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San Joaquin Valley and Stockton, California; Houston, Texas; Kennedy Space Center, Florida1960s–2009
José Hernández grew up in a migrant farmworker family and pursued electrical engineering before joining NASA. After years of applications, he was selected for astronaut training in 2004 and flew aboard Discovery’s STS-128 mission in 2009. His memoir and A Million Miles Away explore the family support and persistence behind that journey.
New York, New York; Washington, D.C.1963
Bayard Rustin coordinated the logistics of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, drawing on years of nonviolent organizing. Racism and hostility toward his sexuality often pushed his work out of public view. The biography Lost Prophet and the film Rustin explore the man behind one of the civil rights movement’s defining events.
Los Angeles and Kern County, California1963
Los Angeles officers Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger were abducted during a traffic stop in March 1963 and driven to a rural field. Campbell was killed; Hettinger escaped. Joseph Wambaugh’s nonfiction book examines the crime, the prosecutions and the lasting effects on the surviving officer.
Jackson, Mississippi1963–1994
Civil rights organizer Medgar Evers was shot outside his Jackson home in June 1963. Two early trials failed to produce a verdict, but renewed investigation and his family’s persistence brought Byron De La Beckwith’s murder conviction in 1994. Ghosts of Mississippi follows the case across those three decades.
Doswell, Virginia; Louisville, Kentucky; Baltimore, Maryland; Elmont, New York1968–1973
Penny Chenery took over the family’s Meadow Stable as her father’s health declined. In 1973, Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes, becoming the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years. The film Secretariat dramatizes Chenery’s role, while racing-history sources document the horse’s performances.
Read & Watch- SecretariatDramatized film · Disney · 2010 · directed by Randall Wallace
California and New York1971–1979
Rodney Alcala appeared on The Dating Game in 1978 while committing crimes against women and girls. He was ultimately convicted of five California murders and pleaded guilty to two New York murders. Woman of the Hour dramatizes encounters around the television appearance; its invented scenes should be read separately from the documented cases.
Attica, New York1971
Prisoners at Attica took hostages during a September 1971 uprising over prison conditions. The state’s armed retaking killed prisoners and hostages and was followed by decades of disputes over accountability and compensation. Heather Ann Thompson’s Blood in the Water investigates the uprising and the experiences of survivors and families.
Berkeley, San Francisco and Los Angeles, California1974–1976
Nineteen-year-old Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974 and later appeared in its bank-robbery surveillance footage. Her prosecution examined her participation alongside her account of coercion and abuse. She was convicted, then received a sentence commutation and later a presidential pardon; American Heiress revisits the events and their political setting.
Wheaton, Maryland; Bedford County, Virginia1975–2017
Sisters Katherine and Sheila Lyon disappeared after visiting Wheaton Plaza in Maryland in March 1975. A renewed investigation decades later led to Lloyd Lee Welch’s guilty pleas to their murders in 2017. Mark Bowden’s The Last Stone follows the cold-case detectives and the difficult work of testing Welch’s accounts.
Lake Placid, New York1980
Herb Brooks coached the U.S. men’s hockey team to a 4–3 victory over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. The Americans then defeated Finland 4–2 to secure the gold medal. Miracle dramatizes the team’s preparation, and the 2026 documentary Miracle: The Boys of ’80 adds archival footage and players’ recollections.
Read & Watch- MiracleDramatized film · Disney · 2004 · directed by Gavin O’Connor
- Miracle: The Boys of ’80TV / documentary · Netflix · 2026 · directed by Max Gershberg and Jacob Rogal
Chicago area, Illinois1982–2026
Seven people in the Chicago area died after taking cyanide-laced Tylenol in 1982. The killings brought a vast investigation and changes to product-tampering law, but no murder conviction. Netflix’s Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders revisits the evidence; September 2026 reporting describes a possible Idaho connection that authorities had not established as a solution.
Stony Brook, New York; Cambridge, Massachusetts1990–2000
Brooke Ellison was paralyzed after being struck by a car in 1990 at age eleven. With her mother Jean’s support, she continued her education and graduated from Harvard in 2000. Their jointly written memoir describes daily life, family care and access to education; Christopher Reeve later directed its television adaptation.
Bronx and Manhattan, New York; Cambridge, Massachusetts1990s–2009
Liz Murray experienced homelessness as a teenager in New York, returned to school and completed high school in two years. A scholarship helped her attend Harvard, where she graduated in 2009. Her memoir Breaking Night and the earlier television film recount her childhood, family relationships and pursuit of education.
Near Waco, Texas1993
A failed federal firearms raid on the Branch Davidian community near Waco in February 1993 began a 51-day standoff. It ended in fire during an FBI operation, with children and adults among the dead. Waco: American Apocalypse and official reviews examine negotiations, tactical decisions and the experiences of those caught inside.
Long Island, New York, USA1993–2026
The discovery of victims near Gilgo Beach exposed killings across Long Island and years of unanswered questions. Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty in April 2026 to seven murders and also admitted killing Karen Vergata. In June, he received life imprisonment without parole plus additional terms. The prosecution does not resolve every death associated with the wider investigation.
Harrison and Fayetteville, Arkansas1994–1999
Brandon Burlsworth joined the University of Arkansas football team as a walk-on in 1994 and developed into an All-American. The Indianapolis Colts selected him in the 1999 draft, but he died in a car crash eleven days later. Greater dramatizes his college years; his family’s foundation documents the community programs that carry his name.
Read & Watch- GreaterDramatized film · Well Go USA · 2016 · directed by David Hunt
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma1995
A truck bomb destroyed much of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people, including 19 children. Investigators traced the attack to Timothy McVeigh and his associates. The American Experience documentary places the crime alongside survivor accounts and the antigovernment extremism that preceded it.
Jefferson County, Colorado1999
Twelve students and teacher Dave Sanders were killed at Columbine High School in April 1999. The attack left survivors and families facing lasting trauma and generated a large public investigative record. Dave Cullen’s Columbine revisits the evidence and challenges several narratives that spread during the first days of coverage.
Read & Watch- ColumbineBook · Dave Cullen · Hachette Book Group
Mesa and Tempe, Arizona2000s–2011
Anthony Robles, who was born without his right leg, began wrestling in high school and became an Arizona state champion. At Arizona State University he went on to win the 2011 NCAA wrestling championship. His memoir Unstoppable and its film adaptation follow his athletic development and the family pressures surrounding it.
Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.2002
Ten people were killed and three others critically wounded in the Washington-area sniper attacks of October 2002. A multiagency investigation led to the arrest of John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo and subsequent prosecutions. The book 23 Days of Terror and the documentary I, Sniper explore the victims’ experiences, the investigation and the relationship between the perpetrators.
Los Angeles, California2005–2009
Los Angeles columnist Steve Lopez met musician Nathaniel Ayers in 2005 while Ayers was living on the streets. Their relationship became the subject of Lopez’s reporting, the book The Soloist and a film adaptation. The story examines music, friendship, mental illness and the limits of one person’s efforts to help another.
Clemson, South Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia2006
While playing football and studying at Clemson, Ray McElrathbey took responsibility for his eleven-year-old brother Fahmarr in 2006 amid difficulties at home. Teammates and the wider community helped him manage school, football and caregiving. Safety dramatizes the brothers’ experience, with Clemson’s historical reporting offering a separate account.
Read & Watch- SafetyDramatized film · Disney · 2020 · directed by Reginald Hudlin
Nickel Mines, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania2006
Five girls were killed and five others wounded when a gunman attacked the West Nickel Mines Amish School in October 2006. Families and neighbors’ response to the loss drew attention to Amish understandings of forgiveness. The nonfiction book Amish Grace examines that response; the similarly titled film is a dramatization with fictionalized characters.
Delphi, Indiana, USA2017–2026
Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13, and Liberty “Libby” German, 14, were killed near Delphi, Indiana, in February 2017. Richard Allen was convicted in November 2024 and sentenced to 130 years. The Indiana Court of Appeals heard his challenge on September 21, 2026, including arguments over the search warrant, custodial statements and excluded evidence.
Salida and Moffat, Colorado, USA2020–2026
Suzanne Morphew disappeared from the Salida area on Mother’s Day in 2020. Her remains were found in Colorado in 2023. Her husband, Barry Morphew, was charged again in 2025 after an earlier prosecution was dismissed. He has pleaded not guilty; September 2026 reporting covers a bond increase while the renewed case proceeds.
Canton, Massachusetts, USA2022–2026
Boston police officer John O’Keefe was found dead outside a Canton home in January 2022. Karen Read’s first trial ended without a verdict in 2024. At her June 2025 retrial, a jury acquitted her of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a fatal incident, and convicted her of drunken driving.
