Mired in debt, a mild-mannered hobbyist becomes an international arms dealer. Soon the UK is flooded with untraceable antique guns and ammunition and police are baffled. — The shooting occurred at a private event at a nightclub in London’s posh West End on Boxing Day in 2013. It was after 3 a.m., but the DJ was still spinning when the shots erupted, sending the partygoers fleeing. …

Mob forces move in. Harlem’s lucrative underworld is divided. One woman must fight for control of what’s hers. — Stephanie St. Clair and her bodyguards walked up 7th Avenue. Candy stores. Stationary stores. Cigar stores. The blunt object in her hand was clue enough for onlookers, and pedestrians stepped aside as the petite francophile and her men continued. The white mafia had storefronts up and down 7th Avenue…

Eleven-year-old Victoria has her sights set on playing Little League with the boys. She goes through tryouts and is told to learn to cook. Instead, she changes history. — At 11-years-old, Victoria Brucker planted her feet wide and crouched down to face the large metal machine as it whirred up, ready to deliver a pitch. Her heart hammered inside her chest as the gaggle of boys impatiently waited behind her for their turns.

A harrowing escape from a war-torn country places a group of refugees in an impossible situation: Out of water, out of time, and with hundreds of miles to go. — …we are the foam floating in the vast ocean we are the dust wandering in endless space… — Anonymous “Whoever is listening, be my witness.” — Thich Nhat Hahn SOUTH CHINA SEA, APRIL 27, 1981 Dzung Nguyen piloted the fishing boat with the lights out, a dark splotch on the inky sea. Evading detection was imperative…

In the best documented case of a purported poltergeist in Brazil, a country deeply interested in spiritual experiences, poltergeist was believed to be used as a weapon against a young family. — Pronunciation guide in order of appearance: Noêmia … NO EM E AH Zenaide … ZEN AIGH JUH Hernani (ERR NAH NEE) Guimarães (GEE MAR ES) Andrade (AN DRAH DE) Zoraide … ZOR I DAY April 1973: Guarulhos, São Paulo, Brazil

After swiping sacred American Indian artifacts three archeology thieves believe they are being hunted down by spirits of vengeance. — Disclaimer: This story contains language sensitive to the Hopi people. Shungopavi, Arizona Summer 1978 The cave was small, hidden by rocks and the graceful wall of sandstone that climbed toward Shungopavi village. …

Through the decade of the aughts, experimenters in psychokinesis navigate political and personal turbulence. — A chain reaction of events attributed to psychokinesis that raged through the 2000s had roots in a singular cosmic moment of the 1970s. Skylab, America’s first space station, was the largest spacecraft in history at that point. …

A young Latino man in Los Angeles teams up with a Japanese restaurateur to bring karaoke to America. — However much I had screwed up to get to this point, I knew I couldn’t go home until I found a job. I made my way slowly on foot from downtown Santa Monica, where I lived on 7th and Broadway in a tiny rent controlled studio that cost $225…

An investment scheme based on a time traveler’s inside information… or an investment scam and the original Pyramid Scheme? — One night in the heart of the Great Depression, a professional model named Helen Ressler, 28, knocked on a door in The Ansonia, a posh but infamous residential hotel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. …