In 2001, a young Japanese woman walked into the North Dakota woods and froze to death. Had she come in search of the $1 million dollars buried nearby in the film Fargo?

Mike McCaskill spent years scouring the stock market and betting on long shots. Then he found the opportunity that changed his life—and helped spark the mother of all short squeezes.

On Marie-Madeline Marguerite, a 1600s French serial killer.

The CEO of the US’s biggest bank doesn’t have much charisma or a track record, but he’s “doing as well as any little Dutch boy can—sticking his fingers in the dike.”

Billy Dillon was about to sign a contract with the Detroit Tigers. Instead he was convicted–wrongly–of first-degree murder and spent the next 27 years in prison.

Searching for a ghost of Meyer Lansky’s Cuba, a sex-show star who quietly disappeared from the island and was later immortalized in The Godfather Part II.

Dead construction workers, a corrupt political family, and the “impossibly lucrative casino” on the island of Saipan where Chinese gamblers can game on U.S. soil.

As mass demonstrations against police brutality continue across the country, thousands gather in New York to demonstrate against generations of police brutality and racial injustice in America.

With flash, hip-hop echoes rock’s golden age.

When rock was at its peak in 1972, Americans earning the equivalent of $1m a year took just over 1 per cent of national income. In 2010, this group’s share of national income had grown to almost 10 per cent. At the same time, the average tax paid by these top earners almost halved. The rise of Jay-Z’s “new black elite” reflects the growth in numbers of the super-wealthy. But the opulence that he and West flaunt also reflects the growing estrangement of those at the top from the rest.

The future (and past) of non-lethal weaponry deployed against civilian populations.

A profile of the oft-shirtless tight end Rob Gronkowski.

The environmental impact of server farms.

On the origins of outbreaks.

The bureaucratic hell of enforcing legislation in Washington.

A profile of the country music legend.

The era of personal space travel finally arrives.

The intertwined lives of an Oregon rancher and a Indiana fraudster.

Renting in one of the most expensive American cities.

A profile of New York Times Company CEO Mark Thompson.

A 22,000-word profile of the Yahoo CEO.

A profile of the first-term senator.

The rigors of youth football.

The political liabilities of Barack Obama’s self-possession.

Inside the lucrative — and illegal — business of elephant tusk trafficking.

The first profile of Michele Bachmann.