The Romanovs: Rise, Fall, and the Long-Lasting Echo of the Last Tsarist Dynasty
The history of the Russian Empire cannot be told without the Romanovs. From the accession of the young Mikhail Fyodorovich in 1613 to the gunshots…
Horror on California Trails: How David Carpenter Terrified the Public
Predator of the forest trails: how David Joseph Carpenter terrorized California A light mist hung in the valley near Mount Tamalpais in the early morning…
Sawney Bean: Scotland’s “Cannibal Clan” Between Folklore, Propaganda, and Tourism
A legend—not a chronicleEverything we “know” about Sawney Bean comes from the 18th century, even though the story presents itself as having happened two hundred…
Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin: From a Siberian Peasant to the Last Tsar’s Most Influential “Shadow Courtier”
Legend vs. the archivesEven during his lifetime, mutually exclusive versions of his story were already circulating: to some he was a “man of God,” to…
Project ASRA: Hitler’s Plan to Create Talking Dogs
When German newspapers in May 1930 spread the story of an “institute where dogs answer questions,” most readers took it as a cute curiosity. Fifteen…
Two-Headed Dog as a Medical Experiment: The Future of Head Transplants Is Closer Than We Think
The first successful heart and lung transplants, as well as coronary bypass procedures, were born not in sleek Western clinics but in a modest Moscow…
A Colossus with an Angelic Face: How Edmund Emil Kemper Became the “Co-ed Killer” — and Later an FBI Consultant
Anyone who meets Edmund Kemper today sees a large, slightly stooped man in his seventies with a book on his lap. You would never believe…
From Teenage Athlete to Nightmare: The Bloody Path of Raymond Eugene Brown
In the suburbs of Ashland, Alabama, fourteen-year-old Raymond Eugene Brown seemed like a typical boy from a devout family: he enjoyed playing football, excelled at…
