A marriage poisoned by secrets, a lesbian love affair, and a first lady dogged by controversy. Right to the bitter end, Elellanar Roosevelt transformed the White House into a den of scandal. In the fall of 1918, Elellanar Roosevelt was unpacking one of her husband’s suitcases when she came across a bundle of letters. Curious,…
Late on November 2nd, 1987, running into the first hours of November 3rd, the air inside Tarly’s Restaurant and Lounge on 18th Avenue in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, smelled like stale beer, cigarette smoke, and the sour metallic edge of spilled liquor drying on wood. Sometime after 3:00 a.m. , the place went quiet in the worst…
Mickey Mantel is 37 years old. In baseball, this is not old. Many players play into their 40s, but Mickey’s body is 60 years old, maybe older. Since 1951, his knees have been destroyed. Every year worse. By 1968, he can barely walk properly, cannot run, barely able to play. Batting average 237. Lowest performance…
Look up at the tallest tree you have ever seen. Maybe it was a redwood in California pushing 300 feet into the sky. Maybe it was a Douglas fur or an ancient oak wider than a car. You stood at the base and tilted your head back and felt small. You felt genuinely, measurably small….
In 1822, the Pope offered to make a French archaeologist a cardinal. The man was not religious, not a priest, not even a believer. He was married and a committed republican in post-revolutionary France. But he had just done something the Vatican considered more valuable than faith. He had examined a two…
On the night of March 13th, 2019, a little after 900 p.m., the quiet on Hilltop Terrace in Staten Island broke with the sound of metal striking metal. Then gunfire, a black SUV sat in the street with fresh damage. A man lay bleeding on the pavement outside his brick home while dinner was still…
December 4th, 1989. Howard Beach, Queens. Inside a house already famous with federal agents, a dying mob captain is running out of time. He is 49. He is free on $1 million bail. He has four major criminal cases still hanging over him. The FBI has spent years listening to his voice bounce off kitchen…
The year was 1958. It was a Sunday evening in America, which meant that 70 million people were doing the same thing at the same time. They were sitting in front of their television sets. Television in 1958 was not what it would become. It was newer, stranger, more dangerous in the specific way that…
Officer Brian Foster had been having a terrible night. It was August 14th, 1976, Saturday. Hot, humid, Chicago, and summer. Everyone was irritable. Foster had been on duty since 400 p.m. Traffic Patrol. Lakeshore Drive. 7 hours of pulling over speeders, drunk drivers, people with broken tail lights. Most nights, traffic patrol was routine. Write…
May 16th, 1957. Copa Cabana nightclub. 1:30 in the morning. The Delicatessenb bowling team sits at their table. Yankees players at another table. Sammy Davis Jr. on stage performing. Someone from the bowling team yells. Racist comments. Insults directed at Sammy Davis Jr. Billy Martin stands up. Shut your mouth. You cannot make me. Suddenly,…
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