Murder

The Russian Imperial Family, as photographed in 1911. The Russian Orthodox Church has not recognized the remains of Maria (second from left) and Alexei (second from right), despite DNA analysis.

Why Russia Is Digging Up The Bones of a 19th-Century Tsar

A new DNA analysis aims to end speculation about the last Romanovs—but hasn't the mystery already been solved?

Howard Unruh, a war veteran, killed 13 people by shooting from a window down into a crowded street. Police forced him out of the apartment with tear gas.

The Story of the First Mass Shooting in U.S. History

Howard Unruh’s “Walk of Death” foretold an era in which such tragedies would become all too common

The Murderous Story of America’s First Hijacking

Earnest Pletch’s cold-blooded killing of Carl Bivens was just one chapter in the strange life of the mechanic, farmhand and erstwhile carnie

Roses mark a window filled with bullet holes after a shooting spree in Denmark.

Shootings and Mass Murders Seem to Be Contagious

Data spanning decades shows how high-profile events can cause outbreaks of similar killings that mirror the spread of disease

Investigating the Case of the Earliest Known Murder Victim

A 430,000-year-old skull discovered in a Spanish cave bears evidence of deliberate, lethal blunt force trauma

"One more stain on the old banner," Booth yelled, conjuring the Confederate flag as he prepared to face his pursuers

The Final Hours of John Wilkes Booth

"I have too great a soul to die like a criminal," Booth once wrote

Researchers exhumed the mummy of Cangrande della Scala in 2004 to perform a modern autopsy on the famous Italian autocrat.

Poison Hath Been This Italian Mummy's Untimely End

A lethal helping of foxglove seems to have triggered the downfall of a warlord of Verona

Students at a school in Nigeria.

A Militant Group Is Fighting to Keep Nigerian Students From Education

Islamic extremists from the group Boko Haram have kidnapped 200 girls from a boarding school

States Don't Have to Disclose Where They Obtain Lethal Injection Drugs

First Missouri and now Texas has refused to disclose the origins of lethal injection drugs used in recent executions

Rwanda Has Become a Poster Child for Health Equity

Life expectancy has doubled, and child vaccinations rates are higher than they are in the U.S.

Frances Glessner Lee hard at work on her one of her deadly dioramas, The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.

How a Chicago Heiress Trained Homicide Detectives With an Unusual Tool: Dollhouses

Frances Glessner Lee's miniature murder scenes are dioramas to die for

A Drug Company Tried to Block the Use of Pentobarbital in Executions, But U.S. States Are Finding Ways Around the Ban

In 2011, the Danish company behind the drug, Lunbeck, banned the sale of pentobarbital for execution purposes.

Mary Rogers in the river, 1841

Edgar Allan Poe Tried and Failed to Crack the Mysterious Murder Case of Mary Rogers

After a teenage beauty turned up dead in the Hudson River, not even the godfather of detective fiction could figure out who done it

One frame of the Zapruder film has long been considered too graphic for public view.

What Does the Zapruder Film Really Tell Us?

Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris deconstructs the most famous 26 seconds in film history

John Surratt after he was captured

The Family Plot to Kill Lincoln

Mary and John Surratt helped John Wilkes Booth assassinate Abraham Lincoln and then paid the ultimate penalty for their actions

The “fairy coffins” discovered on Arthur’s Seat, a hill above Edinburgh, in 1836. Were they magical symbols, sailors’ memorials—or somehow linked to the city’s infamous mass murderers, Burke and Hare?

Edinburgh’s Mysterious Miniature Coffins

In 1836, three Scottish boys discovered a strange cache of miniature coffins concealed on a hillside above Edinburgh. Who put them there—and why?

John Wilkes Booth leans forward to shoot President Abraham Lincoln as he watches a play at Ford's Theatre in 1865.

Lincoln's Missing Bodyguard

What happened to Officer John Parker, the man who chose the wrong night to leave his post at Ford's Theatre?

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