Crime

Among botanist Robert Fortune's tasks in China was to learn the procedure for manufacturing tea, as shown in this 18th century tea plantation.

The Great British Tea Heist

Botanist Robert Fortune traveled to China and stole trade secrets of the tea industry, discovering a fraud in the process

Abraham Lincoln ca. 1846, photographed in Springfield Illinois by N.H. Shepherd

Abraham Lincoln, True Crime Writer

While practicing law in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln defended a man in a highly unusual case and later recounted the mystery as a short story

In the Ecuador wilderness (guides Nelson, at the helm, and Paa), Charles Bergman sought the roots of the illegal animal trade (a blue-headed parrot chick).

Wildlife Trafficking

A reporter follows the lucrative, illicit and heartrending trade in stolen wild animals deep into Ecuador's rain forest

Mali's long history as a sub-Saharan trade route underlies its artistic traditions.

Looting Mali's History

As demand for its antiquities soars, the West African country is losing its most prized artifacts to illegal sellers and smugglers

"That cigar bit [that] folks like to tell about is phony," said W.D. Jones, whose photograph of Bonnie was seized in a police raid.

The Irresistible Bonnie Parker

A pistol-wielding, cigar-chomping bank robber hams it up shortly before she and Clyde Barrow met their violent end

The boy's skeleton was crammed into a cellar pit with a broken ceramic milk pan lying across his rib cage.

Solving a 17th-Century Crime

Forensic anthropologists at the National Museum of Natural History find answers to a colonial cold case

The National Archives at Kew

Rewriting History in Great Britain

Recently uncovered documents in the British archives reveal dark secrets from World War II. One problem: they are forgeries

Medellin’s new metro cable system carries commuters in gondolas up a steep mountainside

Colombia Dispatch 9: The Story of Medellin

The Colombian city of Medellin is synonymous with the drug trade, but city leaders are hoping to keep the peace by building up communities

Meals were delivered to the inmates and they ate in their cells. Food carts ran on tracks along the catwalks in the two story cellblocks.

Eastern State Penitentiary: A Prison With a Past

Philadelphia set the stage for prison reform not only in Pennsylvania, but also the world over

"The lost synagogue" at Eastern State Penitentiary.

The Synagogue at Eastern State Penitentiary

The DefendantsNathan Leopold (left) and his lover Richard Loeb confessed that they had kidnapped and murdered Bobby Franks solely for the thrill of the experience.

Leopold and Loeb's Criminal Minds

In defense of murderers Leopold and Loeb, attorney Clarence Darrow thwarted a nation's call for vengeance

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On the Job: Courtroom Sketch Artist

Decades of depicting defendants, witnesses and judges have given Andy Austin a unique perspective on Chicago

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Rogues Gallery

Ten of the most incredible art heists of the modern era

An attempt to buy a gift launched Dean Thomas, left, and his brother Jim (at the Gettysburg Battlefield) on the trail of purloined letters.

To Catch a Thief

How a Civil War buff's chance discovery led to a sting, a raid and a victory against traffickers in stolen historical documents

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Pay Dirt in Montana

A librarian's sleuthing turns up a crime with at least 100 victims

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A Brief History of Scotland Yard

Investigating London's famous police force and some of its most infamous cases

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Outlaw Hunters

The Pinkerton Detective Agency chased down some of America's most notorious criminals

"It caught the public's imagination," says Heaney. "We will be dead and gone for years, and people will still be saying, coming off the boat: 'That's Alcatraz.'"

Breaking into Alcatraz

A former guard's inside look at America's most famous prison

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Talking to the Feds

The chief of the FBI's organized crime unit on the history of La Cosa Nostra

The Old Bailey (in 1809) was the venue for more than 100,000 criminal trials between 1674 and 1834, including all death penalty cases.

Digitizing the Hanging Court

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey is an epic chronicle of crime and vice in early London. Now anyone can search all 52 million words

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