The Black Donnellys: The Night a Whole Township Came to the Door (1880)
In 1880, a crowd of neighbours killed five members of the Donnelly family in Ontario and burned their farmhouse. A boy saw it all from under a bed. No one was ever convicted.
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The Mad Trapper of Rat River: 48 Days, Minus 40, and a Man With No Name
In 1932, a silent stranger led the Mounties on a 48-day chase across the frozen Arctic. Nearly a century and a DNA investigation later, no one knows who he was.
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The El Monte Sweatshop: 72 Workers Behind Razor Wire in Los Angeles (1995)
For up to seven years, Thai garment workers were held behind razor wire in a Los Angeles suburb, sewing clothes for American stores. One escape and a hand-drawn map ended it.
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The Officer Who Took Over a Dead Man’s House: The Lauderhill Case
A Florida police officer found a man dead on a welfare check. Investigators say he then spent nearly four years quietly taking over the dead man’s house.
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The Brick Kiln Slaves of Shanxi: When 400 Fathers Became the Detectives
In 2007, teenage boys vanished from a Chinese train station and ended up in illegal brick kilns. The police did not find most of them. Their parents did.
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The Salt Slaves of Sinan: A Letter, a Map and an Island That Looked Away
A homeless man was sold to a salt farm on a remote Korean island. Escape was impossible, because everyone on the island was watching. Then he drew a map and mailed it to his mother.
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Beijing Bus 375: The Last Bus That Never Arrived
In 1995, the story goes, the last bus to Beijing’s Fragrant Hills picked up three men in Qing dynasty robes and vanished. Here is the legend, and what the records actually show.
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The Voice on the Phone: The Kidnapping of Lee Hyung-ho, Korea’s Most Haunting Cold Case
In 1991 a calm, polite man called a Seoul family more than 60 times about their kidnapped son. Police recorded his voice. He was never found. The true story behind Voice of a Murderer.
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The Slaves of Benjina: The Men Locked in a Cage to Catch the Fish in Your Freezer
Fishermen were locked in a cage on a remote Indonesian island, and the fish they caught reached American supermarkets. The true story behind the AP’s Seafood from Slaves investigation.
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The Hwaseong Murders: The Real Killer Behind ‘Memories of Murder’ Was Always Right There
Police once stopped him while he wore a victim’s watch, and let him go. The true story of South Korea’s Hwaseong serial murders, the case behind Memories of Murder.
