I'm the chief digital writer for the Columbia Journalism Review
From the New York Times: "Jeannette Ralston was at the Lion’s Den bar in San Jose, Calif., when she told her friends that she would be “back in 10 minutes.”She never returned. The next morning, on Feb. 1, 1977, police officers found the 24-year-old woman strangled with
From the New York Times: "In August 2021, a mysterious package from Sarasota, Fla., showed up in Nicole Archer’s mailbox in Manhattan.Dr. Archer hurried upstairs to her cramped Chelsea apartment with the thick envelope in hand and tore it open at her dining table, revealing a legal
From the BBC: "Islanders in the Outer Hebrides say their lives are being disrupted by a mysterious low frequency humming sound that can be heard day and night. Lauren-Grace Kirtley, who has set up a Facebook page dedicated to the "Hebridean Hum", said about 200 people on
From Wikipedia: "In 1959, Hope Cooke was a freshman majoring in Asian Studies at Sarah Lawrence College. She went on a summer trip to India and met Palden Thondup Namgyal, Crown Prince of Sikkim. He was a 36 year-old recent widower with two sons and a daughter. Two years
From Wikipedia: "Sarah Bishop was born around 1759 on Long Island, New York. She led a life of privilege as a member of an affluent and well-educated family. During the American Revolutionary War, her family's house was burnt by a raiding party from a British privateer. She
From NPR: "In 2001, after working up to it for years, Tim Friede finally allowed himself to be bitten by a snake. Friede has been fascinated with snakes for as long as he can remember. He used to hunt garter snakes growing up in Wisconsin. As an adult, his
From the New York Times: "It was May 1996, and David Kaczynski, a counselor for troubled youth in upstate New York, sat down to write a letter to his brother Ted. A month earlier, his brother had been shockingly unmasked as the shadowy Unabomber, responsible for a 17-year campaign
From Mental Floss: "It was 1955, and Tucker, 30, was underwater in Bermuda. He was diving at the site of a shipwreck, which he would later learn to be the 16th-century Spanish ship the San Pedro. On the seventh day, Tucker was tugging on a piece of wood 30
From Mental Floss: "Louis Knapp saw the girl in the red parka and decided to stop. It was roughly 3 p.m. on Sunday, December 1, 1946, and Knapp was driving along Route 67A in Bennington, Vermont. He asked the girl where she was going. To hike the Long
From AP: "One of the greatest mountain guides will attempt to scale the world’s highest peak for the 31st time — and possibly the 32nd time as well — and break his own record. Kami Rita, 55, flew to Mount Everest from Kathmandu to lead a group of climbers who
From Modern Met: "For most of her life, Tilley Lockey has been championing the limb different community. The 19-year-old singer, influencer, and host lost both her arms to meningitis when she was just 15 months old. But rather than hide it or try to blend in, Lockey has embraced
From the Washington Post: "She has broken world women’s records in the 75-79 age group for every distance and, at times, beaten the fastest men in that age group.Rice is 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 95 pounds. Her physiology is so striking that her maximal