COINTELPRO Was Real—What Did the FBI’s Own Files Reveal?
The letter arrived without a return address. It was typed, unsigned, and designed to read like the work of a concerned citizen. The recipient was a prominent…
Spiders Nested in a Beehive Hairdo—When Did the Warning Tale Begin?
The story usually arrives secondhand. A friend of a friend, or someone’s cousin, or a girl from the next town over. She wore her hair up—high and…
A Night Walker Met the Smiling Man—Where Did the Story First Appear?
It is two in the morning. The street is empty except for one figure moving down the center of the road. Not walking the way people walk….
Kerala’s Rain Turned Red—What Were the Microscopic Particles?
On a July morning in 2001, residents of the Kottayam and Idukki districts of Kerala stepped outside to find red streaks running down white walls and collecting…
Two Princes Entered the Tower — What Is the Last Reliable Evidence of Them?
The Tower of London was not, in 1483, primarily a prison. It was a royal residence, a place where English kings stayed before their coronations and where…
The Fairy Photographs Fooled Conan Doyle—How Were They Made?
In the summer of 1917, two girls carried a borrowed camera down to the beck behind a house in Cottingley, West Yorkshire, and came back with a…
The Bomber Was Found Deep in the Desert—How Far Did Its Crew Walk?
The aircraft was sitting upright. Its guns were still loaded. A thermos of tea sat undisturbed in the cockpit, and the radio was tuned to the frequency…
The Surgeon’s Photograph Made Nessie Famous—What Survived Scientific Testing?
The photograph is small, slightly blurred, and black-and-white. A shape rises from the dark surface of a Scottish loch—something that looks, at first glance, like a long…
The Majestic 12 Papers Looked Official—Why Did the FBI Mark Them Bogus?
The envelope arrived anonymously. In December 1984, a roll of undeveloped 35mm film showed up in the mailbox of a television documentary producer named Jaime Shandera. When…
Project Pluto Tested a Nuclear Ramjet—Why Was the Missile Never Built?
The proposal sounded like something drawn from the edge of science fiction: a cruise missile the size of a locomotive, powered by an unshielded nuclear reactor, flying…