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Article

How a Nickel and a Paperboy Brought Down a Cold War Spy

In 1957, Vilyam "Willie" Genrikhovich Fisher (aka Rudolf Ivanovich Abel) was convicted of conspiracy to “act in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without notification to the Secretary of State,” conspiracy to “obtain American defense information” and conspiracy to “transmit defense information to the Soviet Union.” The Brooklyn Eagle described the Soviet intelligence officer as a “shabby, bird-faced man,” a guy whose neighbors would never assume to be a spy. That ability... READ ON

Big Question

Is It Legal To Kill A Zombie?

Like the Shaun of the Dead slogan says, "aim for the head." But before you start readying your zombie apocalypse weapon of choice, you'd better find out if you're going to get in trouble for taking out the infected. According to San Diego criminal lawyer Peter M. Liss, zombie killing won't result in murder charges; after all, while zombies were once people, they aren't technically living anymore. There are other issues you need to consider,... READ ON

Article

Roses Don't Smell as Sweet to Psychopaths

FBI.gov By most accounts, Ted Bundy was handsome, charming, and intelligent. He was also violent, manipulative, amoral—and exhibited many of the hallmarks of a psychopath. Psychologists use an extensive list of traits to identify psychopaths, and now they have one more marker that might diagnose them: a recent study suggests that psychopaths possess a poor sense of... READ ON

Article

New York City’s Mad Bomber and His Patriotic Break

On November 16, 1940, an unattended wooden toolbox was discovered on a windowsill in the Consolidated Edison Company building at 4 Irving Place in Manhattan. The headquarters of the utility giant is huge, taking up an entire block, and it was bustling that day. No one had seen who left the box behind, where they had come from, or where they went. When it was opened, workers discovered a small homemade pipe bomb. Around the outside of the device was a note, hand-written in neat block lettering: “CON... READ ON

Article

Crime Doesn't Pay (Well): The Economics of Bank Robberies

Hollywood always makes bank robberies look so easy (with some notable exceptions). You do a little planning, throw on a Richard Nixon mask, you’re in and out in a few minutes and then you can live the rest of your life in luxury in some tropical paradise that won’t extradite you. A real-world bank job, however, isn’t a one-way ticket to... READ ON

Article

When Did the FBI Start Using “Wanted” Posters?

On a December night in 1919, a 23-year-old soldier named William N. Bishop managed to slip out of the stockade at Virginia’s Camp A.A. Humphreys and escape into the surrounding woods. Unable to locate Bishop, the army requested the assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Division of Investigation, the precursor to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Division’s assistant director, Frank Burke, compiled all the information he could get on Bishop – a complete physical description... READ ON

Article

Elva Zona Heaster: The Ghost Who Helped Solve Her Own Murder

Image credit: VisitWV.com One January afternoon in 1897, Erasmus (aka Edward) Shue, a blacksmith, sent his neighbor’s young boy to see if Elva, Shue's wife of three months, needed anything from the market. When the neighbor boy walked through the front door of the Shues’ rural Greenbrier County, West Virginia, log house, he found Elva’s lifeless body at the foot of the stairs. The boy stood for a moment looking at the woman, not knowing what to make of the scene. Her body was stretched out... READ ON

List

8 Celebrities Arrested for Obscenity (and What It Was They Said or Did)

Freedom of speech? Not if it's deemed "obscene." These celebrities found that out the hard way. Though they weren't all convicted, they did end up fighting costly battles in court and had their names dragged through the mud, though in some cases - looking at you, Hugh Hefner - it only helped their causes. Read on for lots of obscene... READ ON

List

11 Tweets That Led to a Whole Mess of Legal Trouble

While some might argue that 140 characters aren't enough to adequately express a thought or have a conversation, others have discovered that a tweet or two is all it takes to end up in a courtroom. Here are 11 great tricks for tweeting yourself into a hot mess of litigation. 1. Threaten to "Destroy America" (But Not... READ ON

Article

Werner Herzog's "On Death Row" Premieres Tonight

Werner Herzog premieres a four-part miniseries tonight (Friday, March 9) on Investigation Discovery at 10pm ET/PT. It's dark, and smart, and well worth your time -- as long as there are no kids in the room. A Question of Retribution On Death Row is the story of five death row inmates, as told through in-person interviews by Werner Herzog. Herzog seems fascinated by these people, who are almost by definition unreliable witnesses to their own lives. He treats them with respect, gently... READ ON