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. Searching for spiritual guidance during these hard times, Helen’s journey had led her to…

A young woman decides to try to change the brutal course of the French Revolution — by becoming an assassin. — On a mild June day in 1793, as Marie-Anne-Charlotte de Corday d’Armont read by an open window of her cousin’s parlor, she was jarred to attention by the sharp sound of carriage wheels on the cobblestone street below. Charlotte, as she was known to her family, wondered what could be…

Is the killer behind the 1982 Tylenol poisonings still on the loose? Exclusive revelations by investigators yield the first authoritative account of what happened and who likely did it. — By Michael Solomon In the early hours of September 29, 1982, two Kane County sheriff’s deputies, Joseph Chavez and Alan Swanson, were on a routine patrol of the Chicago suburb of Elgin Ill. Sometime around 2:30 a.m., they stopped at a 24-hour Howard Johnson’s restaurant where they noticed something odd…

The Old West goes out with a bang in its last train robbery, leading a series of investigators down unexpected paths to a shocking conclusion. — By Rhema Sayers Fairbank, Arizona February 15, 1900 The sun had just set. Darkness surrounded the glow from the gaslights at the railway station in the town of Fairbank, Arizona. Located in Cochise County, the town owed its existence to the railroad. Fairbank was the closest rail stop to the more bustling Tombstone, less than 10 miles to…