CRIME

Leave the gun, take these facts about Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece adaptation of Mario Puzo’s gangster novel.

In the 1700s, unlawful assemblies were forced to listen as the Riot Act was read aloud. If they didn't disperse, the punishment was—quite reasonably—death.

It took a slow-but-steady climb for 'The Wire' to emerge as a cultural phenomenon, but the show that challenged every cops-and-robbers television trope has permeated just about every corner of our culture.

In 1988, one year before 'Cops' began asking the bad boys of America “What'cha gonna do when they come for you?,” noted victims’ advocate John Walsh was turning every American with access to Fox into a potential crime-solver on 'America’s Most Wanted'.

As it currently reads, restaurant employees would face $1000 fines or jail sentences of up to six months for handing out straws unasked.

The Benders lured travelers in with food and lodging, but their guests were never seen again.

In 2008, the popular arcade game started malfunctioning. The company blamed a rogue programmer. He insisted they were digging in the wrong hole.

The author of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' might have also been busy disemboweling prostitutes. Or not.

Funded by members of the infamous James-Younger gang, the 19th century penal paper was the first to be produced solely by inmates, for inmates.

With more than 2 billion copies of her books in print, British novelist Agatha Christie has kept countless readers up into the early morning hours.

Among them is a diary entry written hours before Lennon's death.

Connecting to emergency services used to be much less efficient—until a 1935 disaster.