Crime

Joseph A. "Jock" Yablonski announces his candidacy for the presidency of the United Mine Workers.

Fifty Years Ago, the Murder of Jock Yablonski Shocked the Labor Movement

The conspiracy to kill the United Mine Workers official went all the way to the top of his own union

Researchers analyzed 75,688 convict tattoos cataloged in the Digital Panopticon database.

The Victorian Tattooing Craze Started With Convicts and Spread to the Royal Family

A new series of data visualizations offers insights on the practice's historical significance

The forest has grown so vast that the Watson Lake Visitors Center doesn’t keep any sort of inventory of which signs make up the collection.

There’s a Forest Made Out of Signs in Canada

Since 1942, people have planted 91,000 signs from around the world

The headline of the San Francisco Call details the ouster of police chief George Wittman

The Courtroom That Literally Relitigated History

For San Francisco’s Court of Historical Opinion, no case was too frivolous or too controversial

Left, local actor Keith Scales portrays Norman Baker in a one-man show at the Crescent Hotel and is an encyclopedia of information about Baker’s time in Eureka. Right, detail of a couch and drapes in the Governor’s Suite, formerly Baker’s office, at the hotel.

The Charlatan of the Ozarks Still Looms Over the Haunted Crescent Hotel

A notorious quack peddled cures at an Arkansas resort in the 1930s. Nowadays the con game is all for show

Among the items stolen from Berlin's Stasi Museum are a pair of earrings, a ring laden with pearls and gems, a gold watch, and a gold timepiece.

Days After the Brazen Green Vault Heist, Another German Museum Is Targeted by Thieves

Burglars stole jewelry and historic artifacts from the Stasi Museum in Berlin

Police from five different countries collaborated to recover the stolen artifacts.

Authorities Recover 10,000 Artifacts Stolen by International Antiquities Trafficking Ring

The organized crime group had connections across Italy, Britain, Germany, France and Serbia

As leader of the powerful Teamsters Union, Hoffa was rumored to have connections with organized crime and served four years in prison for various offenses.

The True History Behind Martin Scorsese's 'The Irishman'

Many have suggested Frank Sheeran's claims about the murder of Jimmy Hoffa are mere fantasy; the historical context of Scorsese's epic is more nuanced

A golden ring once given as a present by the famed Irish writer Oscar Wilde has been recovered by a Dutch "art detective" nearly 20 years after it was stolen from Britain's Oxford University.

Art Detective Tracks Down Oscar Wilde's Stolen Friendship Ring

Authorities previously believed the ring, taken from Oxford in 2002, was melted down by an individual unaware of its true significance

Texas state law classifies retired police dogs (and other law enforcement animals) as surplus government property not to be used for private benefit.

Texas' Retired Police Dogs No Longer Have to Be Sold or Euthanized

A new state amendment allows handlers and other qualified caretakers to adopt retired police pups at no cost

An unknown thief stole the historic rifle in a brazen 1971 heist.

Revolutionary War Rifle Stolen 50 Years Ago Recovered at Barn Sale

The long rifle, made by master gunsmith Johann Christian Oerter, will go on view at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia

A jar of soil collected at the site where George Peck was murdered in 1880 will join others on view at the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama

A Maryland Community Gathered to Remember the Lynching of George Peck

Montgomery County residents collected soil from the site where Peck was dragged to his death in 1880

Patriots toppled the statue in July 1776, but British Loyalists rescued and hid some of the fragments

You Could Own an Amputated Arm From the George III Statue Toppled at Bowling Green

The 18th-century lead fragment was unearthed in a Connecticut resident's garden in 1991

If participants successfully complete the program, the district attorney’s office declines to prosecute their case, and the arrest record is sealed

Low-Level Offenders in NYC Can Now Take an Art Class Instead of Appearing in Court

"It’s about holding people accountable, but doing it in ways that promote human dignity," Brooklyn's district attorney said

Alcatraz Island, home to the nation’s most notorious pen, was the site of a crucial civil rights battle 50 years ago.

Alcatraz's Captivating Hold on History

Fifty years after Native American activists occupied the island, take a look back at the old prison in San Francisco Bay

The fifth season of BBC drama "Peaky Blinders" is available now on Netflix

Who Were the Real 'Peaky Blinders'?

The Shelby family is fictional, but a real street gang operated in Birmingham at the turn of the 20th century

A Fremont Correctional Facility inmate reading a book on the top bunk of his cell.

Prison Book Bans Are ‘Arbitrary and Irrational,’ Report Finds

PEN America's report coincided with the annual Banned Books Week

The map shows locations including accused witches' places of residence, sites of trial, detention and execution

This Map Shows the Scale of 16th- and 17th-Century Scottish Witch Hunts

The interactive tool tells the stories of 3,141 men and women accused of practicing witchcraft

Illustration by Be Boggs

How the 'Blonde Rattlesnake' Stirred Public Fascination With Female Accomplices

In 1933, Burmah White was punished harshly—and amidst a media frenzy—after she and her husband committed a spree of crimes in Los Angeles

Illustration by Edward Kinsella III

The Mayor and the Mob

William O'Dwyer was beloved by New York City. So why did he abruptly leave office and head to Mexico?

Page 17 of 35