Mystery Biography

William Sidis, 1897-1944, was the world's greatest child prodigy. His IQ was an estiamted 50 to 100 points higher than Einstein's, the highest ever recorded or estimated. His father, a pioneer in the field of abnormal psychology, believed that he and his wife could create a genius in the cradle. They hung alphabet blocks over the baby's crib-and within six months little Billy was speaking. At 18 months he was reading The New York Times; at three, Homer in the original Greek. At six he spoke at least seven languages.

Antarctica, June 6th 1998. 23-year-old Matt Lewis has just started his dream job: an observer aboard a deep sea fishing boat. As the crew haul in their lines for the day, the waves seem bigger than usual - they are casting shadows on the deck. A storm is brewing. What follows is an astonishing story of courage and tragedy. Lewis leads the escape onto three life rafts, where the battle for survival begins.

On July 4, 2012, the announcement came that one of the longest-running mysteries in physics had been solved: the Higgs boson, the missing piece in understanding why particles have mass, had finally been discovered. On the rostrum, surrounded by jostling physicists and media, was the particle’s retiring namesake—the only person in history to have an existing single particle named for them. Why Peter Higgs? Drawing on years of conversations with Higgs and others, Close illuminates how an unprolific man became one of the world’s most famous scientists.

In the best-selling tradition of The Devil in the White City, award-winning author Brian Hicks tells the explosive story of the Morro Castle, the elegant luxury liner that burned off the coast of New Jersey on September 7, 1934. The captain died under mysterious circumstances seven hours before his ship caught fire off the New Jersey coast.

The salacious and scandalous murders of a series of couples on Texarkana's "lovers' lanes" created a media maelstrom and cast a pall of fear over an entire region. What is even more surprising is that the case has remained cold for decades. Combining archival research and investigative journalism, Pulitzer Prize-nominated historian James Presley reveals evidence that provides crucial keys to unlocking this decades-old puzzle.

America loves him. The FBI hates him. His life depends on one last daring escape. It's 1934, and America is in the middle of a crime wave. John “Jackrabbit” Dillinger has become America's first celebrity criminal. Many Americans view him as a modern-day Robin Hood, exacting revenge on the banks responsible for the misery of the Depression. Having achieved the fortune and fame he's always desired, the Jackrabbit realizes that it has come at an enormous price. Now, all he wants to do is settle down with his girlfriend Billie and live a normal life. That will be tough to do with the FBI ...

When Casey Parks came out as a lesbian in college back in 2002, she assumed her life in the South was over. Her mother shunned her, and her pastor asked God to kill her. But then Parks's grandmother, a stern conservative who grew up picking cotton, pulled her aside and revealed a startling secret. "I grew up across the street from a woman who lived as a man," and then implored Casey to find out what happened to him. Diary of a Misfit is the story of Parks's life-changing journey to unravel the mystery of Roy Hudgins.

Step into the shadowy world of true crime with UNSOLVED: THE MOST BAFFLING TRUE CRIME CASES, a gripping exploration of some of the most perplexing, unsolved mysteries in criminal history. From high-profile cases like the Zodiac Killer and the tragic disappearance of Flight MH370 to the haunting story of the Sodder children and the murder of JonBenét Ramsey, this book uncovers the chilling details and unanswered questions that continue to baffle investigators and captivate the public.

Peter Asher met the Beatles in the spring of 1963, the start of a lifelong association with the band and its members. He had a front-row seat as they elevated pop music into an art form, and he was present at the creation of some of the most iconic music of our times. But Asher was also a talented musician in his own right, with a great ear for what was new and fresh. Once, when Paul McCartney wrote a song that John Lennon didn’t think was right for the Beatles, Asher asked if he could record it.

For decades, Adam Gopnik has been one of our most beloved writers, a brilliantly perceptive critic of art, food, France, and more. But recently, he became obsessed by a fundamental matter: How did the people he was writing about learn their outlandish skill, whether it was drawing a nude or baking a sourdough loaf? In The Real Work, Gopnik apprentices himself to an artist, a dancer, a boxer, and even a driving instructor (from the DMV), among others, trying his late-middle-age hand at things he assumed were beyond him.

Decorated army officer Major Ed Dames tells the shocking true story of his time asoperations and training officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency's top-secret Psychic Intelligence Unit. Together with his PSI Spyteam, Dames used the practice of remote viewing to uncover accurate and verifiable military intelligence by going where no intel operatives on the ground could go - into the very mind of the enemy.

Bowart's Operation Mind Control: The Cryptocracy's Plan to Psychocivilize You is a classic in the annals of conspiracy research. It is a disturbing account of the secret use of mind control technology, by a secret government (or "cryptocracy"), with an aim to pacifying whole populations and furthering private global-investment strategies. Meticulously researched and well-written, it remains - even today - one of the best books on the topic.

I’m tired of stripping under strobe lights. Time to show the devil what I’m made of. I didn't plan to be the world's greatest x-rated star, but you can’t fight genetics. Succubus for a mother. The devil for my father. I was born to be bad. Hi, there. I’m Bambi, Lucifer’s other daughter, and I’m done being dependable and looked down upon. It’s time I took a page from dear old dad’s book—The Life and Times of the Dark Lord—rolled it, smoked it, and plotted something devious. As a princess of Hell, it’s past time I got a kingdom of my own.

Unleashing his vengeance coast to coast, Bolan is waging a very personal war on organized crime. Now, with a cadre of Cuban revolutionaries on his side, it's time for a hurricane called the Executioner to blindside Miami. Bolan had planned to fight his way across the country, taking out branches of the syndicate one by one. Then comes a break Bolan never dreamed of: All of his enemies have assembled in the Sunshine State to finalize the elimination of the Executioner.

Meet Marcel and Sabrina, a hitman and a bookkeeper for the Mob. The couple should have never met, let alone fallen in love. When they decide to go against the grain, all hell breaks loose. Somebody wants them dead; they just don't know who. It could be Leo, Marcel's jealous older brother; Othello, Sabrina's crooked father; or it could be The Family, a roundtable of the top contenders in the underworld. There is no honor amongst thieves. Marcel and Sabrina will find the old adage to be true the hard way.

Louis-Charles, Duc de Normandie, enjoyed a charmed early childhood in the gilded palace of Versailles. At the age of four, he became the dauphin, heir to the most powerful throne in Europe. Yet within five years he was to lose everything. Drawn into the horror of the French Revolution, his family was incarcerated and their fate thrust into the hands of the revolutionaries who wished to destroy the monarchy.

In the midst of one of the worst winters Chicago has seen in years, the body of missing teenager Ella Reynolds is discovered under the surface of a frozen lake. She’s been missing for three weeks...the lake froze over three months ago. Detective Sam Porter and his team are brought in to investigate, but it’s not long before another girl goes missing. The press believes the serial killer Anson Bishop has struck again, but Porter knows differently. The deaths are too different. There’s a new killer on the loose.

Max Allan Collins became Spillane's friend and collaborator, continuing the Mike Hammer series for years after the author's death, building upon unfinished manuscripts the writer left behind. Now, with coauthor James Traylor, Collins has produced the first comprehensive and authoritative profile of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. It is a must-listen for any fan of the author—or of the generations of crime writers that were influenced by his work.

One second he was there; the next, gone. Taken, forever, without any clue as to how or why - until a family friend developed their vacation photos. These tales aren’t the dramatic reenactments of kidnappings, pieced together from sloppy clues that you’d hear about on the news or Unsolved Mysteries. Be it human, alien, ghost, or monster perpetrator, this collection of weird and frightening disappearances, assembled from true reports, proves unexplainable kidnappings happen more than we like to admit - and no one knows what really happened.

From New York Times best-selling author Nick Bilton comes a true-life thriller about the rise and fall of Ross Ulbricht, aka the Dread Pirate Roberts, the founder of the online black market Silk Road. In 2011, Ulbricht, a 26-year-old libertarian idealist and former Boy Scout, launched 'a website where people could buy anything anonymously, with no trail whatsoever that could lead back to them'. He called it Silk Road, opened for business on the Dark Web, and christened himself the Dread Pirate Roberts.