How did one of the most famous political prisoners of all time end up in prison? What system did he…
One gang of women terrorized London’s merchants for more than a century. From smashing cars through shop doors to stuffing…
What do you do when your country won’t let you leave? One group of defectors from the Soviet Union hatched…
A Salvation Army-inspired preacher decided to turn a small Oregon town into a new Eden. His method for achieving this:…
What if a legal trial was also a battle to the death? In this episode, we look at the strange…
We’ve talked about cultures that had a formalized, bureaucratic process for getting revenge. But what do you do when you’re…
London’s greatest thief-taker had a secret: he was also the leader of its best-organized gang of thieves. For years, Wild…
One man’s quest for vengeance against Wells Fargo turned into a massive crime spree—with occasional poetry breaks. Returning guest Amanda Jean joins us to fall in love with Black Bart, the gentleman robber who bluffed his way through a criminal career with no horse, no accomplices, and no bullets.
Welcome to the seedy underbelly of Pittsburgh, where the battle for control over the sex trade turned into an all-out gang war. Caught in the middle: A trans horse riding instructor who turned to a life of crime when he needed money to care for his ailing mother. S.A. Chant joins us today for a conversation about money laundering through paint-your-own ceramics, fighting the cops with birthday cake, and the way respectability politics changes the stories we tell about queer history.
One of Japan’s most famous murderesses took a very intimate souvenir from the lover she murdered. Was she the sex-crazed nymphomaniac portrayed in the media? Was she the symbol of female empowerment described by her supporters? Or was she an abuse victim who broke down after making one terrible mistake?