarely venturing beyond their villa’s borders to acknowledge the atrocities unfolding outside their door.

The Real History Behind 'The Zone of Interest' and Rudolf Höss

Jonathan Glazer's new film uses the Auschwitz commandant and his family as a vehicle for examining humans' capacity for evil

Schindler's List—a 195-minute, almost entirely black-and-white film—earned more than $300 million at the box office.

How 'Schindler's List' Transformed Americans' Understanding of the Holocaust

The 1993 film also inspired its director, Steven Spielberg, to establish a foundation that preserves survivors' stories

A screenshot of the 3D model

An Interactive 3D Model of the JFK Assassination Site, Grassy Knoll and All

A Danish graphic designer has pieced together historic photos and maps to create an interactive digital diorama of the fateful moments

The Dallas County Administration Building, formerly the Texas School Book Depository, as photographed in 2015

The Architectural History of the JFK Assassination Site

How November 22, 1963, changed Dallas' Dealey Plaza forever

Sergeant Gabriela Corbalan rang a bell as the names of the soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment were read at a recent ceremony. 

U.S. Army Clears 110 Black Soldiers Charged in 1917 Houston Riots

The soldiers have been given honorable discharges, and their families may now be eligible for benefits

An interim memorial now stands in front of the Pulse nightclub, the site of a deadly 2016 mass shooting.

Plans for Museum Honoring Victims of Pulse Nightclub Shooting Have Been Canceled

The city of Orlando has agreed to buy the nightclub property, where a permanent memorial will eventually open

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