“How Jos Leijdekkers turned Sierra Leone into a drug-dealer’s paradise.”
True Crime
Posted inEditor's Pick
A True-Crime Producer Posed as an Heiress — Then Allegedly Stole $30 Million
“Mary Carole McDonnell made low-budget crime shows, but her own story was built on deceptions fit for one of her series. Now, she’s on the FBI’s Most Wanted list and the target of a global manhunt.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Violent Feud That Shocked the Horse World
“A prominent dressage trainer shot a belligerent student—and now maintains that he’s the real victim.”
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: Bad medicine, imperfect sound forever, know when to fold ’em, brainiacs, and a call of the wild.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Was My Teacher Murdered?
“In 2002, Leslie Buck died under mysterious circumstances in Mystic, Connecticut. Two decades later, I went back to find out who she was — and what really happened.”
Posted inCuration
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: loving a killer; GRASE under fire; the marvelous mundane; Texas on two wheels; and the man who would be T. rex king.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Children Who Loved a Killer
“The Carr family took in Steven Judy, hoping to ‘save’ a troubled teen. They didn’t know he would become one of the most hated men in America.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
“That Guy is Still Out There”
“Five years after Anthony Broadwater was belatedly cleared for the sexual assault of Alice Sebold, the questions of how he came to be wrongly convicted and how one or more serial rapists operated for years with little consequence have only deepened.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Tunnel 13
“A botched train robbery in Oregon’s Siskiyou Mountains left four men dead, led to an international manhunt, and helped usher forensic science into the modern age.”