The unsolved murder case of Martha Moxley and the overturned conviction of a Kennedy cousin

One murder and two siblings' betrayal

Sophia Johnson was convicted and later acquitted of murder in the 2002 slaying of her mother-in-law. More than 20 years later, she continues to deny the allegations first voiced by one of her younger brothers who said he saw Johnson commit the crime. This is the first episode in a 10-part series covering a three-year journalistic investigation into the cold case.

Conspiracy theories persist around Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1968 assassination

Despite multiple investigations—including FBI inquiries and a 1979 House committee report—questions and conspiracy theories have continued to surround the 1968 assassination of Dr. King long after his assassin’s conviction.

Unraveling the Long Island serial killer case

Authorities investigating the disappearance of a woman from Long Island in May 2010 soon discovered four bodies that had been dumped nearby. Six more bodies were found in the same area in early 2011, and authorities announced later that year that all the deaths were the work of one person. This episode is the first in a seven-part series into Gilgo Beach slayings and their seemingly bungled investigation.

Jean Stafford’s ‘A Mother in History’ followed the mother of JFK’s assassin

Marguerite Oswald, the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald, leaned into the public eye after her son’s crime. Stafford’s decision to interview her was the subject of controversy, but offered an interesting character study of a maligned woman openly inclined to make money off the attention she was receiving.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

A psychedelic hamburger led one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, to testify against the group's leader.

The wife of Nixon's attorney general was forcibly held to silence her Watergate revelations

While vacationing in June 1972, Martha Mitchell was held captive, sedated, and physically abused by operatives connected to Nixon, intent on keeping her from speaking to reporters.

The ghost of Bobby Dunbar

In 1912, a four-year-old Louisiana boy went missing for eight months. Contemporary accounts differed in his mother's reaction upon seeing him; some claimed she was overjoyed, others that she didn't recognize him. Shortly after, a second woman claimed the child was hers, though he remained with the first woman. In 2004, DNA analysis determined the child had not been related to the family, suggesting the kidnapping was never solved.

Florida man serving 400-year-prison sentence walks free after exoneration

A review found that Sidney Holmes and his car were likely misidentified at the time of his arrest and conviction. Read the full story on the case here.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Investigating the death of a 5,300-year-old mummy

Authorities generally consider a case to have gone cold once they've run out of leads or the ability to collect and consider new evidence, usually within a few years of the instigating event. Now imagine being a detective charged with investigating a death that happened more than 5,000 years ago. This article details how Alexander Horn, a then-detective inspector, attempted to solve the mystery of Ötzi the Iceman's death.

The Golden State killer case spotlights how genetic testing can affect your—and your relatives'—privacy

Police managed to use consumer DNA test results to close a case 32 years after a killer was believed to have committed at least 12 murders and 50 rapes. Their "smoking gun": They compared a DNA sample from the crime scene to genetic data relatives had shared on an open-source genealogy database. The suspect was caught after investigators explored family trees on this database and connected the dots from over 100 distant relatives who had some percentage of DNA that matched the killer. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

The earliest novelistic writing about a real-life murder might be an 1875 essay by poet Celia Thaxter

Though the nonfiction novel "In Cold Blood" is often cited as the beginning of the true crime genre, records show that true crime narratives were woven for decades before the novel's 1965 serialization. In "A Memorable Murder," Thaxter recounts the slaughter of her neighboring New England islanders.

Hollywood’s best scandals

With all the money, power, and beautiful people in Hollywood, it’s no wonder there’s no shortage of scandals. This list highlights 10 of the most salacious ones, from Marilyn Monroe’s affair with then-president John F. Kennedy, to the mysterious death of starlet Natalie Wood in 1981.

Rockwell's 'Murder in Mississippi (Southern Justice)' was a response to real events

The 1965 painting was inspired by the 1964 murders of three men—James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. The men were affiliated with the Council on Racial Equity and killed by the Ku Klux Klan in Philadelphia, Mississippi. The painting accompanied an article about the inequities of the justice system, which is why its title often includes the parenthetical "(Southern Justice)."

The inside story of the 1969 murder of coal union leader Jock Yablonski

In 1969, Jock Yablonski challenged the longtime president of the United Mine Workers, Tony Boyle. On New Year's Eve of that year, Yablonski, his wife, and their daughter were brutally murdered in their beds.

How a Cleveland woman who slammed the door on police changed the Fourth Amendment

In 1957, a bomb exploded under the front porch of boxing promoter Don King in Cleveland. When police received a tip to search Dollree Mapp's home, she refused to let them in. Her case went to the Supreme Court, resulting in a ruling that barred illegally obtained evidence from state criminal trials.

English playwright Christopher Marlowe's violent and mysterious death

According to an official coroner’s report, in 1593 a heated argument over payment for supper escalated into a physical struggle, during which Marlowe wounded a man named Ingram Frizer, who then fatally stabbed Marlowe above the right eye. Though we still don't have a definitive explanation for why Marlowe was killed, the true motive continues to be debated, with suspicions surrounding the official account. Read more here.

Some 'Simpsons' fans believe the show exposed Jeffrey Epstein's private island

In a 2000 episode, Homer Simpson is captured by a cabal of powerful men and taken to a private island. After escaping, he posts online that "Some crazy creeps on an island somewhere are secretly running the world." Some believe the episode is referencing the private island operated by convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. In 2019, Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre alleged that she gave "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening a foot massage at Epstein's insistence.

Margaret Keane outwitted her plagiarist husband by recreating her work in a courtroom

The artist, known for her portraits of large-eyed children, sued her ex-husband, who claimed he was the real artist. The judge asked them to both paint in court to demonstrate the real artist. Her ex-husband declined; Keane painted a work in 53 minutes and was awarded $4M.

A lost Jack Kerouac story was discovered in the belongings of a gunned-down mob boss

The unpublished "The Holy, Beat, and Crazy Next Thing" was found in the belongings of Paul Castellano, who was murdered in 1985. It's unclear why Castellano had it, though an heir says it was originally in the collection of a "noted San Francisco-based poet...who received it directly from the author."

NHL player Craig MacTavish was convicted of vehicular homicide in the middle of his career

In January 1984, Boston Bruins center Craig MacTavish was driving home after a practice while under the influence of alcohol. He struck a car driven by Kim Radley, who died four days later. MacTavish was sentenced to a year in prison before resuming his career in Edmonton.

The tragic story of tennis upstart Monica Seles

At just 17, Monica Seles reached the top of the WTA, becoming the youngest player to do so at the time. She was expected to have a long career, but shortly after she turned 19, a deranged fan stabbed her in the back in the middle of a match. This Cult Tennis video explores the motivation of the fan who stabbed her, how he got away with it, and the impact on the rankings.

Was the Mỹ Lai massacre an outlier?

Hundreds of Vietnamese civilians, including children, were tortured and slaughtered during an attack by American troops in what came to be known as the Mỹ Lai massacre. Was such violence as much of an outlier as we’d like to believe? Not according to this researcher’s findings. Author and researcher Nick Turse explains the evidence behind the realization in this 31-minute interview.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward Larson explores the Scopes Monkey Trial

The 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial was referred to as the "Trial of the Century" at the time, and has been since viewed as one of the origins of modern culture wars. A symbolic clash between science and religion during a period of rapid cultural change, the case became a flashpoint of differing ideologies.

Watson's book was described as misleading when detailing Franklin's role in DNA

Despite working together to win the Nobel Prize for their discovery of the structure of DNA, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins objected to the publication of James Watson's account of DNA's discovery. Those involved describe how he villainized Rosalind Franklin and downplayed her work.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

John Marshall owned enslaved people and ruled against them in slavery cases

Though Marshall wrote that slavery was "contrary to the law of nature," he enslaved nearly 200 people at his death in 1835 and ruled against enslaved claimants in several cases. His will offered conditional emancipation to Robin Spurlock, his first slave.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

The identity of the Tank Man in the iconic photo from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests remains unknown and was possibly killed.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.