361 Items Tagged

Crime

Ocklawaha, Florida

Ma Barker House

Site of the longest gun battle in FBI history.

Culiacán, Mexico

Jesús Malverde Chapel

A giant shrine to Mexico's "narco-saint."

Gibsland, Louisiana

Bonnie and Clyde Death Site

Historical marker at the spot where Bonnie and Clyde were killed.

Potsdam, Germany

Altwarengeschäft Remlinger

A second hand shop that enabled the plan of Germany's most iconic conman.

Highwayman Higgins’ House

The genteel home of a charming thief who fooled a town, and almost cheated death.

L'Orignal, Ontario

L'Orignal Old Jail

This historic prison is the oldest in Ontario and the second oldest in Canada.

The exterior of the Hall of Records.

Atlas Obscura Mailbag: Urban Exploration, Illegal Carvings, and Repeat Vacations

Don’t do anything Dylan wouldn’t do.

The Podcast Team July 12, 2025

botanical gardens

The Secret Gardens Saving the World’s Rarest Plants

In greenhouses from Berkeley to Santa Barbara, a little-known rescue network protects endangered cycads from poachers, smugglers, and extinction.

Julie Zigoris June 11, 2025

Somerville, Massachusetts

Winter Hill Gang Headquarters

The former headquarters for Whitey Bulger and the notorious Winter Hill Gang.

“There may be a collective sense of a dark loneliness,” Dahl says, referring to Norway's natural landscape.

In Norway, Easter Means Tucking Into Crime Stories

For a century, Norwegians have practiced the dark and cozy phenomenon of Påskekrim.

Jessica Furseth April 18, 2025

Yokohama, Japan

Site of the Namamugi Incident

After an Englishmen was killed by a samurai here in 1862, a two-day war changed the course of Japanese history.

Ikebukuro Shimento Pagoda

Dedicated to the victims of a phantom slasher, this memorial is claimed by some to be the source of a deadly curse.

Marm Mandelbaum, who ran her own school for criminals, is among one of many women making history in all the wrong ways.

Women’s Wrongs: Our Favorite Reads

You can champion women’s rights and still revel in the tales of their most infamous wrongs.

Roxanne Hoorn February 21, 2025

The neuroscientist’s brain is brownish and small, but is otherwise virtually unchanged from the 1800s.

anatomy museums

A Man in 19th-Century Italy Preserved His Own Brain to Fight Eugenics

Visit Turin to see the organ—and learn how to preserve your own.

Dania Rodrigues February 18, 2025

Rebecca Bradley (left) was labeled a flapper bandit by the media, and a woman who had lots her mind by her attorney (right).

Meet the Texas Flapper Bandit

A bank robber or a lightning rod for America's growing fear of independent women—who was Rebecca Bradley?

Laura Niebauer January 14, 2025

Northampton, Massachusetts

Northampton Bank Robbery Mural

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stop thieves at the site of a historic 1876 bank robbery.

Art Detective Arthur Brand Is Like Indiana Jones but With a More Elegant Wardrobe

Mysterious late-night visits, an undercover hunt for Hitler's horses, and a Picasso on the couch are business as usual for the Dutch sleuth.

Nina Strochlic November 19, 2024

This map of Poyais from the 1820s fooled hundreds of people.

objects of intrigue

This Map Shows a Fictional Country Created by a Con Man

In the 19th century, Scottish scammer Gregor MacGregor made a fortune selling land in Poyais.

Diana Hubbell October 31, 2024