Sammy Gravano

The Hereford Mappa Mundi , about 1300, Hereford Cathedral , England

A 13th–14th-century scroll of the Book of Esther from Fez, Morocco , held at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris . Traditionally, a scroll of Esther is given only one roller, fixed to its lefthand side, rather than the two used for a Torah…

A Jake and Dinos Chapman fused mannequin piece from the exhibition Come and See at the Serpentine Gallery

Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano admitted to 19 murders, testified against John Gotti, served five years, then ran a 30,000-pill-per-week ecstasy ring in Scottsdale, Arizona, using his family as distributors.

Biological warfare

Unit 731 aircraft dropped ceramic bombs packed with plague-infected fleas over 11 Chinese cities. Ceramic shattered on impact without incinerating the fleas — a design detail that took years to engineer.

Mappa mundi

Drawn on a single sheet of calfskin in 1300, the Hereford Mappa Mundi places Jerusalem at the geometric center of the known world, with Paradise at the top and sea monsters filling every ocean — a complete cosmology on 1.58 square metres of vellum.

Book of Esther

God's name never appears in the Book of Esther — the only biblical book with this omission. The plot hinges on a beauty contest for a drunk king and a eunuch's wounded pride.

Zamora the Torture King

Tim Cridland skewers steel rods through his cheeks, throat, and abdomen onstage before live audiences — nerve conduction tests confirm he genuinely feels nothing where the rods enter.

Jim Jones

Jim Jones rehearsed mass suicide with fake poison for years before making it real. On November 18, 1978, 918 died — 276 of them children. A gun was found in Jones's hand.

Murder of Tupac Shakur

Four bullets hit Tupac Shakur in a Las Vegas BMW on September 7, 1996; he died six days later at 25. No shooter was ever charged. The case remains open, the silence institutional.

Frederick Lorz

Fred Lorz crossed the 1904 Olympic marathon finish line first, accepted the gold medal from Alice Roosevelt, then admitted a car had driven him 11 of the 26 miles. He claimed it was a joke.

Jake and Dinos Chapman

The Chapmans bought a complete set of Goya's 'Disasters of War' etchings — 80 prints of dismembered soldiers — and painted Ronald McDonald and clown faces over the victims' heads. They called it 'rectification.'