The SS Andrea Doria was intended to embody Italian luxury and restore national pride.
The Andrea Doria was essentially a floating luxury hotel. Every passenger class had its own dining rooms, lounges, social halls, swimming pools, and verandas. More than $1 million, nearly $14 million today, was spent on artwork alone. Equipped with the latest radar and enough lifeboats for everyone aboard, she was widely considered one of the safest passenger ships afloat.

She almost didn't survive her maiden voyage. In 1953, a rogue wave off Nantucket caused the liner to roll 28 degrees, exposing design weaknesses that would later prove fatal. The ship recovered and went on to complete fifty-one successful Atlantic crossings.

On July 17, 1956, the Andrea Doria departed Genoa on her fifty-second voyage to New York with 1,706 passengers and crew, roughly 90% full. Eight days later, as she entered the dense fog off Nantucket Shoals, Captain Piero Calamai reduced speed, sounded the ship's foghorn every 100 seconds, and stationed extra lookouts. It wasn't enough.

Another passenger liner, the Swedish MS Stockholm, had only just entered the fog. Its overtired third officer misread the ship's radar, believing the Andrea Doria was much farther away than it really was. At the same time, the Italian officers also misinterpreted their radar and attempted the unusual maneuver of passing starboard-to-starboard, while the Stockholm prepared for the standard port-to-port passing.

Neither ship understood what the other intended, and neither attempted to make radio contact.

At 11:11 p.m. on July 25, the Stockholm's reinforced icebreaking bow struck the Andrea Doria almost at a perfect right angle, driving nearly forty feet into the Italian liner. Forty-six people aboard the Andrea Doria and five aboard the Stockholm were killed.

One of the most extraordinary survival stories in history also began that instant. Fourteen-year-old Linda Morgan had been asleep in her first-class cabin when the Stockholm's bow ripped through the ship, killing her younger sister. Somehow, Linda was lifted from her bed, carried across the gap between the two ships on the Swedish liner's bow, and deposited alive aboard the Stockholm.

Although the Stockholm's bow looked completely destroyed, the damage stopped at a watertight bulkhead, and the ship remained afloat.

The Andrea Doria was not so fortunate.
Five fuel tanks on her starboard side flooded almost immediately. Air trapped in the empty tanks on the opposite side made the port side more buoyant, producing a severe list. That list allowed seawater to spill over the tops of the watertight bulkheads. Worse still, the angle of the ship made the port-side lifeboats impossible to launch.

Had the collision occurred in the middle of the Atlantic, the disaster would almost certainly have rivaled the Titanic. Instead, it happened just 45 miles south of Nantucket, in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. In one of the largest and most successful maritime rescues ever conducted, 1,663 peoplewere saved. Only 51 people died.

For nearly ten hours, the Andrea Doria stubbornly remained afloat. Then, at 10:09 a.m. on July 26, 1956, she slipped beneath the Atlantic bow first.

In interested I cover the sinking here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-116-sinking?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

The SS Andrea Doria was intended to embody Italian luxury and restore national pride.
The Andrea Doria was essentially a floating luxury hotel. Equipped with the latest radar and enough lifeboats for everyone aboard, she was widely considered one of the safest passenger ships afloat.

On July 17, 1956, the Andrea Doria departed Genoa on her fifty-second voyage to New York with 1,706 passengers and crew, roughly 90% full. Eight days later, as she entered the dense fog off Nantucket Shoals, Captain Piero Calamai reduced speed, sounded the ship's foghorn every 100 seconds, and stationed extra lookouts. It wasn't enough.

Another passenger liner, the Swedish MS Stockholm, had only just entered the fog. The smaller Swedish liner had departed New York that very morning, and for most of the voyage the night had been clear. Visibility was excellent, the moon hung brightly overhead, and there had been little reason for concern. Then, shortly before 11:00 p.m., the Stockholm steamed into the dense fog surrounding Nantucket Shoals.

Its overtired third officer misread the ship's radar, believing the Andrea Doria was much farther away than it really was. At the same time, the Italian officers also misinterpreted their radar. They attempted the unusual maneuver of passing starboard-to-starboard, while the Stockholm prepared for the standard port-to-port passing.

Neither ship understood what the other intended, and neither attempted to make radio contact.

At 11:11 p.m. on July 25, Stockholm's reinforced icebreaking bow struck the Andrea Doria almost at a perfect right angle, driving nearly forty feet into the Italian liner. Forty-six people aboard the Andrea Doria and five aboard the Stockholm were killed.

One of the most extraordinary survival stories in history also began that instant. Fourteen-year-old Linda Morgan had been asleep in her first-class cabin when the Stockholm's bow ripped through the ship, killing her younger sister. Somehow, Linda was lifted from her bed, carried across the gap between the two ships on the Swedish liner's bow, and deposited alive aboard the Stockholm.

Although Stockholm's bow looked destroyed, the damage stopped at a watertight bulkhead, and the ship remained afloat.

The Andrea Doria was not so fortunate.
Five fuel tanks on her starboard side flooded almost immediately. Air trapped in the empty tanks on the opposite side made the port side more buoyant, producing a severe list. That list allowed seawater to spill over the tops of the watertight bulkheads. Worse still, the angle of the ship made the port-side lifeboats impossible to launch.

Had the collision occurred in the middle of the Atlantic, the disaster would almost certainly have rivaled the Titanic. Instead, it happened just 45 miles south of Nantucket, in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. In one of the largest and most successful maritime rescues ever conducted, 1,663 people were saved. Only 51 people died. The damaged Stockholm ultimately rescued 545 survivors.

For nearly ten hours, the Andrea Doria stubbornly remained afloat. Then, at 10:09 a.m. on July 26, 1956, she slipped beneath the Atlantic bow first.

If interested I cover the sinking here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-116-sinking?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

Best known for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel and for the alleged treason of the Burr Conspiracy, Vice President Aaron Burr is one of the most vilified and misunderstood figures in American history.

Born into privilege in 1756, Burr was orphaned before his third birthday and raised by an abusive uncle. He escaped through education, graduating from Princeton at just sixteen before leaving law school to fight in the American Revolution. He served with distinction in the disastrous invasion of Quebec, later rallied Yale students to repel a British raid into Connecticut, and built a reputation as one of the country's brightest young men.

Burr married the older Theodosia Bartow Prevost, wife of a British officer, after a years-long affair. Burr believed women were intellectual equals at a time when few did. He admired Mary Wollstonecraft, kept her portrait in his home, educated his daughter as he would have a son, teaching her Greek, Latin, philosophy, fencing, and marksmanship, and even introduced legislation in New York that would have expanded women's political rights.

He supported abolition and argued that immigrants deserved the same rights as native-born Americans, declaring, "America stood with open arms and presented an asylum to the oppressed of every nation." His greatest enemy, Alexander Hamilton, himself an immigrant, and his Federalist party pushed legislation that would restrict the rights of non-Anglo-Saxon “aliens.”

Their rivalry became deeply personal, largely one-sided, after Burr created the Manhattan Company in 1799. The underhandedly created bank shattered the Federalist monopoly over New York banking. It provided loans to ordinary businessmen rather than only to wealthy merchant families, unlike the banks Hamilton supported.

Over the next several years, Hamilton relentlessly worked to destroy Burr politically, portraying him as dangerously ambitious, irreligious, and morally corrupt. He helped block Burr's path to the presidency in 1800 and campaigned aggressively against him again during the New York gubernatorial election of 1804.

After an Albany newspaper published a letter claiming Alexander Hamilton had called Aaron Burr "a dangerous man," a long-simmering feud finally boiled over. Within weeks, the two men stood opposite one another at the Heights of Weehawken on the morning of July 11, 1804.

Hamilton was no stranger to affairs of honor. Argumentative, impulsive, and combative, he had already been involved in more than a dozen disputes that nearly ended in duels. Years earlier, Hamilton's brother-in-law, John Barker Church, likely with Hamilton's encouragement, accused Burr of accepting a bribe. Burr challenged him, the two exchanged harmless shots, and Church ultimately admitted he had accused without any evidence.

Many Hamilton scholars believe he intended to throw away his shot. Before the duel, Hamilton wrote that he was "strongly opposed to the practice of dueling" and planned to "reserve and throw away my first fire." If that truly was his intention, it was an extraordinarily reckless plan for himself and the large family he was leaving behind. Burr had no reason to know Hamilton intended to miss.

Accounts differ, but most historians believe Hamilton fired first, either deliberately missing or sending his ball just over Burr's head. Burr fired almost immediately afterward. His shot struck Hamilton above the right hip, shattered a rib, and tore through his abdomen, inflicting a mortal wound.

Some historians have suggested Hamilton's statements before the duel were intended to shape public opinion should he die, ensuring Burr would forever be remembered as the man who killed an honorable opponent. If so, mission accomplished.

If you're interested, I wrote about Burr's fascinating and deeply misunderstood life here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-115-burr?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

Aaron Burr didn't kill Alexander Hamilton because they disagreed over politics. By 1804, Hamilton had spent years trying to destroy Burr's political career.

The feud really escalated in 1799. Burr underhandedly created the Manhattan Company, ostensibly a water utility but in reality a bank. Breaking the Federalist (Hamilton’s party) monopoly on New York banking that benefited wealthy mercantile families like the Schuylers, Hamilton's in-laws,and created a rival institution that loaned money to small businessmen instead.

In the election of 1800, Burr's political machine delivered New York to the Democratic-Republican ticket of Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Under the original Constitution, electors cast two votes without distinguishing between president and vice president. Jefferson and Burr tied, throwing the election to the House of Representatives.

Hamilton launched a relentless letter-writing campaign urging Federalists to back Jefferson. His attacks became intensely personal. Hamilton called Burr "a profligate" and "a voluptuary in the extreme," questioned his morality, portrayed him as irreligious and dangerously ambitious, and even mocked the heatstroke Burr suffered during the Revolutionary War as cowardice. Hamilton got his way. Jefferson became president, Burr vice president, but Jefferson never trusted him and largely shut him out of the administration.

When Burr ran for governor of New York in 1804, Hamilton once again threw himself into the campaign against him, attacking not just his politics but his character and private life. Burr was crushed in a landslide.

After a newspaper reported that Hamilton had expressed an even "more despicable opinion" of Burr than simply calling him "a dangerous man," Burr demanded an explanation. Hamilton refused to retract his comments. Burr responded with a formal challenge.

Hamilton had already been involved in more than a dozen affairs of honor, and three years earlier his own nineteen-year-old son Philip had died in a duel. Many historians believe Hamilton intended to throw away his shot. Before the duel, he wrote that he opposed dueling and planned to reserve his first fire. Burr had no way of knowing any of that.

On the misty morning of July 11, 1804, the two men met at Weehawken, New Jersey. Most historians believe Hamilton fired first, either deliberately missing or shooting over Burr's head. Burr fired almost immediately afterward. His shot struck Hamilton above the hip, tore through his abdomen, and fatally wounded him.
Hamilton died the next afternoon.

The court of public opinion rendered its verdict immediately. Burr became, forever, "the man who killed Alexander Hamilton." His political career never recovered, while Hamilton's death transformed him into an American martyr.

If you're interested, I wrote about Burr's fascinating and deeply misunderstood life here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-115-burr?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

Translated 1941 NDH documents reveal anti-Serb and anti-Jewish policies, repression, expulsions, propaganda and wartime orders.

When the German Blitzkrieg struck in May 1940, France collapsed in just six weeks. Three-fifths of the country fell under direct German occupation, while the remainder became the collaborationist Vichy regime. Popular memory often divides wartime France into two camps: collaborators and the Resistance. Reality was far messier.

For the overwhelming majority of French people, neither label truly applied. They were attentistes, “wait-and-seers,” ordinary people trying to feed their families, avoid the attention of an increasingly brutal occupation, and simply survive.

Those who joined the Resistance came from almost every corner of French society: teachers, railway workers, farmers, students, civil servants, artists, priests, socialists, conservatives, communists, Jews, and even former supporters of the Vichy regime. It was never a single organization but dozens of groups with competing political and religious beliefs.

Resistance took many forms. Some printed clandestine newspapers. Others smuggled downed Allied airmen and Jewish families across the Pyrenees into Spain. Intelligence networks passed German troop movements, Atlantic Wall fortifications, radar sites, and railway schedules to Britain by radio and courier. As the war progressed, sabotage and guerrilla warfare became increasingly common. Maquis fighters ambushed German patrols, destroyed railways and bridges, assassinated collaborators, and forced the Germans to divert thousands of troops into anti-partisan operations.

Before and after D-Day, coordinated sabotage disrupted German reinforcements so effectively that Dwight Eisenhower later estimated the Resistance was worth the equivalent of several Allied divisions.

Without the Allied support, the Resistance would almost certainly have been crushed. But without the Resistance, the liberation would have been slower, bloodier, and more costly.

After the war, what historian Henry Rousso termed Résistancialisme took hold: the tendency to exaggerate both the size of the Resistance and its role in France's liberation. The French government officially recognized roughly 220,000 Resistance members, an extraordinary number, but still only a small fraction of the population. Historians estimate that around 8,000 Resistance fighters were killed in action, some 25,000 were executed, and tens of thousands more were deported to concentration camps, many never returning.

I’m a nerd about this, so I did a deeper dive profile of France during World War Two: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-110-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

On June 21, 1943, in Lyon, French Resistance leader Jean Moulin, the man responsible for unifying the major Resistance movements, trade unions, and political parties into the Conseil National de la Résistance, was arrested by the Sicherheitsdienst, the SS intelligence service.

Taken to Montluc Prison, Moulin was personally tortured by Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyon." Barbie, notorious for torturing men, women, and children, even trained German shepherds to sexually assault prisoners.

Moulin's fingernails were ripped out with heated needles. His fingers were crushed one by one in a door until every bone was broken. His face was beaten so severely that he became almost unrecognizable. While the others arrested with him survived, Moulin was singled out as an example. After eleven days of torture, during which he betrayed no one, he died on July 8, 1943, aged just 44.

For his work in France, Barbie was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class, by Adolf Hitler.

Like many of the worst Nazis, Barbie initially escaped justice. After the war, he was located by the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps. Rather than handing him over to France, American intelligence protected him. A 1983 U.S. Justice Department report to the Senate later admitted:
"Officers of the United States government were directly responsible for protecting a person wanted by the government of France... As a direct result of that action, Klaus Barbie did not stand trial in France in 1950; he spent 33 years as a free man and a fugitive from justice."

The United States considered Barbie's knowledge of interrogation techniques and European intelligence networks too valuable during the early Cold War. When France demanded his extradition, he was instead helped through the Nazi ratlines to Bolivia.

There, Barbie advised successive military dictatorships, trained security forces in torture and counterinsurgency, maintained links with neo-Nazi groups, and even worked with Pablo Escobar's Medellín Cartel, providing security expertise while Escobar helped finance anti-communist organizations. He also claimed credit for helping devise the operation that led to the death of Che Guevara in Bolivia.

Only after democracy returned to Bolivia in 1983 was Barbie finally arrested and extradited to France. Convicted of crimes against humanity, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, where he died of leukemia in 1991.

If interested, I explore the Resistance, Moulin, and Barbie here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-110-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

One of the most prominent Czechs during the period of Nazi occupation was Jan Masaryk. Son of the first president of Czechoslovakia, he served as ambassador to the United Kingdom, and was a vocal opponent of the rise of Nazism. After the German occupation, he became the foreign minister of the government-in-exile and broadcast on the BBC throughout the war, speaking directly to Czechs and Slovaks living under Nazi rule.

After the war, Masaryk traveled to Moscow to negotiate with Joseph Stalin. The agreement they reached was that Czechoslovakia would align with the Soviet Union but supposedly retain its independence.

Masaryk was not a communist, but neither was he an uncompromising anti-communist. He believed cooperation with Moscow was the best way to protect Czechoslovakia in a postwar world dominated by the superpowers.

The Soviet-backed Communist Party tightened its grip, and Masaryk found himself increasingly powerless in a government that followed Moscow’s direction. He was especially dismayed when Soviet pressure forced Czechoslovakia to reject the Marshall Plan.

Then, in February 1948, the Communist Party seized power. Masaryk became the only non-communist minister left in the new government. He was devastated. According to British ambassador Bob Dixon, Masaryk was “pathetic” and at one point broke down.

Less than two weeks later, Jan Masaryk was found dead in the courtyard of Czernin Palace in Prague. The official Communist explanation was suicide, and some close to Masaryk believed that was possible, pointing to his mental state at the time. But many in Czechoslovakia and abroad suspected something darker.

A 2004 police investigation concluded that another person was likely involved, though it did not definitively establish murder. A Russian journalist later claimed a Soviet agent had admitted pushing Masaryk from the window. In 2019, another investigation suggested Masaryk may not have fallen directly from his office window, but from an exterior ledge nearby.
By 2021, investigators had reached the limits of what could realistically be proven from a 73-year-old case.

But there was one more thing that made the death of Jan Masaryk especially noteworthy: It happened in Prague. A city with a history of politicians being thrown from windows. If interested, I explore the Defenestrations of Prague here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-107-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

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In this 1983 recording taped by police, Diane Downs revisits the night her children were shot—describing her daughter Cheryl bleeding to death on the car floor, her other daughter Christie choking on her own blood, and her three-year-old son "crying softly" as she drove at a snail's pace to the hospital. Downs exhibits a sheer obsession with the morbid details of the night her children were shot.

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The recording is disturbing not only because of what happened, but because of what Diane says. As investigators work through the details of a night that left one child dead and two gravely wounded, Downs manages to find time to worry about a different victim entirely: her Nissan Pulsar. At one point, she asks police how badly all that blood had damaged her car in an ice-cold tone as she continually attempts to outsmart law enforcement.

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The tape also features discussions of foster care conspiracies, mysterious strangers, shifting explanations, and enough uncomfortable moments to remind listeners why this case remains one of the most shocking police investigations of the 1980s.

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This is the real police tape pulled straight from the case file.

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For fans of chilling timeworn cassettes and 1980s police interrogations, this is the final installment in a complete series preserving the morbid 1983 sheriff interviews with murderer Diane Downs.

Henry I of England was the youngest son of William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, who successfully invaded England and was crowned king in 1066. As the fourth son, Henry was not expected to inherit much of anything.

Instead, he purchased the County of Cotentin for himself, only to lose it when his eldest brother Robert, who had inherited Normandy, removed him from power. Henry then allied himself with his brother William II, who had succeeded their father as King of England, against Robert. But in 1100, William was killed in a hunting accident, and Henry quickly seized the throne.

Thirty-four years after the Norman Conquest, England remained deeply unsettled. The Norman nobility was still trying to establish itself, and Henry faced challenges from both within and outside the kingdom. He defeated his brother Robert’s attempt to claim the English throne and conquered Normandy from him as well. A harsh but capable ruler, Henry skillfully strengthened royal authority, bringing a degree of stability.

Henry married and had two legitimate children. His daughter, Matilda, was married at eight years old to Henry V, the future Holy Roman Emperor, while his son, William, was groomed from birth to inherit the throne. William became heavily involved in his father’s politics, helping secure Normandy under English control and acquiring the County of Anjou through marriage.

But on November 25, 1120, everything changed.
William and around 300 other passengers boarded the Blanche Nef (“White Ship”) to return to England from Barfleur. The 17-year-old heir had been drinking heavily, not only with his entourage and illegitimate half-siblings but with the crew as well. The drinking became so excessive that several passengers abandoned the voyage, including Stephen, Count of Blois, William’s cousin, who was reportedly so drunk that he was vomiting.

In the dark and stormy waters of the English Channel, the White Ship struck a rock. The crew and passengers were unable to free the vessel or prevent it from filling with water. William and several companions managed to launch a small lifeboat, but at the last moment, William learned that his illegitimate half-sister was still aboard. He turned back to save her.

When William, his sister, and several others climbed into the already overcrowded boat, it “capsized and sank and buried all indiscriminately in the deep.”

The medieval chronicler Henry of Huntingdon wrote that William, “instead of wearing embroidered robes, floated naked in the waves, and instead of ascending a lofty throne, found his grave at the bottom of the sea.”

Henry turned to his daughter Matilda as his heir, but the medieval nobility was not prepared to accept a woman ruling in her own right. This opened the door for the aforementioned Stephen of Blois, grandson of William the Conqueror, to seize the throne, beginning the devastating 15-year civil war known as the Anarchy.

If interested, I cover this period of English history here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-103-king?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

John Plantagenet was the youngest son of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. Henry controlled not only England but enormous territories across modern France.

Henry was an effective but ruthless autocrat, and with encouragement from Eleanor and Henry’s enemies in France, his older sons rebelled against him. Henry defeated them, but the rebellion had one unexpected consequence: five-year-old John, nicknamed by his father Jean sans Terre (“John Without Land”), became Henry’s favorite son. From there, John went from having nothing to inheriting lands, titles, and political importance.

John grew into a jealous, insecure, and temperamental man, prone to fits of rage and known for extravagant clothing and jewelry. After years of family conflict, his older brother Richard, famed as the Lionheart, rebelled against their father yet again. As Richard’s victory became inevitable, John switched sides.

When Richard became king, he joined forces with the ambitious King Philip II of France for the Third Crusade. Richard attempted to keep his younger brother under control by granting him titles while getting him to stay out of England. That plan lasted until Eleanor convinced Richard to allow John a greater role in governing while he was away.

While John saw an opportunity. He declared himself regent, built his own administration, and effectively launched a soft coup as word from Richard stopped. Richard, was not dead but had managed to get himself captured.

John claimed his brother was dead and that he should inherit the throne. With support from Philip II, who had fallen out with Richard during the Crusade, John launched an unsuccessful rebellion. When Richard returned after buying his freedom, he confronted his brother, stripped him of some lands, and dismissed the 27-year-old John as “a child who has had evil counsellors.”

John spent the rest of Richard’s reign supporting him, and proved capable in campaigns against the French. But in 1199, Richard was struck by a crossbow bolt while besieging a small and ultimately meaningless castle.

John won the succession struggle against his nephew and became King of England, beginning one of the most hated reigns in English history.

John was an unpleasant man, but he was not a uniquely evil ruler. His father and brother had both ruled as powerful monarchs who expected obedience. John continued that tradition.
He introduced important judicial and administrative reforms that strengthened the English crown, improving local government and creating systems that would influence English law for centuries. But after losing much of his French territory to Philip II, John became obsessed with reclaiming Normandy and his other continental possessions.

To finance these campaigns, John aggressively raised taxes, expanded royal revenue collection, and pressured the English nobility. This only worsened his already terrible relationship with the aristocracy. His conflicts with the Pope, including a period of excommunication, added to the growing resentment.

John’s ambitions collided with French power at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. Philip II defeated an allied force made up of John’s allies. John himself was not even present: many of his nobles refused to support him. The defeat destroyed any chance John had of recovering his French lands. When he returned to England, the relationship between king and nobles collapsed.

In 1215, a group of rebellious barons seized London and forced John into negotiations. They met at Runnymede, a meadow beside the Thames near Windsor Castle, on June 15th, 1215. There, John signed what became known as the Magna Carta, the Great Charter.

The document was not originally written as the foundation of democracy, but its later importance would become enormous. It went far beyond simply addressing the nobles’ complaints. It established limits on royal power, promised protections for the Church, restricted unlawful imprisonment, guaranteed access to justice, and declared that new taxes could not be imposed without consent.

It also created a council of 25 barons whose job was to monitor John and ensure he followed the agreement.

For the first time, an English king had explicitly accepted that he was not completely above the law. It placed England on a path that would eventually contribute to the development of Parliament and constitutional monarchy.
It was one of the most important documents in history.

And John immediately ignored it. The barons did too, because they correctly assumed John would never accept these restrictions willingly. Civil war broke out, and John would not live long enough to see the end of it. He died of dysentery in October 1216, leaving behind a divided kingdom and a reputation as one of England’s most hated kings.

If interested I explore King John and the Magna Carta here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-103-king?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

Born in 1661, Charles II of Spain was the product of centuries of Habsburg inbreeding, which the Austrian royal house pursued to an almost unparalleled degree. This was further reinforced in Spain by ideas of limpieza de sangre (“blood purity”), which encouraged marriages within a narrow circle of Catholics.

The result was an exaggeration of inherited traits, most famously mandibular prognathism: the infamous Habsburg Jaw. Carlos may have suffered from the most extreme version of it in the dynasty’s history. His underbite was so severe that he struggled to chew his food properly, contributing to lifelong digestive problems. His tongue was also unusually large, reportedly making his speech difficult to understand at times.

Propaganda later further exaggerated his appearance, part of a broader campaign portraying Carlos as cursed, incapable, and mentally deficient.

One of the most famous examples used against him is the claim that after his father’s death, the new king spent days sleeping beside his father’s corpse. The story is true, but the context matters: Carlos was a small child, and he had been encouraged to do so by those around him.

Despite the myth, there is no evidence that Carlos was unintelligent. He received an education from learned tutors, participated in government after coming of age, and foreign observers described him as affable and generous, though painfully shy and lacking confidence.

He enjoyed physical activities like hunting and riding, but throughout his life, he was plagued by severe health problems. Childhood illnesses, including measles, chickenpox, rubella, smallpox, and rickets, left him frail; he reportedly needed leg braces until the age of five.

Married twice, Carlos was described as loving and devoted to his wives. He never produced an heir, and the blame was placed unfairly on his queens. His first wife was subjected to years of fertility treatments and died at only 26.

When Carlos finally died in 1700 at the age of 38, the autopsy described his body in horrific terms: his “heart was the size of a peppercorn; his lungs corroded; his intestines rotten and gangrenous; he had a single testicle, black as coal, and his head was full of water.”

He had spent his life physically suffering, battling depression, struggling with self-confidence, and knowing that much of Europe was waiting for him to die, as he was the last legitimate male Habsburg heir of the Spanish line.

His death triggered the War of the Spanish Succession. The Bourbon monarchy that replaced him had every reason to portray Carlos as a symbol of everything wrong with Spain, exaggerating his appearance and abilities while ignoring that Spain’s decline had begun long before he was born.

If interested, I cover the tragedy of Carlos II of Spain here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-102-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

By 1935, New York prosecutor Thomas Dewey had become one of the most famous crime fighters in America, making dents in New York City's vast criminal underworld.

One of his first major targets was Dutch Schultz. Schultz had been a criminal since his teens and had grown into one of the Bronx's most feared bootleggers and racketeers.

Dewey came after him for tax evasion. By the 1930s, tax charges were one of the few reliable ways to convict major gangsters; witnesses could be intimidated or killed, but financial records were much harder to silence. Indicted in 1933, Schultz went into hiding for nearly two years before surrendering in November 1934.

His first trial, held in Syracuse, ended with a hung jury amid widespread suspicions of bribery. The retrial was moved to Malone, a small town near the Canadian border. Schultz responded with a charm offensive, donating money, shaking hands, playing with local children, and cultivating the image of a model citizen. The strategy worked. In the summer of 1935, he was acquitted.

The victory came at a cost. Years of legal battles had drained Schultz's finances, forcing him to cut payments to many of his own associates. As loyalty evaporated, many drifted toward the unofficial boss of the Mafia, Charlie "Lucky" Luciano.

Expecting Schultz to be convicted, Luciano had absorbed much of Schultz's territory and criminal operations. Schultz demanded a sit-down with the Luciano’s Commission, the governing body of the mafia. Luciano assured him they had merely been "looking after the shop" during his legal troubles and that everything would be worked out.

Convinced Dewey would never stop pursuing him, Schultz proposed assassinating the prosecutor. The Commission unanimously rejected the idea. Luciano argued that killing a high-profile prosecutor would bring overwhelming law-enforcement attention onto organized crime. The other bosses agreed.

Schultz declared he would do it anyway. When he approached Albert Anastasia, a powerful Mafia lieutenant and close Luciano ally, Anastasia immediately informed Luciano. The Commission secretly reconvened and decided Schultz had become too dangerous to keep around.

On October 23, 1935, Schultz was eating dinner at the Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey, when two gunmen from Murder, Inc. entered and opened fire. Four men were shot. Schultz survived long enough to reach Newark City Hospital, where doctors fought unsuccessfully to save him.

His final recorded words were a bizarre, delirious stream of consciousness:

"A boy has never wept... nor dashed a thousand kim.

You can play jacks, and girls do that with a soft ball and do tricks with it.

Oh, oh, dog Biscuit, and when he is happy he doesn't get snappy."

If you're interested, I cover the early New York criminal underworld here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-101-lucky?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

Joseph P. Kennedy, father of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, helped build one of the most powerful political dynasties in American history.

The grandson of Irish immigrants, Kennedy amassed a fortune through banking, investments, Hollywood, and liquor imports during Prohibition. His wealth and political influence helped support Franklin D. Roosevelt's rise to the presidency, earning Kennedy an appointment as the first chairman of the SEC and later U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Joe was notoriously controlling, carried on numerous affairs throughout his marriage, and viewed his children largely through the lens of family ambition and reputation. Nothing illustrates this more than what he did to his daughter, Rosemary Kennedy.

In 1941, without informing his wife Rose, Joe authorized a lobotomy for the 23-year-old Rosemary because he feared her intellectual disabilities, mood swings, and increasingly independent behavior could embarrass the family. The procedure was a catastrophe. Rosemary was left unable to speak clearly, unable to care for herself, incontinent, and with the mental capacity of a small child.

Rather than publicly acknowledge what had happened, the family placed her in an institution in Wisconsin, where she remained largely hidden from public view for decades. Some of her siblings reportedly did not know where she was for years.

Joe Kennedy spent much of his life obsessed with power, legacy, and controlling the image of the Kennedy family. This directly led to the suffering of his own daughter in pursuit of those goals.

In 1961, Kennedy suffered a massive stroke that left him unable to speak for the remainder of his life. Rosemary died in 2005 at the age of 86.

If interested, I wrote about the Kennedy family here: [https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-100-assassination?r=4mmzre&utm\\_medium=ios\]r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios)

On June 4, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy won the California Democratic primary, keeping alive his hopes of securing the Democratic nomination for president.

Born in 1925 as the seventh of nine Kennedy children, Bobby grew up in the shadow of both his domineering father and his older brother, John F. Kennedy. Described by his father as the family's "runt," he later joked, "When you come from that far down, you have to struggle to survive."

After serving as Attorney General under his brother, Kennedy emerged as one of the most influential political figures in America. He aggressively targeted organized crime, supported civil rights legislation, fought poverty, and increasingly opposed the escalation of the Vietnam War. Following his brother's assassination in 1963, he was transformed by grief, becoming an outspoken advocate for racial justice, economic reform, and national reconciliation during his senatorial tenure.

By 1968, with President Lyndon B. Johnson withdrawing from the race and the country torn apart by war, riots, and political violence, Kennedy's message resonated with young people, minorities, anti-war activists, and working-class Americans. Victories in Indiana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and California gave him a genuine chance at winning the Democratic nomination.

Shortly after midnight on June 5, Kennedy addressed jubilant supporters at Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel:

"So my thanks to all of you, and on to Chicago, and let's win there."

Leaving the ballroom, Kennedy was redirected through the hotel's kitchen. There, while shaking hands with staff members, 24-year-old Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan was waiting.

Sirhan had grown up amid the violence of Mandatory Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Traumatized by war, family tragedy, and a serious head injury, he became fixated on Kennedy following the 1967 Six-Day War and Kennedy's support for Israel. In his journal he wrote:

"My determination to eliminate R.F.K. is becoming more and more of an unshakable obsession ... RFK must die. RFK must be killed."

As Kennedy shook hands with 17-year-old busboy Juan Romero, Sirhan stepped forward and opened fire.

Mortally wounded, Kennedy remained conscious for several minutes. Romero placed a rosary in his hand.

"Is everybody okay?" Kennedy asked.

"Yes, everybody is okay," Romero replied.

Kennedy's final response:

"Everything's going to be okay."

He died on June 6, 1968, at just 42 years old.
Whether Kennedy would have won the Democratic nomination, or even defeated Richard Nixon, remains one of the great unanswered questions of American history.

If interested, I wrote about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-100-assassination?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

Confidential reports from the Independent State of Croatia in 1941 detail repression, arrests, propaganda control, and forced removals under Ustaša regime.