The Backstory with Patty Steele

Serial killers use all sorts of techniques to carry out their deranged fantasies. Robert Hansen, who owned a bakeshop in Anchorage, Alaska, was also a methodical hunter of women. He’d kidnap them, fly them in his small plane into the Alaskan wilderness, where he’d release them and then hunt them down.

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Imagine endless money and the life it offers you. But then . . imagine the downside. Countess Almina Rothschild was the wife of the Earl of Carnarvon. Marrying her gave him millions . . but that money made him a victim of the curse of King Tut’s tomb.

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Violence in the world of politics seems to be getting worse as time goes by… including the recent assassination of a right-wing political influencer. But taking a look back, violence stemming from differences in political ideology is nothing new.

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It’s 1836 and 8 year old Cynthia Ann Parker is kidnapped by Comanche warriors in Texas. But as time goes by she has so totally assimilated into the tribal life, that she has no interest in returning home. Then after 24 years . . she’s kidnapped again!

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These days a lot of folks complain that sports has become simply a money game. But that trend actually began over a century ago with the wild antics and baseball genius of Babe Ruth.

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Dogs give us puppy eyes . . cats grace us with their presence. But we love them both . . or at least a lot of us do. But why are the two most popular pets so very different? It all boils down to genetics and history.

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Hard to imagine but fad diets go back as much as 5000 years. It was took the Victorians to make it a massive business. These days we all want the new and very expensive weight loss injections, but they used everything from arsenic, to tapeworms, to rubber underwear to get that svelte shape.

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A 15 year old kid walks into the woods to ask some questions about the meaning of life. Nothing unusual there. However, this kid, Joseph Smith, walks out of the woods and starts a movement in the 1820s that leads to spiritual enlightenment for millions... but to violence, murder, and what some consider sexual deviance for others.

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Imagine being swept up in a flood of sticky molasses headed to a distillery… or a 25-foot tsunami of beer… or a torrent of hundreds of thousands of gallons of red hot. All true… and deadly stories.

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Imagine forcing your daughter into a loveless marriage to an English duke. Why? Because you want a divorce, money from the divorce, and the ability to hang on to your social standing. That was life among the rich in the Gilded Age and Alva Vanderbilt figured out a way to get what she wanted with her daughter as the pawn.

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Hollywood is a tough business. Stars take roles in movies they come to hate . . but equally as frustrating are the roles they take a pass on . . that make somebody else rich and famous. This is all about stars who turned down roles in movies like Titanic, Forrest Gump, The Godfather, Silence of the Lambs, and more.

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Marilyn Monroe . . Dead at 36 . . Allegedly by Suicide. But Was That Really the Case? Coroner to the Stars, Thomas Noguchi Did Her Autopsy . . And He Says It Left Him With More Questions Than Answers.

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The father of U.S. space exploration, Wernher von Braun, started out as a Nazi collaborator and a member of the Nazi SS. Why did the U.S. ignore his Nazi involvement and how do we reconcile his remarkable achievements with his dark past?

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This summer is the 40th anniversary of the blockbuster "Back to the Future". But it originally starred an actor who hated the whole story line! He was replaced by Michael J. Fox . . and the rest is history. But there are a boatload of movies, with huge stars who hated the final product!

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The Idaho killer was sentenced this week to life in prison for stabbing to death 4 college students. But 60 years ago, another mass murderer stabbed and strangled 8 nursing students in Chicago. As in the Idaho case, he made one crucial mistake that got him caught.

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