A precursor to the modern American foster care system, the Orphan Train Movement was designed to give impoverished children in cities a better future. Instead, many ended up in the arms of poorly-vetted families seeking free labor.

He became one of the most decorated pigeons of World War I.

In December 2017, August Ames tweeted about her unwillingness to work with men who appeared in gay adult films. Days later, she would take her own life.

A German serial killer active in the early 20th century, Peter Kürten tortured and killed at least nine people and attempted to kill dozens more, often by stabbing them with a pair of sharpened scissors.

As a teenager, "Lipstick Killer" William Heirens was sentenced to life in prison for a series of grisly murders he'd allegedly committed on Chicago’s North Side — but many believe he was innocent.

In the late 1910s, a mysterious serial killer known as the Axeman of New Orleans terrorized the city, breaking into homes and brutally attacking about a dozen people, often with their own axes.

After being lobotomized in 1941 at 23 years old, Rosemary Kennedy would spend the rest of her life institutionalized and isolated from her family.

From the unexplained explosion that flattened a Russian forest to the horribly botched rehearsal for D-Day, these are some of history's most interesting events.

Colombo family capo Greg Scarpa was so ruthless and deadly that he became known as the "Grim Reaper" — but he also spent 30 years secretly working as an FBI informant.

The heroic Scottish warrior who inspired Braveheart, William Wallace led his people in their rebellion against the English until his torturous death in 1305.

A child-sized doll dressed in a sailor's suit with alleged supernatural powers, Robert the Doll is now kept under lock and key at the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West, Florida.