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The tradition of open-air secondhand and antiquarian bookselling in Paris dates back to the Renaissance.
libraries

8 Surprising Stories to Celebrate World Book Day

The pleasures of reading about reading.
April White April 19, 2023
murder

Podcast: Yellowstone's Zone of Death

Can a legal loophole make it possible to get away with murder?
The Podcast Team April 5, 2023
For the Banū Sāsān, a famed group of 12th-century thieves, turtles were useful accomplices.
crime

The Medieval Thieves Who Used Cats, Apes, and Tortoises as Accomplices

The Banū Sāsān were known for turning animals to lives of crime.
Ramsha Zubairi March 3, 2023
Globe, Arizona

The 1910 Gila County Sheriff's Office and Jail

A historic jail preserves etchings from over a century of incarcerated people in a town with a rough and tumble past.
prisons

Podcast: Buckley’s Cave

Where an escaped prisoner is said to have spent years in hiding.
The Podcast Team December 5, 2022
Cesare Lombroso, a prominent 19th-century Italian scientist, based his life's work on the skull of a man he called "brigand Villella"—but little was known about Giuseppe Villella until recently.
skulls

Why is Everyone Fighting Over the Skull of 'Brigand Villella'?

The answer involves pseudoscience, politics, and a burglary at a windmill.
Dania Rodrigues November 4, 2022
amusement parks

Podcast: Hacienda Nápoles

Medellín cartel founder Pablo Escobar built himself a sort of Jurassic Park-meets-Disney World resort. Now it’s overrun by hippos.
The Podcast Team November 2, 2022
The cottage where Michael Cleary murdered his wife, Bridget, still stands in Ballyvadlea in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is shown here in an 1895 photograph.
murder

The Haunting True Story of Bridget Cleary’s “Changeling” Murder

There's more to this 19th-century crime than the dark side of fairy lore.
Sarah Durn October 21, 2022
The ship first known as the <em>Viking Sally</em> was once a floating pleasure palace, part of the Baltic's "cruiseferry culture."
disasters

The Curse of the Viking Sally, the Baltic’s Most Ill-Starred Ship

The one-time floating pleasure palace left a legacy of murder and maritime disaster in its wake.
Michael Hunt October 6, 2022
objects of intrigue

Was This Letter Written by Sherlock Holmes?

If you are “Playing the Game,” the answer is elementary.
April White September 15, 2022
Ned Kelly House
Beveridge, Australia

Ned Kelly's House

From this modest childhood home, Ned Kelly went on to become Australia’s most infamous bushranger.
An illustration (1930-1945, exact date unknown) of the original Palace of Depression and its creator, George Daynor.
abandoned

How Rebuilding New Jersey's Palace of Depression Became a Family Legacy

Built from recycled materials by an eccentric con artist in the 1930s, the curious creation was demolished—and then reborn.
Michelle Harris August 23, 2022
All illustrations: John Mata for Atlas Obscura
crime

Puzzle Monday: The Secret Language of Thieves Crossword

AO Puzzles July 11, 2022
Parveena Ahangar, known to many as the Iron Lady of Kashmir, has spent more than 30 years looking for her missing son and others who have disappeared in India-administered Kashmir.
crime

The 'Iron Lady' of Kashmir

For more than 30 years, Parveena Ahangar has looked for those who have disappeared in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Raihana Maqbool June 30, 2022
In the late 16th century, the quaint coastal town of North Berwick, Scotland, depicted here in a 1591 print, became an early hotbed of witch accusations. Some 60 people were accused, both nobles and servants, and many were executed.
witchcraft

Why Is Scotland Apologizing Now for Witch Trials 300 Years Ago?

The gender politics of attempting to right a historic wrong.
Sarah Durn March 24, 2022
Part of the museum exhibition showing the chairs in which some of the Nazi war criminals sat
Nuremberg, Germany

Memorium Nürnberger Prozesse (Nuremberg Trials Memorial)

A museum that chronicles the history of the Nuremberg Trials for Nazi war criminals in the building where the trials were once held.
A gray horse is the central element in a monument to the unsolved murder of Ruggero Pascoli.
murder

The Unsolved Murder That Haunted a Beloved Italian Poet

A stirring mosaic marks the spot where Ruggero Pascoli was killed in 1867, shaping his son Giovanni's prolific art.
Gary Singh February 3, 2022
In the Italian countryside, a somber mosaic marks the place Ruggero Pascoli was murdered.
Longiano, Italy

Monument to the Assassination of Ruggero Pascoli

A haunting mosaic marks the spot where a famous poet's father was murdered more than 150 years ago.