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Writers

Adam Higginbotham

Best Article Crime

A Thousand Pounds of Dynamite

In 1980, a bankrupt gambler came up with a plan to get his money back. He built an incredibly complex bomb, one that was impossible to defuse and that only he knew how to move, and snuck it into a Lake Tahoe casino with an extortion note demanding $3 million. Part of the plan worked. Part of it did not.

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Hear Higginbotham discuss this story on the Longform Podcast.

Adam Higginbotham The Atavist Magazine Jul 2014 1h25min Permalink

The Unbelievable Skepticism of the Amazing Randi

The magician who spent his life debunking spiritualists and exposing con men.

Adam Higginbotham New York Times Magazine Nov 2014 25min Permalink

Reprints Business

Richard Branson Turns 50

Partying with a lost tycoon on his birthday.

Adam Higginbotham The Independent Jul 2000 15min Permalink

Crime Science

The Irish Clan Behind Europe's Rhino-Horn Theft Epidemic

Unraveling a lucrative crime ring.

Adam Higginbotham Businessweek Jan 2014 15min Permalink

Crime

In Iraq, the Bomb-Detecting Device That Didn't Work, Except to Make Money

How a con man named James McCormick sold $38 million worth of phony bomb-detection devices to Iraqi authorities.

Adam Higginbotham Businessweek Jul 2013 20min Permalink

Crime Tech

Deception Is Futile

In search of the perfect lie detector test.

Adam Higginbotham Wired Jan 2013 15min Permalink

World

The Narco Tunnels of Nogales

The underground routes by which drugs enter the U.S. from Mexico, and the officials who’ve found it almost impossible to curb their construction.

Adam Higginbotham Businessweek Aug 2012 15min Permalink

Science World

Is Chernobyl a Wild Kingdom or a Radioactive Den of Decay?

Scientists quarrel about the fate of animals living in the 1,600 square mile exclusion zone.

Adam Higginbotham Wired May 2011 20min Permalink

Best Article Crime

The Vidocq Society: Murder on the Menu

For the last two decades, the varied personalities behind the Vidocq Society—retired cops, sketch artists, FBI agents—have gathered in Philadelphia to tackled cold-case homicides over lunch. They claim to have solved more than half.

Adam Higginbotham The Telegraph Nov 2008 15min Permalink

World

Beauty and the Beast

When ‘Ceca’, the Madonna of the Balkans, met Arkan, bank robber turned paramilitary leader and war criminal, and how it all came to a tragic end in the lobby of the Belgrade Intercontinental.

Adam Higginbotham The Observer Jan 2004 25min Permalink

Arts Movies & TV

I Did Abominable Things

Tony Kaye was one of the biggest commercial directors of his time. Then he directed American History X and, by his own admission, completely lost his mind.

Adam Higginbotham The Telegraph Jun 2007 15min Permalink

Best Article Reprints World

The Gangster Prince of Liberia

How the illegitimate son of Liberian ex-President (and accused cannibal) Charles Taylor went from being a small time Florida hoodlum to one of Africa’s most notorious killers.

Adam Higginbotham Details Nov 2007 25min Permalink

Best Article Crime

The Inkjet Counterfeiter

Albert Talton started with some recycled newsprint and a cheap printer from Staples. By the end, he’d put more than $7 million into circulation.

Adam Higginbotham Wired (UK) Oct 2009 10min Permalink