History
The Dalton Gang’s Final, Doomed Heists in the Twilight of the Old West
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In February 1891, hoping to help his brothers find steady work, Bill Dalton wrote a letter to the superintendent of the nearby Muller and Lux Ranch, having heard it…
How a German Spy Chief Built a Smuggling Network out of a Mission to Install a Nazi King in Britain
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Walter Schellenberg had few redeeming personal attributes and could easily be characterized as just another career Nazi. He owed his lofty position as head of German intelligence to the…
How Much Do We Really Know About Charles Dickens?
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The weather has been exceptionally mild of late but in this Christmas season every party demands a good blaze and good cheer. What with the fire and the punch…
The Secret History of John le Carré’s Career in the Intelligence Services
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‘People believe what they want to believe,’ wrote David to one of his lovers. ‘ALWAYS.’ he was referring to the ‘revelation’ that Graham Greene had continued working for British…
The Political Assassination That Transformed Africa, the UN, and the CIA
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Nothing much happens in Mélin, a picturesque village of little over a thousand people about an hour’s drive from Brussels. If the sleepy town has a claim to fame,…
A Country Road, in the Dead of Night: On The Historical Hauntings of Irish Folklore
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First published in 1936, On Another Man’s Wound was written by Earnán Ó Máille and recounts his time as a guerrilla fighter during the Irish War of Independence in…
Freak On: Black Strip Clubs in the 1990s
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(some names and dates have been changed) From Sin City to Hustlers to Zola, more than a few of my favorite neo-noirs feature strip clubs as part of their…
The Cowboy Detective, Undercover and in Danger Among the Texas Desperados
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The following is an excerpt from Nathan Ward’s new book about Charlie Siringo: Son of the Old West, now available from Atlantic Monthly Press. ___________________________________ Along the snowy road…
The Cowboy as Detective: Finding Charlie Siringo’s West
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When Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid finally came to my boyhood mall, I saw it three times, wondering in the dark about the unnamed lawmen chasing the Wild…