The rise and dissolution of the magazine that nearly took down a president.

At 9:14pm on November 22, 1987, sportscaster Dan Roan was doing the Bears highlights on Chicago’s WGN-TV when the station’s signal was hijacked. Someone wearning a rubber Max Headroom mask appeared, silently, on TV screens around the city. A few hours later, Headroom popped up again on another channel, this time for longer and with audio. Despite FBI and FCC investigations, the case remains unsolved.

Chains, knives, fists, and, of course, those crude and unreliable homemade affairs called zip guns were the staples in the more vicious gang wars in the 1940s and 1950s. Today there is scarcely a gang in the Bronx that cannot muster a factory-made piece for every member—at the very least, a .22-caliber pistol, but quite often heavier stuff: .32s, .38s, and .45s, shotguns, rifles, and—I have seen them myself—even machine guns, grenades, and gelignite, an explosive. One gang, the Royal Javelins, has acquired some walkie-talkie radios.

An American woman's travels and memories of her Russian husband.

A profile of the PR agent who blurs truth for clients like Harvey Weinstein and R. Kelly. “If it were a relationship, we’d call it gaslighting, but it’s a profession, so we call it PR.”

An intrepid expert with dozens of books to his name, Stéphane Bourgoin was a bestselling author, famous in France for having interviewed more than 70 notorious murderers. Then an anonymous collective began to investigate his past.

How one of the world’s foremost Beatles collectors died homeless on the streets of Little Rock.

What it takes to defect from the military state of one of the world’s youngest countries.

On the U.S. government’s pursuit of a legendary hacker.

In the wake of Rumours, the band endures a series of break-ups.

On the life and legacy of one of soccer’s legends, who died Wednesday.

The Interstellar director and the art of the blockbuster cult film.

A history of the Hollywood publicity racket.

In an era when America’s great sportswriters were as big as the athletes they covered, W.C. Heinz may have been the best of the bunch.

The story of a Pacific Palisades con man named Jeffrey Lash.

A “reckless” fracking company, poisoned springs, and a family forced to buy water at Walmart.

How the tiny town of Roundup, Montana became a hub in Amazon’s supply chain.

Adventures in bartending.

Space is only getting weirder.

Growing old at the Playboy Mansion.

The golfer at his nadir.

As U.S. troops departed, Baghdad in ruins.

Winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. While on assignment for the New York Times, Anthony Shadid died today in Syria.

Two lawyers, a summer of unrest, and a bottle of Bud Light.