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Drawing of cowboys riding in the desert, guns drawn, while a herd grazes.

The Hell We Raised: How Texas Shaped the Gunfighter Era

Texans left an enduring mark on the gunfighter era. The frontier was a darker place because of it.
by Bryan Burrough via Texas Monthly on May 5, 2025
Deserted turnpike on tribal land.

How a Small Town Murder in Oklahoma Sparked a Supreme Court Battle Over Tribal Sovereignty

On the independence of the Muscogee Nation.
by Rebecca Nagle via Literary Hub on September 10, 2024
FBI agents and local police examine a bombed out pickup truck in Natchez, Mississippi.

The History of Violent Opposition to Black Political Participation

Leaders in the 20th-century South faced violence and death for promoting voting rights; systemic failure enabled their killers to go unpunished.
by Dan Biddle, Sara Rimer via Equal Justice Initiative on August 13, 2024
An painting depicting a murder ballad, with the murder happening in the background and a band playing music in the foreground.

Blood Harmony

The far-flung tale of a murder song.
by David Ramsey via Oxford American on December 5, 2023
The crime scene. A woman's body lies in the middle of a clearning next to the river, surrounded by coroners and police

Bad Shot, Mary

The mistress of JFK, there was a lot more than wealth, whiteness, and femininity to make Mary Pinchot Meyer a target of murder.
by Devin Thomas O’Shea via Apocalypse Confidential on November 22, 2023
Portrait of Jane Stanford, circa 1855.

A Poisonous Legacy

Two new books reveal the story of Stanford University’s early years to be rife with corruption, autocracy, incompetence, white supremacy, and murder.
by Jessica Riskin via New York Review of Books on June 1, 2023
Howard University students protesting outside the Attorney General’s Conference on Crime held at Memorial Continental Hall, Washington, D.C., December 13, 1934. The four-day conference failed to include lynching in its program.

A Regional Reign of Terror

Most Americans now grasp that violence was essential to the functioning of slavery, but a new book excavates the brutality of everyday Black life in the Jim Crow South.
by Eric Foner via New York Review of Books on March 16, 2023
Protesters at a police brutality rally at the Texas State Capitol in 1977.

The Killing of José Campos Torres

Decades before the recent police violence in Memphis, a brutally beaten Latino man was tossed by officers into a Houston bayou and drowned.
by Mimi Swartz via Texas Monthly on February 14, 2023
Illustration of Guitar, a Gun and Roses by Eric Hanson

The Bully in the Ballad

Was Mississippi John Hurt really the first person to sing the tragic tale of Louis Collins?
by Eric McHenry via The American Scholar on December 15, 2022
Drawing of woman crying over her murdered father.

A Gilded Age Tale of Murder and Madness

In opulent seaside Newport, a wealthy and beloved Black businessman turns up dead. The resulting trial will tear the town in two.
by Kay Adams, Nancy Markey via Narratively on November 17, 2022
A faded beige map of New York from the 1700s, showing the city borders and street outlines.

The Manhattan Well Mystery: On America’s First Media Circus Around a Murder Case

The death of Elma Sands and the Manhattan Company.
by Sam Roberts via Literary Hub on October 25, 2022
Horses and carriages in front of funeral home

Report of Action Not Received

An accounting of racist murders in nineteenth-century America.
by Stephen Berry via Lapham’s Quarterly on May 11, 2022
Lithograph portrait of William Franklin

Governor William Franklin: Sagorighweyoghsta, “Great Arbiter” or “Doer of Justice”

The actions of one New Jersey royal governor demonstrate a rare case of impartial justice for Native Americans.
by Joseph E. Wroblewski via Journal of the American Revolution on April 7, 2022
Map of Boston from 1722.

This "Miserable African": Race, Crime, and Disease in Colonial Boston

The murder that challenged Cotton Mather’s complex views about race, slavery, and Christianity.
by Mark S. Weiner via Commonplace on July 13, 2020
Cathy Gillies, Kitty Lutesinger, Sandy Good, and Brenda McCann, of the Manson Family, kneel on the sidewalk outside the Los Angeles Hall of Justice on March 29, 1971.

The Manson Family Murders, and Their Complicated Legacy, Explained

The Manson Family murders weren’t a countercultural revolt. They were about power, entitlement, and Hollywood.
by Aja Romano via Vox on August 7, 2019

Serial Killers: A New Breed of Celebrity

Pop culture's surreal embrace of the serial killer.
by Julia Ingalls via CrimeReads on April 24, 2018
Illustration of Daniel Sickles in front of the White House.

In 1859, a Murderous Congressman Pioneered the Insanity Defense

After gunning down his wife's lover in broad daylight, Daniel Sickles tried to escape the gallows by claiming he was out of his mind.
by Betsy Golden Kellem via Narratively on September 12, 2017

The Notorious Night Biggie Was Murdered in Los Angeles

Shaq, Baron Davis, and Nick Van Exel reflect on The Notorious B.I.G., his murder, and the city they called home.
by Justin Tinsley via Andscape on March 8, 2017
Illustration by Adrià Fruitós.

Greater America Has Been Exporting Disunion for Decades

So why are we still surprised when the tide of blood reaches our own shores?
by Viet Thanh Nguyen via The Nation on June 10, 2025
Photo illustration of Luigi Mangione and John Dillinger.

Why the CEO Shooter Makes the Perfect American Folk Hero

Our country has a long history of admiring particular acts of violence.
by Elliott Gorn via Slate on December 18, 2024
Publicity still from Black Legion, 1937.
partner

Ohio’s Little-Known Fascist Member of Congress

How a local prosecutor protected white supremacists and went on to a career in Washington, DC.
by Dana Frank via HNN on November 4, 2024
Annie Mae Edwards and her children—Helen, Barbara, Johnnie Ruth, and Gene, with an unidentified woman.

A Forgotten Eyewitness to Civil-Rights-Era Mississippi

As resistance to integration mounted, Florence Mars bought a camera and began to photograph many subjects, including the trial of the killers of Emmett Till.
by Paige Williams via The New Yorker on November 3, 2024
Leatherface swinging a chainsaw branded with the American flag.

It Might Be the Scariest Movie Ever Made. There’s Never Been a Better Time to Watch It.

The vibes right now are very "Texas Chain Saw Massacre."
by Emily C. Hughes via Slate on October 29, 2024
Rupert Murdoch directing coverage in the New York Post's press room.

The Summer When the New York Post Chased Son of Sam

An oral history of the tabloid race to cover the serial killer.
by Frank DiGiacomo, Susan Mulcahy via Curbed on September 17, 2024
Black man in jail depicted evoking American flag imagery, with the star in his eye and stripes as jail bars

Ill Fares the Land

A prison is a difficult thing to kill.
by Spencer Weinreich via Los Angeles Review of Books on July 29, 2024
Cover of "Excited Delirium," left, and author Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús, right.

The Racist, Xenophobic History of "Excited Delirium"

A new book takes on a diagnosis invented to cover up police killings: that men of color are “combusting as a result of their aggressiveness.”
by Julia Métraux, Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús via Mother Jones on July 23, 2024
Trent Reznor

Knots, Ties, and Lines: “The Downward Spiral” at Thirty

Nine Inch Nails, the Manson Family, and the contradictions of Los Angeles.
by Gianni de Falco via Cleveland Review of Books on July 16, 2024
A large mob in Louisiana breaking down prison doors to lynch Italian immigrants.

Attacking Italians in Louisiana

Italian immigrants had no qualms about working and living alongside Black Americans, which made them targets for violence by white vigilantes in Louisiana.
by Livia Gershon, Alan G. Gauthreaux via JSTOR Daily on July 15, 2024
Still from Pretty Poison (1968).

The All-American Crack-Up in 1960s Hollywood Cinema

Starting in the 1960s, more and more Hollywood films depicted an increasingly violent and alienated American society quickly losing its mind.
by Eileen Jones via Jacobin on May 24, 2024
A colorful illlustration of Texas Rangers, three Tejano men, guns, and alcohol bottles.

After a Borderland Shootout, a 100-Year-Old Battle for the Truth

A century after three Tejano men were shot to death, the story their family tells is different than the official account. Whose story counts as Texas history?
by Arelis R. Hernández, Frank Hulley-Jones via Washington Post on May 15, 2024
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