James Madison: The Genius of Politics

Leopold and Loeb: Criminal Supermen or Dumbest Criminals in History?

Leopold and Loeb: Criminal Supermen or Dumbest Criminals in History? 3 Oct 2023 --- The perfect crime…a favorite topic among mystery writers and television showrunners, who are always coming up with new and clever ways to commit cunning, albeit fictional murders. It is not so much a concern for real criminals. As far as most of them go, a perfect crime is any one that they can get away with. There is, perhaps, one notable exception to this - Leopold and Loeb, two well-off, educated students who killed a young boy in 1924 because they wanted to commit “the perfect crime.” It wasn’t murder that excited the duo. It was getting away with murder. As far as they were concerned, that was where the challenge lay. A challenge that, as we all know by now, they failed…miserably. Because Leopold and Loeb were not the criminal masterminds they thought they were. Sure, they had high intellects, but the superiority they liked to flaunt in everyone’s faces was all in their heads. A smart person does not necessarily equal a successful criminal and the pathetic reality was that Leopold and Loeb only committed a string of petty vandalism acts and, once they moved up to a serious crime, they were caught almost immediately. But due to a sensational trial, nationwide media coverage, and a controversial verdict, this murder was among the select few to be heralded as the “crime of the century,” ensuring everlasting notoriety for Leopold and Loeb. → Subscribe for new videos at least twice a week! https://www.youtube.com/c/biographics?sub_confirmation=1 Love content? Check out our other YouTube Channels: Geographics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHKRfxkMTqiiv4pF99qGKIw TopTenz: https://www.youtube.com/user/toptenznet Check out Karl's channels: https://www.youtube.com/@UCaR-e8ComPih10DqPi3sdWg https://www.youtube.com/@UCtrzkwlnKfS9knQ-zuwYBLQ https://www.youtube.com/@UCLJvIXTMM7bjZ5-ju8xckJg Further Reading: https://homicide.northwestern.edu/crimes/leopold/ https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/nathan-leopold https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/richard-loeb https://allthatsinteresting.com/leopold-and-loeb https://medium.com/crimebeat/the-crime-of-the-20th-century-28352511895a https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/18/arts/armand-s-deutsch-hollywood-fixture-dies-at-92.html https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/leopold-and-loebs-criminal-minds-996498/ https://web.archive.org/web/20080801093735/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/3c.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080731123915/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/index_1.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080801093806/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/invest_2.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080801093725/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/2b.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080801093725/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/2b.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080731205300/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/arrest_3.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080801093732/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/3b.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080801093735/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/3c.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080801204823/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/sentence_6.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080801093755/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/7b.html https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/07/26/reopening-the-case-files-of-leopold-and-loeb/ https://web.archive.org/web/20080801093800/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/7c.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

John C Fremont: The Mapmaker

John C Fremont: The Pathfinder 25 Apr 2024 --- John Charles Frémont was an explorer, topologist, botanist, soldier, politician, railroad tycoon, gold miner, abolitionist, and one of the most controversial entities in the opening of the American West. He achieved fame and infamy, wealth and destitution, military command and court-martial. His life was as up and down, challenging and exhilarating, as the trails he blazed across the continent. He was born under the surname Frémon [pronounced FrayMON’], the illegitimate son of a French-Canadian schoolteacher named Charles Frémon and Anne Whiting, the married woman he had been hired to teach French. Anne was married to John Pryor, a Richmond tobacco merchant of considerable wealth. However, Pryor was in his 60s, and his young wife was but 17 years of age, so the dashing French-Canadian soon swept her off her feet. When Pryor learned his young wife was having an affair with her tutor, he enlisted the Virginia authorities to have Frémon arrested. Frémon and Anne fled to Savannah, Georgia, where she gave birth to a son on January 21, 1813. The infant was given the name John Charles Frémont, retaining the French aigu [Egg-oow] over the letter e in his last name, indicating it was pronounced with the sound “-ay”. Though texts still record his last name with the aigu, it is almost uniformly pronounced with the sound of “ee”, as in “free” or “tree”. Eventually Frémon made his way back to Norfolk, Virginia, where he died in 1818 after failing to obtain a writ of divorce from the Virginia Assembly. His widow and children found themselves with little income. They moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where young John, well aware of the circumstances of his birth grew to be a rebellious, proud youth, unencumbered by friends and somewhat contemptuous of rules and societal norms. A Charleston lawyer named John Mitchell took an interest in Anne, and thus in her son John, and helped provide his early education. In 1829, young John entered the College of Charleston, though indifferent attendance led to his withdrawal in 1831. → Subscribe for new videos at least twice a week! https://www.youtube.com/c/biographics?sub_confirmation=1 Love content? Check out Simon's other YouTube Channels: Geographics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHKRfxkMTqiiv4pF99qGKIw TopTenz: https://www.youtube.com/user/toptenznet Eric's Stuff: Storyrant: https://www.youtube.com/@UC6Sk2h2WsYMxnGERAH_FbGg Link Tree to Books and Socials: https://linktr.ee/EricMalikyte Karl's Socials: Fact Fiend: https://www.youtube.com/ @FactFiend Wiki Weekends: https://www.youtube.com/ @wikiweekends Untitled Side Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ @untitledsidechannel Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarlSmallwood Further Reading: https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-C-Fremont https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/B000398 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jessie-Ann-Benton-Fremont https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=22 https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/John_C._Fremont https://americanexperience.si.edu/historical-eras/expansion/pair-westward-apotheosis/ https://www.britannica.com/event/Bear-Flag-Revolt https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goldrush-california/ https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/january-31 https://archive.org/details/fremontpathmarke0002nevi/page/n7/mode/2up https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/freedmans-bank-building/financial-panic-of-1873#:~:text=The%20Panic%20of%201873&text=One%20of%20the%20worst%20happened,in%20American%20projects%2C%20particularly%20railroads. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

John Wayne: America's Preferred Cowboy

John Wayne: America’s Favorite Cowboy 22 Jan 2026 --- The 20th century gave birth to a new kind of celebrity: the movie star. Motion pictures had the portability of books combined with the visual spectacle of artwork and the performance acumen of theatre productions, making the stars of this new medium the first celebrities with a truly global impact. And for a long period of time, no movie star had a bigger impact than John Wayne. For over thirty years, John Wayne was one of Hollywood’s highest grossing actors. He specialized in Westerns: playing a cowboy so well he practically came to define the genre. But his cultural impact went beyond the silver screen: for many people, John Wayne was the physical embodiment of America itself. The traits he portrayed in his films: rugged individualism, self-reliance, toughness, cool thinking under pressure, were all seen as essential to the American spirit, the American character. When Nikita Khrushchev came to visit the United States, he wanted to do two things: visit Disneyland, and meet John Wayne. What many people didn’t know, however, was that many of the things that made John Wayne, well, John Wayne, weren’t natural: they were the result of a carefully orchestrated public relations strategy, initially done by the movie studios he worked for, and then largely propagated by Wayne himself. John Wayne wasn’t a person: he was a persona, invented and shaped by the man who played him. He was exceptionally image conscious: he would only play roles that he felt “John Wayne” would be suited for, and would be very particular about scripts and camera work to make sure he was portrayed in a way that matched his audience’s perception of him. The result was an almost cult-like following among his fans, who even decades after his death continue to make him one of Hollywood’s most popular actors. → Subscribe for new videos at least twice a week! https://www.youtube.com/c/biographics?sub_confirmation=1 Love content? Check out our other YouTube Channels: Geographics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHKRfxkMTqiiv4pF99qGKIw TopTenz: https://www.youtube.com/user/toptenznet Eric's Links: Cosmic Horror Ebook: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/1cw07o2uyb Storyrant: https://www.youtube.com/@storyrant OEI Analog Horror Experiment: https://www.youtube.com/@officeofextradimensionalint Grimdark Magazine #39: GdM's catalogue page for the issue is here: https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/product/grimdark-magazine-39/ Subscriptions available here: https://www.patreon.com/GrimdarkMagazine Karl's Socials: Fact Fiend: https://www.youtube.com/ @FactFiend Wiki Weekends: https://www.youtube.com/ @wikiweekends Untitled Side Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ @untitledsidechannel Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarlSmallwood Additional Reading: John Wayne: The Life and Legend by Scott Eyman, Simon and Schuster 2014 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Patrick Henry Cronin: Slaying, Betrayal, and Underground Societies #sponsored #fyp

Patrick Henry Cronin: Murder, Betrayal, and Secret Societies #sponsored #fyp 26 Feb 2026 --- Check out http://squarespace.com/biographics to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code BIOGRAPHICS. Thanks to Squarespace for the sponsorship #fyp #history #truecrimestories → Subscribe for new videos at least twice a week! https://www.youtube.com/c/biographics?sub_confirmation=1 Love content? Check out our other YouTube Channels: Geographics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHKRfxkMTqiiv4pF99qGKIw TopTenz: https://www.youtube.com/user/toptenznet Eric's Links: Cosmic Horror Ebook: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/1cw07o2uyb Storyrant: https://www.youtube.com/@storyrant OEI Analog Horror Experiment: https://www.youtube.com/@officeofextradimensionalint Grimdark Magazine #39: GdM's catalogue page for the issue is here: https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/product/grimdark-magazine-39/ Subscriptions available here: https://www.patreon.com/GrimdarkMagazine Karl's Socials: Fact Fiend: https://www.youtube.com/ @FactFiend Wiki Weekends: https://www.youtube.com/ @wikiweekends Untitled Side Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ @untitledsidechannel Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarlSmallwood Further Reading: https://archive.org/details/cronincase00bail/page/n15/mode/2up?ref=ol https://archive.org/details/crimeofcenturyor00huntrich/page/n5/mode/2up?ref=ol https://chicagology.com/notorious-chicago/drcroninmurder/ https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/the-mysterious-19th-century-murder-of-dr-patrick-henry-cronin https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/how-the-english-spy-who-sought-to-destroy-parnell-tore-irish-america-apart-1.2207837 Sponsor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Charlotte Corday: Angel of the Slaying

Charlotte Corday: Angel of Assassination 23 Jan 2024 --- It is one of the most famous works of art of the 18th Century, painted by French artist Jacques-Louis David. A man, sitting in his bathtub, slumps slightly to his right. His hands lightly clutch the instruments of his profession – and his power: a pen and a letter. A small wound, just below his right collarbone oozes blood. On the floor, we can see the murder weapon, a stained knife. The image is realistic, yet solemn. It conveys the dignity, even in death, of the man portrayed. His name was Jean-Paul Marat, a friend of the artist, later hailed as a martyr of the French Revolution. Just outside the confines of the frame, the drama is not over yet. A young woman has been beaten, struck with a chair, and thrown to the ground. Until that afternoon, that woman was a young and sheltered aristocrat, whose involvement with the politics of the French Revolution was limited to heated drawing room discussions. But this afternoon, that young woman has decided to take action, and strike at the man who, in her eyes, represents tyranny. Her name is Charlotte Corday, later immortalized by author Alphonse de Lamartine as a brave and gracious angel, enacting God’s justice: ‘The Angel of Assassination’. → Subscribe for new videos at least twice a week! https://www.youtube.com/c/biographics?sub_confirmation=1 Love content? Check out our other YouTube Channels: Geographics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHKRfxkMTqiiv4pF99qGKIw TopTenz: https://www.youtube.com/user/toptenznet Karl's Socials: Fact Fiend: https://www.youtube.com/@FactFiend Wiki Weekends: https://www.youtube.com/@wikiweekends Untitled Side Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@untitledsidechannel Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarlSmallwood Further Reading: https://it.everand.com/article/444669537/The-Murder-That-Reignited-The-Revolution https://it.everand.com/article/444669896/Daughters-Of-The-Storm https://www.jstor.org/stable/42705725 https://www.jstor.org/stable/286725 https://vodkaster.telerama.fr/series-tv/secrets-d-histoire/63521/s02e06 https://www.historyhit.com/the-angel-of-assassination-who-was-charlotte-corday/ https://books.google.fr/books?id=VMkJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA141&dq=%22Charlotte+Corday%22+%2B+lagarde#v=onepage&q=%22Charlotte%20Corday%22%20%2B%20lagarde&f=false https://guides.loc.gov/women-in-the-french-revolution/charlotte-corday https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/obl4he/frenchrevolution/10_marieannecharlotte_corday.html https://francerevisited.com/2012/07/charlotte-corday-and-the-bathtub-assassination-of-jean-paul-marat/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]