GQ

The Gambling Nuns of Torrance, California

Thou shalt not steal…unless you're one of the Vegas-loving nuns who allegedly took the Catholic school under their watch for every penny they could.

The Pope and the Spy Who Loved Him

The butler did it! That was the tabloid take on the unprecedented breach of security that shook the Vatican last year, when a trove of secrets plucked from one of the most impenetrable places on earth—the pope's private quarters—was leaked to the media.

"Is he coming? Is he? Oh God, I think he is."

One year ago, a heavily armed man dressed as a police officer appeared on the beach of a youth summer camp in Utøya, Norway. The kids had no way of knowing he was targeting them for the ills of Europe. Then he started shooting. And shooting. As told by the survivors, these are the beat-by-beat horrors of those terrifying 198 minutes

The Secrets of the World's Greatest Jailbreak Artist

Master criminal Rédoine Faïd loved the movies, and his greatest crimes were laced with tributes: to "Point Break," "Heat," and "Reservoir Dogs." When he landed in a maximum-security prison, cinema provided inspiration once again.

The Movie Set That Ate Itself

Five years ago, a relatively unknown (and unhinged) director began one of the wildest experiments in film history. Armed with total creative control, he invaded a Ukrainian city, marshaled a cast of thousands and thousands, and constructed a totalitarian society in which the cameras are always rolling and the actors never go home

The Strange & Curious Tale of the Last True Hermit

For nearly thirty years, a phantom haunted the woods of Central Maine. Unseen and unknown, he lived in secret, creeping into homes in the dead of night and surviving on what he could steal. To the spooked locals, he became a legend—or maybe a myth. They wondered how he could possibly be real. Until one day last year, the hermit came out of the forest.

It Was the Most Violent Prison in America. Then the Guards Went on Strike

What happens when a group of incarcerated men are left to self govern? In Walpole State Prison in 1973, “peace reigned”—until the guards were sent back in.

The Life Changing Magic of Raising Peacocks

I had never wanted a peacock for the same reason I’d never wanted a koala or a narwhal: The idea had never occurred to me. But when adopting three of those fantastical birds suddenly became an option, well, of course I wanted peacocks. Only later could I appreciate what Carl, Ethel, and Mr. Pickle had given me.

Psychic Zoe and the $740,000 Curse

How much would you pay to protect your family from forces seemingly beyond your control? Is any price too high? Inside the strange, predatory, and lucrative world of psychics who have successfully scammed customers out of their life savings, and the private investigator who's trying to put a stop to it.

A Most American Terrorist: The Making Of Dylann Roof

Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah spoke with Dylan Roof's family, friends, former teachers, and the victims' families to unlock what created one of the coldest killers of our time.

An Oral History of "We Built This City," the Worst Song of All Time

In 1985, Starship, led by Grace Slick, released "We Built This City"—a single that topped the Billboard charts...and

The New Face of Richard Norris

For fifteen years, Richard Norris had a face too hideous to show. Then, one day, a maverick doctor gave him a miracle too fantastic to believe. Richard got a face transplant, a new life, and a new set of burdens too strange to predict. What's it like to live with a face that wasn't yours—and that may never quite be?

The Dubai Job

Last year, an elite squad of Mossad hit men finally got their target. They never thought the whole world would be watching

Never Forget

Once upon a time—1975, actually, in Cambodia—there was a regime so evil that it created an antisociety where torture was currency and music, books, and love were abolished. This regime ruled for four years and murdered nearly 2 million of its citizens, a quarter of the population. The perversion was so extreme, the acts so savage, that three decades later, the country still finds itself reeling.

Meltdown

What went wrong with nuclear power? How did the cleanest, cheapest solution to our oil dependence become the stuff of apocalyptic nightmares? Where does the myth end and the truth begin?

Underworld: Our Underground Coal Economy

Why do we even have coal mines? That question is what led Jeanne Marie Laskas to spend a few weeks 500 feet underground, getting to know the men behind the invisible economy this country couldn't live without.

Tuesdays with Saddam

Specialist Sean O’Shea guarded the most high-profile prisoner in U.S. history.