CRIME

When Picasso’s Weeping Woman Was Stolen By Art Terrorists

To this day, the theft of the 'Weeping Woman' has not been solved. The case remains lodged in popular imagination in Australia.

"Lucky" Luciano (third from left) during his trial in August 1936.

Operation Underworld: When the U.S. Government Teamed Up With the Mafia to Fight Fascists During World War II

“Lucky” Luciano and Meyer Lansky took New York’s underworld undercover during World War II—and Luciano did it all from prison.

Tinder is about to get a lot more personal.

Tinder Will Now Let You Swipe Right on a Background Check

Online dating service Tinder is planning to introduce an option that will let you browse a potential match's criminal record before meeting up.

Posting Your COVID-19 Vaccination Card on Social Media Is a Bad Idea—Here’s Why

Getting the COVID-19 vaccine is worth celebrating on social media, but not if you’re risking identity theft to do it.

Pablo Escobear: The True, and Tragic, Story of ‘Cocaine Bear'

In 1985, a botched drug smuggling operation by former narcotics officer Andrew Thornton led to a bear discovering 40 packages of cocaine in the woods. Now, the bizarre story of the drug kingpin and "Pablo Escobear" is being made into a movie.

The Citizen App Will Now Tell You Why Helicopters Are Making a Racket in Your Neighborhood

The Citizen app won’t stop helicopters from interrupting your nap, but it can at least tell you why they're overhead.

"Ma'am, is there a dead baby shark in here?"

Check Out the 10 Weirdest Things the TSA Confiscated in 2020—Including a Dead Baby Shark

The TSA’s prohibited items list doesn’t expressly include dead sharks. (Possibly because the subject doesn’t come up a lot.)

Famed bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman starred in the reality TV show Dog the Bounty Hunter from 2004-2012.

8 Facts About Bounty Hunters

The history of bounty hunting goes back centuries, but the term itself is relatively new. Find out more about this unsavory profession.

The exterior of Los Angeles's Cecil Hotel, as seen in Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (2021).

7 Facts About Los Angeles's Notorious Cecil Hotel

The Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles is one of those iconic landmarks that is as famous for what goes on behind closed doors as it is for its once-regal architecture and Art Deco interior.

Abraham Lincoln once penned a true crime tale.

When Abraham Lincoln Tried His Hand at Being a True Crime Writer

In another era, Abraham Lincoln could have made for a great 'Dateline NBC' producer. The future president once penned a true crime tale based on a murder case he worked on as a lawyer.

The Lizzie Borden Ax Murder House Has Hit the Market

The house where Lizzie Borden's father and stepmother were discovered bludgeoned with an ax is in need of a new owner.

26 Animals Who Ran Afoul of the Law

When it comes to weird animal stories, it’s hard to beat the one about the parrot who got arrested for cursing out an old woman.

Allegations of an affair led to a series of threatening letters that puzzled authorities in Ohio for years.

Unknown Sender: The Mystery of the Circleville Letters

For years, residents in and around Circleville, Ohio were plagued by a mysterious letter writer who seemed to know their darkest secrets. Death followed.

Viggo Mortensen in David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (2007).

20 Best Gangster Movies of All Time

Since the earliest days of cinema, gangsters have been the characters we’ve both loved and loved to hate. Here are 20 of the genre's best movies.

Vincent van Gogh's original Portrait of Dr. Gachet wasn't stolen, but it hasn't been seen in 30 years.

New Online Art Exhibition Needs the Public’s Help to Track Down Lost Masterpieces by Van Gogh, Monet, and More

A priceless Van Gogh painting was snatched from a Dutch museum in March 2020. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?

Courtesy of Orange County Regional History Center

100 Years Later, the Story of Florida’s Ocoee Massacre—an Election Day Attack on Black Citizens—Is Finally Being Told

On November 2, 1920, a Black man attempted to vote in Ocoee, Florida—and sparked the bloodiest Election Day massacre in U.S. history.

Pete Souza/The White House, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

Can Presidents Pardon Themselves?

It’s a question that has been debated since the writing of the Constitution: Can Presidents pardon themselves?

The Watts family is featured in American Murder: The Family Next Door (2020).

American Murder: The Family Next Door: 6 Facts About Chris Watts and the Psychology of Family Killers

'American Murder: The Family Next Door,' Netflix’s true crime documentary, tells the tragic story of Chris Watts, a Colorado man who murdered his then-pregnant wife and their two young girls.

This Halloween procession in Massachusetts was poison-free.

When a Long Island Housewife Handed Out Arsenic to Kids on Halloween

Helen Pfeil thought some kids were much too old for treats, so she played a nasty trick on them instead.

Sarah Edmondson in a scene from The Vow (2020).

10 Facts About NXIVM and The Vow, HBO's True Crime Docuseries

The HBO docuseries 'The Vow' offers an in-depth exploration of NXIVM, the multi-level marketing scheme-cum-sex cult that has been making headlines for the past several years.

Halloween scares can sometimes invite legal action.

6 Bizarre Halloween-Related Lawsuits

Every so often, Halloween celebrations can get a little out of hand. That's when the courts have to intervene, scaring everyone with summary judgments.

The Cleveland Torso Murderer: The Scariest Serial Killer You've Never Heard Of

In 1936, there was a lot going on in the city of Cleveland. In addition to being in the midst of the Great Depression, the city had a serial killer on the loose—one who remains unknown to this day.

Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes, Millie Bobby Brown as Enola Holmes, and Sam Claflin as Mycroft Holmes in Netflix's Enola Holmes (2020).

Who Is Enola Holmes? 7 Facts About Nancy Springer’s Hit YA Book Series

Though her name may be lesser known, Enola Holmes—teenage sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes—has been around for more than a decade in the form of Nancy Springer’s young adult book series. Now she's featured in a hit Netflix movie starring Millie Bobby

The books were wrapped a little better than these.

200 Rare Books Were Stolen in a Thrilling Heist—Three Years Later, They’ve Been Found Buried in Romania

The pricey cache includes first editions by Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo, and Francisco Goya—and it wasn’t an isolated incident.

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