Crime

Outside the Americas, Knives Are Often the Weapon of Choice in Homicides

More than 130 people in Kunming, China, were injured when about ten men and women wielding knives began stabbing others at random

Anne Frank at Merwedeplein in Amsterdam

After Tokyo Libraries' Anne Frank Books Were Defaced, Israel Offered to Replace Them

At least 300 books about the young Jewish girl who was killed in the Holocaust, including her famous diary, were vandalized in Tokyo libraries.

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.

The Baliem Valley was a “magnificent vastness” in Rockefeller’s eyes, and its people were “emotionallly expressive.” But Asmat proved to be “more remote country than what I have ever seen.”

What Really Happened to Michael Rockefeller

A journey to the heart of New Guinea’s Asmat tribal homeland sheds new light on the mystery of the heir’s disappearance there in 1961

How Did Computers Uncover J.K. Rowling’s Pseudonym?

Forensic linguistics can use powerful programs to track written text back to its author

Prison Education Systems Can Keep People From Being Incarcerated Again

But education budgets in prisons were slashed during the economic recession

A vintage postcard presents a deceptively sunny view of the school

Forensic Experts Have Found 55 Bodies Buried at Notorious Reform School

That's more than twice as many as they expected to find

Narcotics operators are responsible for this stretch of deforestation, locating in a protected areas in Honduras.

As Drug Traffickers Move In, Tropical Forests Fall

Deforestation in Central America goes hand-in-hand with narcotics operations, which replace forests with airstrips, roads and money-laundering farms

Try to Smuggle an Illegal Elephant Tusk Out of Kenya, Pay a $230,000 Fine

For the first time, Kenya exercised its new, stricter punishments for wildlife trafficking crimes

The first ransom notes come from an 1874 kidnapping.

The Story Behind the First Ransom Note in American History

Last year, a school librarian was looking through family artifacts when she stumbled upon the first ransom note in American history

This Group Knows You've Committed a Crime And Wants to Hear All About It

Have you ever committed a crime? Stop lying, you definitely have

This Clever Combination Lock Protects Your Bike’s Parts From Crooks

A German startup has developed the Sphyke C3N to secure your bicycle bits without you having to carry a key

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

An Arab city of the early medieval period. Urban centers in the Middle East were of a size and wealth all but unknown in the Christian west during this period, encouraging the development of a large and diverse fraternity of criminals.

Islam’s Medieval Underworld

In the medieval period, the Middle East was home to many of the world's wealthiest cities—and to a large proportion of its most desperate criminals

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The Incredible Disappearing Evangelist

Aimee Semple McPherson was an American phenomenon even before she went missing for five weeks in 1926.

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The Desperate Would-be Housewife of New York

Not even a murder trial and the unmasking of her fake pregnancy stopped Emma Cunningham's search for love and legitimacy

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The Trial That Gave Vodou A Bad Name

An 1864 case that ended with the execution of eight Haitians for child murder and cannibalism has helped define attitudes toward the nation and the religion ever since

Before the blows began to rain: Walter Reuther (hand in pocket) and Richard Frankensteen (to Reuther’s left).

How the Ford Motor Company Won a Battle and Lost Ground

Corporate violence against union organizers might have gone unrecorded—if it not for an enterprising news photographer

A contemporary painting depicting—rather sensationally—the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie. The events surrounding their deaths have attracted abundant rumor and legend, none stranger than the suggestion that the car that they were murdered in was cursed.

Curses! Archduke Franz Ferdinand and His Astounding Death Car

Was the man whose assassination began World War I riding in a car destined to bring death to a series of owners?

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When New York City Tamed the Feared Gunslinger Bat Masterson

The lawman had a reputation to protect—but that reputation shifted after he moved East

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