She calls claiming to be Amy Pascal, Kathleen Kennedy, or some other powerful woman in entertainment. She knows personal details about her mark as well as the woman she is impersonating.

She offers work, then sends them—photographers, make-up artists, soldiers—around the world to bilk them out of modest amounts of cash.

On the eve of the Civil War, a nightmare at sea turned into one of the greatest rescues in maritime history. More than a century later, a rookie treasure hunter went looking for the lost ship—and found a different kind of ruin.

Eleven members of an Australian rugby club traveled to Bali. After a bomb went off at a nightclub, only five of them made it home.

What does satire do? What should we expect of it? Is it crucial to Western culture that we be free to produce it?

In 1980, Richard Pryor doused himself in rum, lit himself, and streaked though the streets or Northridge in a ball of flames. He would go on to live another 25 years.

What adolescence does to adolescents is nowhere near as brutal as what it does to their parents.

An excerpt from All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood.

“That learning to cook could lead an American woman to success of any kind would have seemed utterly implausible in 1949; that it is so thoroughly plausible 60 years later owes everything to Julia Child’s legacy.”

An East German weightlifter ingested more anabolic steroids than any other athlete in recorded history. It didn’t end well.

A glimpse of life on the suburban road, featuring Russian mobsters, Fox News rage addicts, a caged man in a sex dungeon, and Dick Cheney.

A profile of the actor following a car accident that left him briefly in a coma and ultimately with a settlement so large he never has to work again.

How detectives from Scotland Yard, Romania, Germany, and Italy nabbed the so-called Mission: Impossible gang, which pulled off a string of daring warehouse heists.

The once-utopian accommodations site, now headed by an alum of surveillance-analytics firm Palantir, has gone back on its always-free ethos.

Almost five years ago, the author’s 13-year-old niece was murdered in her bedroom in suburban New Delhi. Since then, both of her parents have spent time in jail. Evidence, bungled by police, points to another possible killer. The trial has not yet begun.

Daniel Norris lives out of his car. He’s also the #1 pitching prospect for the Toronto Blue Jays.

There are two different tales we tell ourselves about houses. The primary story is not about ghosts or demons or red rooms or ghouls, but rather about bright futures, long lives, children, grandchildren, and hard-earned success. The second story, the darker story, is about the horror of being trapped.

How volunteer firefighters responded to a lethal West, Texas explosion.

How New York City built its own CIA.

Bernie Kerik and Jack Abramoff on “Club Fed.”

On Hillary Clinton’s policy team.

On living in Syria as an Alawite loyalist.

Nine innings with Mr. Baseball.

A young woman with a rare condition navigates El Paso.

A flamboyant player, a charismatic coach, and a sex predator.

Juries trust DNA. But should they?