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Erich Muenter (aka Frank Holt) was the Harvard professor and wife murderer recruited by the German network of spies as an assassin to bring down vital targets such as ships, factories, livestock, and even captains of industry like J. P. Morgan during World War I. Learn how he discovered that the perfect crime is possible from this excerpt of Dark Invasion: Germany's Secret War and the Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America.
On a brisk, late October day in 2005, John F. Fox, the studious Ph.D. who served as the FBI’s official historian, stood at the podium at the annual Symposium on Cryptologic History and launched into a riveting presentation. “One man,” he began, “was tall, thin, a genius linguist at the NSA who was working on breaking coded telegrams sent from Soviet offices in the U.S. to Moscow. The other was a lawyer and cop, a young FBI supervisor recently transferred to Headquarters. . . .”
In writing narrative nonfiction, you’re guided by – as the name of genre makes dauntingly clear – two essential rules: you need to tell a story; and it needs to be true. The Last Goodnight is the deeply personal narrative of Betty Pack. It’s part love story, part spy tale, part psychological detective story.
The spy called this top-secret enterprise Alpha214. It was approved, he claimed, by the president and by the director of national intelligence…
The FDR Library created a special edition of their At Home with the Roosevelts newsletter to help young people enjoy this (challenging) summer. 21 activities were created by Education Specialist Jeffrey Urbin that offer fun ideas to keep you busy and engaged.
Hamish Bowles says, "Now that I am hooked on Fauda, Homeland (I know, late to the game but heigh ho), and The Plot Against America, I’m about to embark on more wartime dering-do and nail-biting with Howard Blum’s Night of the Assassins"
On this momentous July 4 holiday weekend, the “answer,” as a young visionary poet promised more than a half-century ago, is not merely “blowin' in the wind.” Listen — it is literally howling.
Wars are easy to start but harder to finish. The victory that seems at hand, history has amply demonstrated, can slip in a cruel instant from one’s grasp. The formulation of an endgame strategy is a tricky business.
Among the many coincidences that can be found in the files of the covert history of Operation Long Jump are the parallel events that occurred on July 26, 1943. For it was on the very day when the two spy chiefs had their first meeting at the Eden Hotel that Adolf Hitler also began to tread in similar territory.
Join me on Wednesday, June 10th, at 5:00 p.m. as I discuss Night of the Assassins with Books & Books. Follow the link to save your spot.
Join me on Wednesday, June 3rd, at 6:30 p.m. CT as I discuss Night of the Assassins with the Kansas City Public Library. Follow the link to RSVP.
How a doppelgänger foiled a secret Nazi plot to shoot a plane carrying precious cargo out of the sky
Wishful thinking never won a war. When all seems lost, hope is not a very practical path to victory; defeat after defeat does not necessarily mean things will work out in the end. And, all too often, history is cruel and evil triumphs.
Then, there’s Larson’s other great accomplishment: he makes history, the past, seem very real…
It’s a devil — a potential silent assassin — that floats perniciously in the air, or in a perfunctory handshake, or even a riotous laugh. It’s invisible to the naked eye. You can’t shoot it. You can’t wrestle it to the ground and cuff it.
I’m turning to poems I haven’t thought about for years. I’m looking for guidance and solace in books I hadn’t taken off the shelf in ages, some with underlining and notations made a lifetime ago in college…
The oil money that flowed into Tehran, Britain, Russia, and Germany created the foundation for the city to become the setting of one of the most dramatic assassination attempts of all-time—the attempt to kill Stalin, Churchill, and FDR in one fell swoop as they met there in secret in 1943. The stakes? Nothing less than the fate of the world.
As head of the Secret Service, Mike Reilly’s primary job was to keep President Roosevelt safe. FDR didn’t make it easy. In The Night of the Assassins, I write about Mike’s role in foiling an assassination plot against FDR during a secret meeting in Tehran—but his job of protecting the president started much closer to home.
The tensions between Iran and the United States are certainly not new, and neither are governments deciding on a policy of “targeted assassinations.” Consider this true story from WWII of a targeted killing that was launched in Tehran.
Although holiday traditions may look a little different in 2020, many of us still want to make our loved ones feel special this time of year. If you’re on the hunt for the perfect gift for the history buff in your life, look no further—here’s a list of must-haves that any espionage fan is bound to love.