COUNCIL BLOG - RACHEL DEMICCO

In today’s day and age, we mourn the dead very differently, but the Victorian era’s expressive and intimate rituals remind us of a time when grief was worn on the sleeve and sometimes woven into a ring.

COUNCIL BLOG - RACHEL DEMICCO

The United States has a dark history of crime and has produced some of the most notorious names. However, none are quite as horrifying as Herman Webster Mudgett, otherwise known as H.H. Holmes. Holmes is often mentioned as being America’s first serial killer. Holmes was a lifelong criminal, con-artist, doctor, and a stone-cold murderer whose brutal killings culminated in his heinous “Murder Castle”- a labyrinth hotel erected for death.

In the midst of the Bohemian days of New York, 1912, a small group of prominent women began gathering in “secret” at Polly’s, a restaurant owned by anarchist Polly Holladay out of the basement of a townhome in Greenwich Village. This group would eventually become one of the precursors for modern feminism, a secret society called Heterodoxy.

LEARY, GEORGIA - JANUARY 6, 1969 - 7:15 PM ET

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. was preparing to speak at the local Lions Club meeting. While standing outside with several of the attendees, one of them suddenly pointed to the sky. It was just past dark- stars were visible but neither the sun nor the moon could be seen. Carter's gaze followed the man's finger- to the West, about thirty degrees above the horizon, he saw a bright white object.