Mug Shots
Ann O'Delia Diss Debar smiles for the camera
Reader Robert Lifson sent along these mug shots of Ann O'Delia Diss Debar and they were so good I had to share.
Categories: Biography, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Supplement
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"Biography"
Learn all about the lives and times of some of the strangest people in history.
There Must Come a Change
the triumph and tragedy of Octavius Valentine Catto
Octavius Valentine Catto was a man for all seasons. He could have been the leader Philadelphia needed... if he hadn't been murdered.
Categories: Biography, History, Series 15
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Universally Detested
New York’s worst governor, ever
Legend says Lord Cornbury was New York's worst governor: a nepo baby failson, a bully, a bigot, a corrupt spendthrift, a sex pest. Was he all that awful?
Categories: Biography, History, Popular Facts & Fallacies, Series 14
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Nothing But A Number
how old is Charo, really?
For our milestone episode #100 we contemplate one of the most confounding conundrums of our age... How old is Charo, really?
Categories: Biography, Entertainment & Media, Series 13
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The Realest Housewife of Beverly Hills
confidante of kings, movie stars, and mobsters
The Countess di Frasso was the most famous hostess in the world, who threw parties for kings; actors, athletes and aviators; Nazis and mobsters.
Categories: Arts & Culture, Biography, Eccentrics & Prophecies, Entertainment & Media, People & Places, Series 13
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A Good Thing to Die By
the Reverend May S. Pepper and Bright Eyes
This one has it all: the afterlife, evil stepmothers, Kickapoo princesses, the Romanovs, bigamy and fraud, ghost farts and spirit chickens.
Categories: Biography, Footsteps into the Unknown, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, People & Places, Series 13
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What Joy to the Troubled Heart!
the tale of William H. Mumler, spirit photographer
In 1862, William H. Mumler took the first known photograph of a ghost. Maybe. What unfolded next was an epic story of fraud and self-deception...
Categories: Biography, Footsteps into the Unknown, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, People & Places, Series 13
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I Started a Joke
the difference between laughing with and laughing at
In 1876 poet Julia Ann Moore was beloved by the people of Grand Rapids, precisely because her poems were so bad. Then she went national.
Categories: Arts & Culture, Biography, Eccentrics & Prophecies, Most Popular, Series 13
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A Month of Billys
was Billy Sunday good at baseball?
Billy Sunday was America's foremost evangelist, whose admirers included young men, ex-presidents, and titans of industry... but how was his baserunning?
Categories: Biography, Series 13, Sports & Leisure
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Seven Minutes in Heaven
the misbegotten existence of William Dudley Pelley (1890-1965)
One man's horrifying journey from toilet paper salesman to famous author to spiritual guru to American Hitler to space brother.
Categories: Biography, Eccentrics & Prophecies, History, Series 12
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Burning Fire, Deep Water
neither Venezuelan nor Volcano
Burnu Acquanetta, "the Venezuelan Volcano," was an exotic beauty who took Hollywood by storm in the summer of 1942... but who was she really?
Categories: Biography, Entertainment & Media, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Series 8
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Moron or Madman?
in which science is subordinated to politics
Trofim D. Lysenko (1898-1976) set back the study of biology in the Soviet Union for two generations -- but the lessons you should learn from his story are not the one scientists and philosophers have pushed.
Categories: Biography, History, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Science & Nature, Series 7, The Marvels of Science
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