It’s quite possible to make six figures standing around on a movie set – if you have a union card.

On Patti Smith.

It was easy for lazy journalists to caricature her as a stringbean who looked like Keith Richards, emitted Dylanish word salads, and dropped names—a high-concept tribute act of some sort, very wet behind the ears. But then her first album, Horses, came out in November 1975, and silenced most of the scoffers.

Admiring evangelicals are helping David Berkowitz, the imprisoned serial killer who murdered six people in NYC during the summer of 1977, with an unusual image makeover.

In Torreón, north of Mexico City, cartel gunmen are freed from a prison, commit a massacre at a wedding that includes the band, and then return to custody.

For 60 years, American drivers unknowingly poisoned themselves by pumping leaded gasoline into their tanks. Clair Patterson—a scientist who helped build the atomic bomb and discovered the true age of the Earth—took on a billion-dollar industry to save humanity from itself.

The misadventures of two hospital workers.

On the nature of coincidence.

Angie Nwandu has no journalism experience. No publishing experience. She’s 25. And in less than two years she has created an entirely new way to cover — and profit from — celebrity gossip.

On Amir Taaki and Cody Wilson, two anarchists with a history of creating controversial software, and their dream of an economy based on untraceable, uncontrollable money.

Nearly 50 years ago, a penniless monk arrived in Manhattan, where he began to build an unrivaled community of followers—and a reputation for sexual abuse.

On the sins of the lazy translator.

The story of an 80-year-old hoax.

The role of money plays a two-sided role in Borges’ artistic life. On one side of the coin’s face, Borges was blessed with the most privileged, ideal life for a burgeoning literary genius. Educated in Europe, raised by his father to become a serious writer, Borges devoted his entire life to literature. He did not take a full-time job for nearly 40 years. But on the coin’s reverse side, we see that young Georgie Borges did not actually write his great fictions until after his family lost their money.

Where words fail, there is music.

Inside the C Street house in Washington and the little-known spiritual group behind it.

“Oh my God, the NFL is using every trick in the book to market to kids.”

The legendary anchor has written a wild, unflinching memoir. Does that make her a bad person?

On the platonic but volatile relationship between fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who committed suicide in 2010 and professional muse Isabella Blow, who committed suicide in 2007.

Participating in the Dakar Rally.

On systemic corrpution in the upper house of British Parliament, where lawmakers have the freedom to work for any business—banks, oil companies, Facebook—willing to pay for their “expertise.”

'He collapsed on Granville Road, within 100 meters of the house he was renting for $20,000 a month. Police and medics were called to the scene, but within 30 minutes, Perepilichny was pronounced dead. Police told the press the death was “unexplained.” A 44-year-old man of average build and above-average wealth had simply fallen down and died in the leafy suburb he’d recently begun calling home.'

In 2005, the painting sold at auction for $1,000. Its most recent price? $450 million.

One woman’s account of clandestine meetings, financial transactions, and legal pacts designed to hide an extramarital affair.

The school founded by evangelist Jerry Falwell ignored reports of rape and threatened to punish accusers for breaking its moral code, say former students. An official who says he was fired for raising concerns calls it a “conspiracy of silence.”

Over a million people are buried in a potter’s field on Hart Island. Here are some of their stories.