Some great thinkers considered Atlantis a fictional island Plato had made up to teach philosophy, whilst others consider that he based it on a real place lost to history. There are even mentions of it in some CIA files. So, what is the truth about the mystical city that disappeared?

Plato

Plato wrote about Atlantis, describing the island as one of the most powerful naval empires known. He states that they dominated much of the Western world. However, when they angered the gods due to their immoral living, the gods submerged them in the Atlantic Ocean.

Historians have now stated they believe Plato’s description was purely fictitious. He used the imaginary city to illustrate his larger points of view in works such as Timaeus.

Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state [Athens] in our [the Egyptian’s] histories. But one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valour. For these histories tell of a mighty power [Atlantis] which unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end. — Plato, Timaeus 24e - 25d

Plato said it existed about 9,000 years before his own time, and that poets, priests, and others had passed down its story. But Plato’s writings about Atlantis are not the only known records of its existence. Other mentions of Atlantis include Greek texts which used the term to describe those who lived near the Atlas Mountains.

Atlantis

The island from 360 BC is described as larger than Libya and Asia and was situated in the Strait of Gibraltar. This set of islands in the Atlantic Ocean was separated by wide moats and linked by canals that penetrated to the centre. The islands were circular in nature, looking like a large labyrinth.

The founders of the island were said to be half-god and half-human. The lush islands contained gold, silver, and other precious metals and supported an abundance of rare, exotic wildlife. There was a great capital city on the central island, where a palace was built for Poseidon’s mortal wife, Cleito.

On the island was a great empire that ruled over several other parts of the continent. They were a vast power that endeavoured to subdue many other countries. Illustrations of the area show a utopian scene on the cover with mythical animals. Was this the home of unicorns and dragons?

The men of Atlantis were said to have no competition when it came to courage and military skill, and they were led by great men. There were no invaders who triumphed over them. The island was protected by the god of the sea, Poseidon, who became angry with the conduct of its people.

On one single day and night, the island was ravaged by violent earthquakes and floods and it sank into the earth, disappearing into the sea. The sea in that area then became impassable and impenetrable because of the shoal of mud that was caused by the submergence of the island.

What is the truth?

Likely, the island of Atlantis never existed; it seems hard to imagine we would not have discovered some sign of it by now if it did. But Plato’s fascination with the island sparks many questions. Would he write about a completely fictitious city? It seems unlikely.

Many historians and ocean explorers state that it simply does not exist. Pick a spot on a map and people have said this was where Atlantis was.

Some say it is a misconception from another tragedy. About 3,600 years ago, a massive volcanic eruption devastated the island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea near Greece. At the time, the advanced society of the Minoan civilisation disappeared. Some have stated that this could have been Atlantis.

However, there are some that state that this is another example of Root Races.

Root Races

This is the idea that progression is not linear; our existence has not gone from primitive to advanced but rather consists of repeated cycles of the rising of civilisation to destruction, only for the concept to start again.

Atlantis and Lemuria have been noted as the first of the root races. Each race has a specific evolutionary goal; once the civilisation reaches that, a global event happens, removing this group. A very small number of the citizens escaped to form the next civilisation; in this case, Egypt and Mesoamerica. This would explain how the knowledge to build the pyramids was obtained.

It is a theory that could point to the fact that this current civilisation has regressed significantly when we look at the Earth. The Atlanteans left nothing behind when they left—no buildings and no effect on the Earth. The Egyptians left stone pyramids which, although visible, have caused little harm to the planet. Can we say the same?

We would leave vast quantities of plastics and rubbish on a planet we have all but destroyed. Maybe civilisations are not evolving but regressing.

Whichever version of history you believe, Atlantis is a tale that has endured for centuries. It endures because it is a tale of god-like creatures, opulence, and fallen men.

“It’s a story that captures the imagination,” says James Romm, a professor of classics at Bard College in Annandale, New York. “It’s a great myth. It has a lot of elements that people love to fantasize about.”

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On 3rd December 1926, Agatha Christie fought with her husband, Archibald. He had been having an affair which Christie had discovered; she had also been informed he was planning to spend the weekend with friends and his mistress.

Once he had left, she went upstairs and kissed her daughter, Rosalind (7), goodnight. Getting into her Morris Cowley, she left the house. What ensued was one of the biggest manhunts in history. In a mystery more connected to her books, Christie was not found again until eleven days later.

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My name is Thomas. I am fourteen; currently, I am lying in an alleyway in Greater Manchester, fighting for my life. It is 8 pm on Sunday 29 June 2003; the police have been called. I have multiple stab wounds.

Standing beside me is my best friend Craig; he is fifteen and staying with me until help arrives. He will tell the police that a hooded knifeman stabbed me. He is lying. They will find this out when they look at the CCTV. It was Craig who stabbed me. I asked him to, in a roundabout way. Let me start from the beginning.

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Breck Bednar represented every parent’s modern nightmare: he met someone he didn’t know online. If you have children, you understand the dread this causes. Tragically, Breck’s story ended in the most devastating way possible.

On 17th February 2014, the fourteen-year-old lied to his parents and travelled to meet Lewis Daynes, a nineteen-year-old computer engineer, at his flat in Grays, Essex.

Daynes had been grooming Breck for several months on gaming sites. While Breck was one of many boys Daynes targeted online, he was the one who ultimately decided to meet the sadistic killer in person.

The Grooming Process

Online, Daynes used the handle EagleOne Six and befriended Breck within a gaming group on TeamSpeak. Other members of the group later described Daynes as a controlling ringmaster who dictated the circle’s social dynamics.

The pair spent hundreds of hours playing tactical shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield. During these sessions, Daynes manipulated Breck by claiming he worked for the US government. He promised Breck immense wealth and fame if he joined Daynes’ fictional computer business.

After exchanging a barrage of social media messages and spending hours in shared gameplay, Breck agreed to meet. Daynes coached him on exactly what to tell his parents to avoid suspicion. On 16th February, Breck set off; he would lose his life the following day.

Daynes had meticulously planned the encounter for weeks. Investigation revealed he had purchased duct tape, syringes, and condoms online well in advance of Breck’s arrival.

The Attack and Immediate Aftermath

Once Breck arrived at the flat, Daynes bound his wrists and ankles with duct tape. He later held a knife to the boy’s throat and killed him. Forensic evidence suggests Breck died within seconds.

While the precise timeline of the afternoon remains murky, investigators believe the murder was driven by sadistic sexual motivation. Evidence indicated that sexual activity had occurred before the killing. Horrifyingly, after the murder, Daynes sent photos of Breck’s body to two of his online friends.

Daynes then showered and changed his clothes before calmly calling 999. He fabricated a story, claiming he had stabbed Breck during an altercation while trying to prevent the boy from self-harming.

During the call, Daynes claimed he and the 14-year-old had got into an “altercation,” adding: “Only one of us came out alive.”

When officers arrived, they found Breck’s body in the bedroom. Any initial doubt about Daynes’ story vanished when they discovered his computer equipment submerged in the bath; a desperate attempt to destroy digital evidence of his grooming and planning.

Profile of the Perpetrator

Lewis Daynes had a history of rejection and isolation. He had been taken into foster care at a young age after his mother moved abroad. Those who knew him noted that he seemed more at home in virtual worlds than in the real one. It is also suggested that his emotional immaturity led him to gravitate toward younger teenagers whom he could more easily dominate.

However, background trauma never excuses such depravity. Many young people face similar hardships without turning to violence. The level of cold-blooded planning and manipulation points to a psychopathy far beyond his years.

As is common in such cases, there was a clear escalation in behaviour. Had previous red flags been addressed, Daynes might have been stopped long before he met Breck.

Police Failings and Previous Allegations

The case raised serious questions regarding police conduct. Three years before he murdered Breck, Daynes had been arrested on suspicion of raping another fifteen-year-old boy.

These offences were reported to Essex Police in 2011, yet the force chose not to take action. When Daynes was finally brought in for Breck’s murder, his record revealed five previous allegations against him.

None had been pursued due to claims of “no realistic prospect of conviction.” One must ask: if the victim had not been a young male, would these reports have been treated with more urgency? Cases like that of Stephen Port suggest that systemic prejudice within the police service often leaves vulnerable groups unprotected.

Family Advocacy and Legal Action

Breck’s mother, Lorin LaFave, had grown increasingly terrified of Daynes’ influence. She even confronted Daynes online and reported her concerns to Surrey Police in December 2013.

She stated to the police that she had strong fears that her son was being groomed and manipulated, by an older man online.

Despite her plea, no effective intervention took place. Two months later, Breck was dead. The family subsequently launched legal action against both Essex and Surrey Police for their failure to handle the initial report. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) also launched an investigation, issuing misconduct notices to several officers.

The legal battle resulted in an undisclosed settlement, a formal apology, and a commitment to procedural reforms. Today, Breck’s parents work closely with law enforcement to improve training and raise awareness through the Breck Foundation, aiming to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again.

Lewis Daynes pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court and was sentenced to serve a minimum of twenty-five years in prison. He will be eligible for release when he is forty-four; with half of his life still ahead of him, a luxury never afforded to Breck Bednar.

The movie portrays Abagnale as a master conman who impersonated an airline pilot to travel millions of miles for free. He also supposedly impersonated a doctor and a lawyer, among others. When he was finally caught and sent to federal prison, he was released early to work with the FBI to catch white-collar criminals.

However, the film fails to show the biggest con he ever pulled, one that many people remain unaware of. Despite admitting to various crimes, he is less willing to concede this: the victim of this con was all of us. Abagnale may have lied about most of his story, including his tenure with the FBI.

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Undoubtedly, some will read this article and think, “This would never happen to me.” To think that would be naive; I have nearly been caught a couple of times myself.

When I was researching this article, I had a chat with the national fraud agency in the UK.

Curiously, identity fraud is not even considered a criminal offence in the UK. With this logic, I questioned what stops me from getting a credit card in someone else’s name.

The answer? The company you use the credit card with could pursue a claim for theft, but the individual whose identity was stolen cannot. Like many things in the UK, the law protects the big companies whilst pushing the everyday working person to the kerb.

Although illegal in the US, it is considered extremely hard to prove. The fact is that every one of us who goes on the internet could be a victim of identity fraud or an online scammer. Here are some of the most famous and profitable scammers in history, ordinary people who used their charm to con millions out of others.

William Thompson

One of the world’s original con men was William Thompson. He is actually the person who inspired the term “con man.” Thompson was renowned for stealing watches in New York.

Thompson would use a psychological tactic to gain his bounty. He would approach a stranger and ask: “Have you confidence in me to trust me with your watch until tomorrow?”

The “con” wasn’t the theft itself, but the social pressure he placed on the victim to prove they were a “trusting” person. Clearly, they never got their watch back.

He used various aliases while scamming the New York elite. He was finally caught in 1849, and an article dubbed him a “confidence man,” which was later shortened to the term we use today.

Linda Taylor

Over the course of her life, Linda Taylor was known by many different names while committing welfare fraud on multiple occasions. She didn’t just assume many names; she was known to identify as Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Jewish. This is a classic example of affinity fraud, where a scammer mimics the identity of a specific group to exploit their trust and empathy.

Taylor pretended to have many different jobs, posing as a nurse, a doctor, and a spiritual advisor. For all of these fake identities, she possessed forged identification documents.

So blatant was Taylor that in 1974, she filed a police report claiming she had been robbed of $14,000 in cash, jewellery, and furs. When the police came to investigate, they grew suspicious; they recognised her as someone who had filed a similar false report previously.

Further investigation uncovered multiple welfare cheques made out in different names. They then discovered she was wanted for welfare fraud in Michigan. Taylor fled to Arizona but was caught later. As the story unravelled, she was indicted on charges of fraud, perjury, and bigamy. It was estimated that she had received over $100,000 in fraudulent cheques.

Taylor’s case became a massive piece of American political history. During his 1976 campaign, Ronald Reagan used her story to popularise the term “Welfare Queen.”

While she was a legitimate criminal, her specific case was used to argue for systemic welfare reform. Later, it was discovered she had an even darker side to her personality. Investigative journalist Josh Levin discovered she was linked to the disappearance of a baby and potentially several suspicious deaths, suggesting her con artist persona was just the tip of the iceberg.

Maria Michaela (Wendy Barlow)

The woman known as Maria Michaela (whose real name was Wendy Barlow) was named the UK’s most prolific female fraudster after conning banks out of £13 million. Her method involved submitting offers on houses well over the market value and then defaulting on the mortgages.

She did not work alone; she manipulated a network of surveyors and solicitors to verify her inflated valuations. At the height of her success, she lived in a £1.5 million penthouse in Blackheath and drove a Bentley. She created many false identities to enable her to repeat the scam multiple times until her arrest in January 2012.

Jim Bakker

In 1979, Bakker was investigated by the FCC for misusing funds raised on-air. A large part of his business model involved raising money through shows, claiming the proceeds were being donated to mission trips and people in need. This represents another form of affinity fraud, using shared religious beliefs to lower a victim’s guard.

By 1982, it was revealed that Bakker had told audiences that $350,000 was going overseas to missions, but the money had actually gone to fund Heritage USA. The report found that Bakker used the funds from his shows for personal expenses.

Investigations by the IRS showed that $1.3 million from the ministry expenses had actually been siphoned into personal accounts. Bakker was indicted in 1988 on eight counts of mail fraud, fifteen counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy.

He was found guilty on all twenty-four counts and sentenced to forty-five years in prison.

He actually served only six years, being released in 1994 to become a doomsday prepper. He currently sells “Giant Buckets of Survival Food” on The Jim Bakker Show. He often claims these buckets can last 30 years and are essential for the coming apocalypse.

Ethel McGill

McGill claimed that her dead father, Robert Dennison, was still alive, carrying on claiming his war pension and benefits long after he died in 2004.

At one point, she went as far as asking a friend to lie under a blanket to pretend to be her father. McGill then went on to claim that she had a disability and dementia for two decades. She pocketed roughly £750,000 over three decades.

Eventually, investigators from the Department for Work and Pensions acquired a video of her driving and moving around, despite her claims of dementia and needing a wheelchair. She was jailed in 2019.

Maria Duval

Duval ran a mail-order astrology scheme where she targeted the elderly and sick. The readings were said to be personalised; she even went as far as covering them in coffee stains to make them look authentic, though they were actually printed on.

The company was pumping out thousands of fake letters a week, raking in a profit of $200 million. With each letter costing $40, some victims kept in contact with her for years, spending thousands of pounds to seek her advice.

Duval, the face of the scam, had appeared on television as a psychic. Her son later stated he believed she agreed to front the scam because she wanted to become rich and famous, but she got in too deep.

The US Postal Service called it the largest consumer fraud they had ever handled. Duval’s home in France was searched in 2018, but she was not arrested. However, several associates with links to the scheme were charged with mail fraud.

Many Famous Cases

These are some scammers you may not have heard of. There are several, however, that are household names. Jordan Belfort, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, manipulated stocks for Stratton Oakmont; it was estimated that his actions cost investors over $220 million.

Bernie Madoff, who pulled off one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history, was estimated to have robbed his clients of $64.8 billion before he confessed.

The common thread in almost all these cases is affinity fraud—the act of targeting people who share a similar background, religion, or age group. Whether it’s Bakker using faith or Duval using the vulnerability of the elderly, these scammers succeed by turning a victim’s own empathy or hope against them.

These scammers prove that there are many people who prefer to earn a living by lying to others. Whether it is defrauding the government or taking money from innocent people under false pretences, scammers are always around to make a quick buck.

Be sure to check out our deep-dive article on Monday, when we look at one of the most famous scammers known: Frank Abagnale. You think you know his story, but you might not.

Until next Wednesday: Stay safe, stay curious.

On Wednesday we looked at The Cobra Effect and whether this is a term adopted into popular culture or was it actually true. Today we will look at the historical concept of the snake problem in India which could support the theory of a massive, systemic struggle between the population and the environment.

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Politicians are notorious for implementing poorly conceived decisions that inadvertently trigger more problems than they solve. This phenomenon has repeated itself throughout history, serving as a cautionary tale that remains strikingly relevant today.

The technical term for such a blunder is a perverse incentive scheme. Its most famous illustration is “The Cobra Effect,” a story set during the British Raj. Whether the tale is historical fact or clever folklore, I will let you decide.

A Slippery Problem

Venomous snakes, none more formidable than the cobra, posed a genuine threat in colonial India. Of course, the snakes were merely existing in their natural habitat; yet, whenever one slithered down a public street, it inevitably sparked panic.

At one point in history, cobras reportedly outnumbered the citizens of Delhi. Determined to reclaim the streets from these reptilian residents, the authorities devised what they believed to be a cunning solution.

A Moment of Genius

The British government instituted a bounty on dead cobras, offering a cash reward to anyone who could produce a carcass or a head as proof of the kill. It seemed like a foolproof plan. What could possibly go wrong?

Sensing a lucrative opportunity, the local population pivoted from hunting to entrepreneurship. Rather than risking their lives tracking wild cobras through dangerous crevices, they began breeding the snakes in captivity. They bred them in vast numbers, and the authorities, oblivious to the scheme, continued to pay out the bounties.

This was far more efficient than traditional hunting. Everyone was satisfied with the arrangement—except, perhaps, the snakes.

The Situation Unravels

Eventually, the authorities grew suspicious of the endless supply of dead cobras. Realising they had been outmanoeuvred, an official issued a memorandum declaring that the bounty was “not in the spirit of fair play.” Consequently, the cash rewards were abolished immediately.

The money vanished overnight.

Incensed by the sudden loss of income, the breeders took the only logical course of action: they released their now-worthless cobras into the wild. The snakes flooded the streets. If Delhi had a cobra problem before, it was nothing compared to the infestation that followed.

Understanding the Cobra Effect

Today, the “Cobra Effect” is a staple concept in psychology and business. It describes the undesirable and unintentional consequences that occur when an incentive is poorly designed. It serves as a vital lesson: if you over-incentivise a solution without considering the human response, you may achieve the exact opposite of your goal.

Curiously, many historians point out a total lack of primary evidence for this specific event. Official records do not support the Delhi story, though sceptics argue that British authorities may have buried evidence of such an embarrassing failure. If the story is a myth, where did the term originate? What do you think?

Be sure to check out our deep-dive article, where we examine the historical concept of The Cobra Effect and the evidence that it might have happened.

Until next time: Stay safe, stay curious.

A bitter winter chill gripped London on the day Victorian skaters flocked to the ice. The lake sat in the heart of Regent’s Park, a fashionable destination where the gentry gathered for an afternoon of exercise. However, disaster struck on 15th January 1867. The ice suddenly gave way, plunging hundreds of people into twelve feet of lethal, icy water.

Heavy traditional dress and a lack of immediate rescue equipment hindered the victims, turning the incident into one of the most haunting weather-related tragedies in London’s history. Remarkably, this was not the first warning sign. Just the day before, twenty-one people had fallen through the ice similarly. Despite the narrow escape of the previous day, the frozen surface remained crowded.

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At the moment, where I live, we have an unprecedented number of meningitis cases. It is all anyone talks about. The anxiety hangs heavy in the air, making it easy to imagine what it must have been like 360 years ago when you walked past a door and saw that jagged red cross slashed across it.

The Great Plague of 1665 remains the most devastating outbreak of disease in London’s history - only the Black Death in 1348 rivals it for its death toll. While official reports say the plague claimed 68,596 lives, historians believe the true toll likely exceeded 100,000, roughly 15% of London’s population. This catastrophe reshaped the social, economic, and political landscape of 17th-century Britain, leaving a scar on the city that would never fully fade.

What is the Plague?

The Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. In 1665, it manifested in three terrifying forms, each more dangerous than the last. The most common was the Bubonic Plague, which forced painful, walnut-sized swellings (buboes) to sprout in the lymph nodes of the neck, armpit, and groin. Victims endured splitting headaches, violent vomiting, and high fevers, with those who contracted it facing a 30% chance of dying within two weeks.

Even more terrifying was the Pneumonic Plague, a lethal airborne version that attacked the lungs and spread through the wet spray of coughing and sneezing, causing the contagion rate to skyrocket.

Finally, the Septicaemic Plague represented the rarest and deadliest form; this occurred when bacteria invaded the bloodstream directly, leaving almost no hope of survival. Despite the clinical reality we know today, 17th-century Londoners remained trapped in a world where the biological cause was entirely unknown.

Rats and Rumours

Panic sparked a wave of desperate theories regarding the cause of the pestilence. To ward off the “miasma” or bad air, Londoners stuffed their pockets with pungent herbs, wore necklaces of dried toads, and applied strange poultices to their skin. In the narrow, darkened streets, the air thick with the smell of vinegar and woodsmoke, the infected would hug birds, apply leeches, or even swallow poison in a frantic attempt to find a cure.

We now know that black rats drove the outbreak, carrying fleas that harboured the bacteria. The filth of London’s slums lured these rats by the thousands, especially in the poorer areas, creating a reservoir for the disease to simmer before boiling over into the rest of the city.

A Timeline of Terror

Much of what we know about the plague, and how it took London in its grip, comes from the diary of a Navy official, Samuel Pepys. While Pepys wrote to process his own feelings, much like many of us do today, he inadvertently produced one of the greatest historical records of the era. The disease broke out in the spring of 1665 in St Giles-in-the-Fields, a parish just outside the city walls. By April, the scratch of Pepys’s pen recorded his growing dread as he observed houses being shut up and marked for death.

The summer of 1665 arrived as one of the hottest on record. As the heat intensified, so did the mortality rate, with four hundred and seventy deaths per week recorded in June. That number exploded to two thousand a week in July, yet the worst was still to come. In a single week in September, the epidemic claimed 7,165 lives, turning the city into a silent graveyard.

A Disease of Class

The plague did not strike everyone equally; wealth dictated who lived and who died. Those with the means to flee abandoned the city, including King Charles II and Sir Isaac Newton. While Newton sheltered at Woolsthorpe Manor, he famously watched an apple fall, an event that sparked his theory of gravity.

As the elite fled, the infrastructure of the city crumbled. Parliament postponed its sessions and retreated to Oxford, while lawyers, merchants, and the nobility soon followed. Even the medical profession fractured; out of seventy-nine doctors within the city, only three remained to care for the poor.

Meanwhile, those in the slums found themselves trapped. The poor were beaten back from the countryside if they tried to escape, dying in their thousands with no way out. For the impoverished, there was no escape from the encroaching shadow.

Life Under Lock and Key

If one family member fell ill, authorities nailed the entire household shut for forty days and painted a red cross on the door. This silent death sentence often forced the healthy to wait in the dark until they caught the disease from the sick. A watchman stood guard outside to prevent escape, but while his role was to provide food, many watchmen fell ill themselves, leaving the families inside to face the slow agony of starvation.

Through the night, the heavy wheels of the “dead carts” rattled over the cobblestones as the cry of “bring out your dead” echoed through the streets. Rotting corpses were loaded up for mass graves, and because so many doctors had fled, “searchers” were hired to identify the bodies.

The sheer volume of the dead was so overwhelming that many historians today still question the accuracy of the official records. The plague eventually strangled the British economy; trade ceased entirely and London was closed for business. As the watermen and domestic servants lost their livelihoods, those who didn’t die in agony were left to starve.

The End of the Epidemic

Contrary to popular myth, the Great Fire of London did not end the plague. By the winter of 1665, the arrival of colder weather naturally began to slow the disease. Natural herd immunity also took hold as survivors developed a stronger resistance.

Interestingly, it wasn’t just humans who adapted; black rats began to live with the disease rather than dying from it, meaning fewer fleas jumped to human hosts. Additionally, the shuttering of the ports provided an effective, if brutal, quarantine against new waves of infection.

By February 1666, London began the long road to recovery, though the plague lingered in surrounding areas like Deptford and Colchester. After 1666, Britain never saw another outbreak on this scale, but the memory of the red cross would haunt the national psyche for centuries.

Be sure to check out our deep-dive article on Monday. We will look at another incident that claimed the lives of Londoners, but this one did not respect class or wealth.

There are plenty of people who have been accused of hiring a hitman to remove someone from their lives; some have even been convicted of the crime as shown in Monday’s article.

However, when Tan Youhui hired a hitman, he thought he had found the right man for the job. What he didn’t realise was that the world of sub-contracting was alive and well in the hitman industry. The man he hired, hired another and the story only got stranger from there. This is one of those cases where the truth is truly far stranger than fiction.

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Neighbours often saw Gary Johnson as a quiet, polite psychology professor who lived with two cats. However, those who met him in the shadows had no idea that to others he was also known as Mike Caine, Jody Eagle, or Chris Buck. He was an undercover hitman who never actually killed.

Johnson was a fake contract killer in Harris County, Texas; his story has been adapted into the new Netflix movie Hit Man.

While the film Hit Man portrays Johnson, who died in 2022, as a master of eccentric, theatrical disguises, the reality was more subtle. He was a no-nonsense investigator for the District Attorney’s office who used his psychological charm and shapeshifting personality to help authorities in Houston make dozens of arrests related to murder solicitation.

Early Life

Johnson was born in 1947 in rural Louisiana. He grew up on a farm with his father, who was a carpenter, and his mother, a housewife.

His quiet upbringing was interrupted when the Vietnam War hit America; Johnson spent a year as a military policeman overseeing convoys. Once he returned to the United States, Johnson embarked on a career in domestic law enforcement, starting as a sheriff’s deputy in Louisiana in the 1970s. In this role, he began honing his craft during undercover drug busts.

By 1981, he had moved to Houston to pursue his true passion: teaching college psychology. Though he was rejected from the local university’s doctoral program, his deep understanding of human behaviour would soon become his greatest professional asset.

Hitman for Hire

Following this academic setback, he took a job as an investigator for the district attorney’s office. His time there started uneventfully, but in 1989 the department tasked Johnson with a case that would change his life.

Police had received a tip that Kathy Scott, a 37-year-old lab technician, was plotting to have her husband of four months killed. Johnson’s mission was to extract a confession. She offered him a down payment to kill her husband, and that evidence secured her a sentence of eighty years.

It was the first of many cases where Johnson’s psychological insights allowed him to “read” exactly what a client wanted to see. He became the most sought-after professional killer in Houston, and his undercover work eventually led to more than sixty arrests.

Justice

Whenever the police learned through an informant that someone wanted to hire a hitman, they enlisted Johnson. It was then a simple matter of the informant introducing Johnson as a contract killer. Johnson would meet the customers wearing a wire. Once the person had explicitly stated their intention and paid him for the job, the police would arrest them.

According to Texas Monthly, Johnson received case tips via a black telephone inside his home. The vast majority of requests he investigated weren’t from experienced criminals. “My people have spent their lives living within the law. A lot of them have never even gotten a traffic ticket,” Johnson explained. “Yet they have developed such a frustration with their place in the world that they think they have no other option but to eliminate whomever is causing their frustration. They are all looking for the quick fix, which has become the American way.”

His job was not limited to undercover work; he would return to the district attorney’s office to work with recording equipment and prepare the trial evidence. He was described as the perfect chameleon, a truly great performer who understood the dark corners of the human mind.

Gary Johnson

When he was not on a case, Johnson retreated to a life of gardening and meditation. He kept goldfish and cared for his cats. He also never lost his ambition to be a teacher, serving as a human sexuality and general psychology professor two nights per week at a nearby college.

“It’s still amazing to me that he can turn on this other personality that makes people think he is a vicious killer,” Johnson’s second wife, Sunny, told Texas Monthly.

Johnson admitted that the job provided him with a rather depressing outlook on humanity, which made it difficult to sustain personal relationships. He was married and divorced three times. “I think it would be fair to say that I don’t let many people get too close,” he said.

It is clear to anyone who knew Johnson, though, that he was one of the most talented actors that Hollywood never hired.

Be sure to check out our additional hitman article on Monday, where a case of subcontracting went very wrong.

Until next Wednesday: Stay safe, stay curious.

Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, later the Marquise de Pompadour, was far more than a mere footnote in the romantic history of King Louis XV. Born into a family marred by financial scandal and raised under a fortune-teller’s prophecy that she would one day “win the heart of a King,” her ascent was a masterclass in calculated ambition and rigorous preparation.

Educated by the finest tutors in the arts, philosophy, and performance, she entered the French court not just as a beauty, but as a woman of intellect and charm. Her entry into Versailles in 1745 sparked a 20-year reign of influence that redefined the role of a royal mistress. While her physical relationship with Louis XV was relatively brief, her position as his most trusted advisor endured until she died in 1764.

While she is often remembered for her patronage of the arts and her legendary salons, it was her transition from the King’s lover to his “Prime Minister” in all but name that remains her most significant legacy.

The Political Genius of Madame de Pompadour

By 1750, the physical relationship between Pompadour and Louis XV had ended due to her failing health. In any other era, this would have signalled her exile from Versailles; instead, Pompadour pulled off a feat of political survival unparalleled in French history. She made herself indispensable as a statesman and advisor to the King.

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Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson was better known in history as the Marquise de Pompadour. She remains one of the most polarising and fascinating figures ever to grace the halls of Versailles. While the palace is now a museum for the modern masses, in the 18th century, it was a high-stakes arena of power and prestige.

Madame de Pompadour seemingly had it all: elegance, intelligence, and a refined beauty. Yet, she was a woman of complex layers. Ambitious and occasionally vindictive, she was nonetheless capable of profound kindness. She remained blindly devoted to her King, yet was astute enough to navigate the treacherous waters of French politics for two decades, a subject we will study further on Monday.

A Prophecy in the Making

Born on December 29, 1721, in Paris, scandal and serendipity marked Jeanne-Antoinette’s early life. Her father, François Poisson, fled the country in 1725 to escape execution for unpaid debts.

In his absence, the local fermier général (tax collector), Charles François Paul Le Normant de Tournehem, became the legal guardian of Jeanne-Antoinette and her brother, Abel-François. The arrangement was so close that many whispered de Tournehem was their biological father.

Precocious and beautiful, Jeanne-Antoinette was initially educated at the Ursuline convent in Poissy. However, her mother, Madeleine, eventually brought her home to personally oversee a specialised curriculum.

When Jeanne-Antoinette was just nine years old, her mother took her to a fortune-teller named Madame Lebon. The mystic famously predicted the girl would one day become “a morsel for a king.”

Madeleine took the prophecy to heart and spared no expense. Tutors were hired to teach her to paint, engrave, dance, and play the clavichord. She even memorised entire plays under the tutelage of renowned actors, an education specifically designed for a royal mistress-to-be.

Marriage and the Rise to Celebrity

At 19, Jeanne-Antoinette entered a marriage of convenience with de Tournehem’s nephew, Charles-Guillaume Le Normant d’Étiolles. It was a union of status. As a wedding gift, they received the estate of Étiolles, perfectly situated on the edge of the Royal Hunting Ground in the forest of Sénart.

While the marriage produced two children—a son who died in infancy and a daughter, Alexandrine, who tragically succumbed to peritonitis at age ten, it also provided the platform Jeanne-Antoinette needed.

As Madame d’Étiolles, she became a staple of fashionable Parisian circles. She founded her own salon, attracting the greatest minds of the Enlightenment, including her close friend Voltaire. As her celebrity grew, rumours of this brilliant woman reached the ears of King Louis XV.

The King

Louis XV was a man of sexual voracity and unflattering melancholy who had succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five. By 1745, he was mourning his third official mistress.

On the night of February 25, 1745, during a masked ball at Versailles, he finally met the woman who would change his life: Jeanne-Antoinette. The ballroom was a sensory overload of heavy perfumes, beeswax candles, and the constant rustle of silk.

By March, she was his official mistress, installed in an apartment directly above his and connected by a secret staircase. By June, Louis purchased the Marquisate of Pompadour for her, elevating the commoner to a Marquise. Though her mother died that spring, never seeing the prophecy fully realised, Jeanne-Antoinette was formally introduced to the court on September 14, 1745.

She wasn’t just a pretty face. While she possessed a lovely complexion and elegant manners, it was her bright way of conversation that made her popular. She provided Louis with the confidence he lacked and created a delightful, curated life for him within the stifling atmosphere of the palace. She was even smart enough to build a relationship with his wife, who would speak favourably of the other woman.

Power Beyond the Bedroom

The physical romance was relatively short-lived. Due to fragile health and the strain of two miscarriages (in 1746 and 1749), their sexual relationship ended by 1751, when she was 30.

Remarkably, this did not diminish her power. If anything, the decade after they ceased to be lovers was the period of her greatest influence. She transitioned from lover to indispensable advisor. She coordinated everything from the King’s romantic interests to high-level foreign policy, most notably playing a key role in the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, which aligned France with Austria. For nearly 20 years, she was the most powerful woman in France.

As well as political power, she became a cultural catalyst in Paris, turning the city into a place of taste and perfect architecture. She encouraged painters, writers, and thinkers such as Voltaire to make the city their home.

The Final Journey

In the winter of 1764, the Marquise contracted tuberculosis. She died on April 15 at the age of 42.

As her coffin was removed from Versailles in the pouring rain, a devastated Louis XV is said to have remarked:“La marquise n’aura pas de beau temps pour son voyage” (The marquise won’t have good weather for her journey).

Even her old friend Voltaire mourned her deeply, noting the absurdity of a beautiful woman, in the midst of a splendid career, dying while “ancient pen-pushers” lived on.

She was laid to rest at the Couvent des Capucines in Paris, leaving behind a legacy as a woman who was much more than a mistress; she was the heart of the French Enlightenment.

Be sure to check out our deep dive article on Monday, where we look at the political career of this amazing woman.

Until next Wednesday: Stay safe, stay curious.

In 2006, a documentary film by Eric Steel spanned one year of filming at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The documentary filmed every part of the bridge, from the people who crossed it to several suicides that occurred there.

The documentary did not stop there, however; it then interviewed the families of these victims and identified the people who had taken their own lives. This led many to question the ethics of the film and whether the filmmakers had a right to capture the last desperate moments of these people’s lives.

The Golden Gate Bridge

The bridge first opened in May 1937 and holds the title of the most popular suicide site in the world. The fall sends people plunging 245 feet at 75 miles per hour into the waters of the bay. It is the equivalent of a speeding truck hitting a concrete building. The fatality rate for jumpers is 98%.

For the rare 2% who survive the impact, their accounts are harrowing. Survivors, such as Kevin Hines, have famously noted that the second their hands left the railing, they felt an immediate and total sense of regret.

Despite this notoriety, little was done for decades to prevent jumpers. While most bridges of this size are fitted with suicide barriers, these were not fully added to the bridge until 2018.

Program Idea

Steel developed the idea after reading an article in The New Yorker about some of the 1,300 people who had thrown themselves from the bridge since it opened in 1937. He said he tried to imagine their last moments; he thought of the bodies he had watched falling from the World Trade Centre towers on 11th September 2001.

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It was meant to be a lighthearted talk show segment about secret crushes when Jenny Jones revealed that Scott Amedure had a secret crush on a friend Jonathan Schmitz.

It was a show they had done multiple times before, and Jenny Jones had commented that she thought it was good for her show to include her gay fans. However, this time it was not the roaring success of other shows; it ended in tragedy when Schmitz shot Scott three days after the recording, saying he felt humiliated in public.

Before the show, both men led quiet everyday lives. So, how did a talk show turn one man into a killer?

Scott Amedure

Scott Bernard Amedure was born on 26th January 1963 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the youngest of six children, born to Frank Amedure and Patricia Graves. The family moved to Michigan shortly after Scott was born and divorced shortly after.

At seventeen, Scott dropped out of high school to join the army. He served in the Air Force for four years before returning to Michigan. He came out to his family whilst he was in the army; his family supported him. At this point in his life, he was a proud gay man and worked in the telecommunications industry for several years before becoming a bartender at Club Flamingo, a gay club in Pontiac, Michigan.

He was said to be well-liked in the bar and enjoyed the social life that went with it. His other great loves were talk shows, the more ridiculous the better, so he jumped at the chance of appearing on The Jenny Jones Show.

The Jenny Jones Show

On 6th March 1995, Scott was thirty-two and appeared on The Jenny Jones Show. The show was a staple of 1990s daytime talk shows.

It was known for its high-energy mix of lighthearted makeovers, paternity tests, and ‘out-of-control’ teen interventions. For British readers, think Jeremy Kyle.

Schmitz did not go into the show blindly. He agreed to appear on the show after being told a secret admirer would be revealed and that this admirer could be male or female. Schmitz identified as heterosexual and producers were aware of this.

Scott admitted his feelings for Schmitz, who had been an acquaintance for a while and lived close to him. Once the story was told and the pair came together, there was an awkward hug. Schmitz was clearly shocked, and we can presume there was little after-show support from what occurred next.

Murder

A friend reports that after the show the two men went out drinking and that an alleged sexual encounter occurred. Three days later, Scott left a suggestive note on Schmitz’s door. Schmitz bought a shotgun.

He travelled to Scott’s house, which was in suburban Detroit. He asked him if he had left the note at his house. When Scott smirked, he returned to his car, picked up the gun, and shot Scott twice in the chest.

He then drove to a nearby gas station and called 911, confessing to the killing and telling police he had been embarrassed by the public revelation. He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Trial and Lawsuits

In 1995, Scott’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the show and its partners, including Warner Bros. In a landmark 1999 decision, a jury found the show’s producers negligent and awarded the Amedure family $25 million.

However, this was not the final word. In 2002, the Michigan Court of Appeals overturned the verdict, ruling that while the show’s conduct may have been in ‘bad taste,’ the producers were not legally responsible for the homicidal acts of a guest.

Schmitz had previously been diagnosed with manic depression. During the trial, his defence team cited mental health issues and involved the ‘gay panic’ defence. It was a controversial strategy that attempted to justify violence by framing a same-sex advance as a provocation.

While used in 1995, this legal strategy has since been widely condemned. As of 2026, the ‘gay and trans panic’ defence has been banned in over 20 US states, including Michigan, which passed legislation to prohibit its use in 2024.

In the criminal courts, Schmitz was sentenced to between twenty-five and fifty years in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder in 1996. That conviction was overturned on appeal in 1999 due to a jury selection error, but he was found guilty again at a retrial later that year. He served twenty-two years, being released in 2017.

The episode featuring Scott was never aired, but it has been viewed as it was used as evidence in court. Jenny Jones also testified during the trial, saying she had little input into the ambush.

On Schmitz’s release, Scott’s brother stated that it was hard to see his brother’s killer released, especially as he had so much of his life ahead of him. He did, however, state:

But there’s a side of, at least me and maybe some of my family members, that we do feel he was victimized in all of this, and so we can empathize with all of that.

Show Ethics

This event sparked intense national debate over the ethics of ‘ambush television’ and forever changed the legacy of the program, casting a long shadow over its remaining years on the air until its cancellation in 2003. However, Jones and her producers defended the show, saying it was a light-hearted episode and they had never had this problem before with similar episodes.

The event, however, did not change other shows that worked on this format for entertainment. The Jeremy Kyle Show, mentioned earlier, was cancelled in May 2019 after the death of guest Steve Dymond. He committed suicide shortly after failing a lie-detector test on the show.

How responsible was The Jenny Jones Show? Writing for The Buffalo News, attorney Alan Dershowitz said he believed that Jones and her producers were more than just negligent in their behaviour.

Jenny Jones should not take any solace from the legal conclusion that her show’s conduct does not excuse Schmitz’s conduct. The First Amendment protects the show from any legal consequences, but it does not immunize them from the criticism, which they justly deserve, for their irresponsible actions.

Jones has rarely spoken about the incident throughout the years. However, she did have one thing to say in 1999, saying that the only person ultimately to blame was Jonathan Schmitz. Do you agree?

Be sure to check out our deep dive article on Monday, when we look at how one network made a program out of suicide.

Until next Wednesday: Stay safe, stay curious.

Nikolaus (Miklós) Grüner survived Nazi death camps; he credits his friend Lázár Wiesel with helping him through this survival. We can only imagine the feelings he had when, in 1986, he was invited by a Swedish newspaper to meet with this old friend.

However, the reunion he had anticipated went far differently than he could ever have imagined. The man facing him, claiming to be his friend, was not the same person he had spent all those horrendous years with. Miklós claimed he had never seen the man before.

He asked the man to show him his tattoo, but he refused, and the short meeting ended. The man Miklós was facing was the Nobel Prize winner, Elie Wiesel. Miklós claimed Elie had stolen the identity of his friend in order to write a bestselling book.

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Philippe Sands’ The Ratlines profoundly influenced my research. His narrative centres on Otto von Wächter, a high-ranking SS Governor who fled to South America to escape prosecution.

Before reading th…

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WT Stead was not the only famous person who perished on the Titanic. When the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic slipped beneath the Atlantic, it took more than just a ship to the bottom; it claimed some of the most powerful minds and fortunes of the 20th century.

However, there were not as many as one might expect; this was largely due to the significantly higher survival rate of first-class passengers compared to those in third class. Most of the well-known individuals on board held first-class tickets.

Of the 324 first-class passengers, 201 survived. In stark contrast, just 181 out of 708 third-class passengers made it to safety. This disparity highlights the era’s rigid class divide, a reality made even more tragic by the fact that several lifeboats were lowered while only half-full.

Here are eleven first-class passengers who were among the 123 from their deck who perished on that fateful night of 15th April 1912.

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W.T. Stead was the first person to understand that the media could be used as a weapon, a concept that now dominates all aspects of our lives. He frequently used the platform he had built to attack p…

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