Vanity Fair

“Leave No Soldier Behind”: The Unsolved Mystery of the Soldier Who Died in the Watchtower

Is the Army botching its investigations into noncombatant deaths?

True Crime, True Faith: The Serial Killer and the Texas Mom Who Stopped Him

In 1981, a young Christian mother named Margy Palm was abducted by Stephen Morin outside a Kmart. She’s never told the whole shocking story—until now.

“The Clock Is Ticking”: Inside the Worst U.S. Maritime Disaster in Decades

A recording salvaged from three miles deep tells the story of the doomed “El Faro,” a cargo ship engulfed by a hurricane.

Should Airplanes Be Flying Themselves?

Airline pilots were once the heroes of the skies. Today, in the quest for safety, airplanes are meant to largely fly themselves. Which is why the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447, which killed 228 people, remains so perplexing and significant. William Langewiesche explores how a series of small errors turned a state-of-the-art cockpit into a death trap.

The Golden Suicides

When Theresa Duncan, 40, took her own life on July 10, followed a week later by her boyfriend, Jeremy Blake, 35, their friends were stunned and the press was fascinated: what had destroyed this glamorous couple, stars of New York’s multi-media art world, still madly in love after 12 years?

William Langewiesche on the Amazon air crash

There were so many opportunities for the accident not to happen—the collision between a Legacy 600 private jet and a Boeing 737 carrying 154 people. But on September 29, 2006, high above the Amazon, a long, thin thread of acts and omissions brought the two airplanes together. The author reconstructs a fatal intersection between high-performance technology and human fallibility.

Did Kamala Harris's Silence on Gaza Cost Her the White House?

Ta-Nehisi Coates reckons with that question, and what it means for the 2028 election.

Karen Read Tells Her Story (Part 1): A Murder Trial in Massachusetts

After John O’Keefe was found, near death, in the snowy front yard of a fellow Boston cop, his girlfriend was arrested. As Karen Read’s second murder trial looms, she’s ready to talk about what she says really happened.

The 10-Minute Mecca Stampede That Made History

Investigating the most lethal in a long history of Mecca disasters—in 2015, when some 2,400 pilgrims were crushed or trampled to death on their way to the holy city—William Langewiesche reveals the cause: not “God’s will,” as the authorities claim, but the arrogance and dishonesty of the Saudi regime.

Welcome to the Dark Net, a Wilderness Where Invisible World Wars Are F

Through the eyes of a master hacker turned security expert, William Langewiesche chronicles the rise of the Dark Net—where weapons, drugs, and information are bought, sold, and hacked—and learns how high the stakes have really become.

How U.S. Soldier Jess Cunningham Exposed a War Crime in Iraq

William Langewiesche dissects the murder of four Iraqi prisoners, the military’s response, and how one warrior fought to become a better man.

Meet G4S, the Contractors Who Go Where Governments and Armies Can’t—or Won’t

William Langewiesche watches as contractors from the security behemoth clean up after an explosion in a crowded souk in South Sudan.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Kill: Inside the Murder of Solider Barry Winchell

At Fort Campbell, Buzz Bissinger investigates the Catch-22 of Clinton’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy.

New York Underground: A Centuries-Old Underworld of Caverns, Squatters, and Unmarked Doors

William Langewiesche follows three men who navigate the dangers of what lies beneath New York.

New York Underground: A Centuries-Old Underworld of Caverns, Squatters, and Unmarked Doors

William Langewiesche follows three men who navigate the dangers of what lies beneath New York.

The Dark Romance and Grim Reality of Life in the French Foreign Legion

Legionnaires need war, and Afghanistan is winding down. But there's always the hopeless battle against rogue gold miners in French Guiana . . .

When Liz Met Dick: The Making of Cleopatra

David Kamp relives the epic folly of the film, which was eclipsed only by the international furor over the scandalous romance of its stars, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

The Distant Executioner

During World War II, snipers were seen as a spooky, merciless “Murder Inc.” by other soldiers—the brutal intimacy of their kills made them a breed apart. But in Afghanistan, where avoiding civilian deaths is a top priority, U.S. military sharpshooters may have found the war that needs them most. Going inside the world of Texas Army National Guardsman “Russ Crane,” who has dropped a Taliban fighter at 806 meters, the author discovers the sniper’s special talents and torments, and why it helps, in Crane’s view, to have God on your side.

US Airways Flight 1549: Anatomy of a Miracle

Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot who landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River last January, was justly celebrated for his skill and courage. Less has been revealed about other players in the drama: those enigmatic geese, the engines they struck, a pioneering French engineer, and an unsung hero—the Airbus A320 itself.

Wall Street on the Tundra

Iceland’s de facto bankruptcy; its currency (the krona) is kaput, its debt is 850 percent of G.D.P., its people are hoarding food and cash and blowing up their new Range Rovers for the insurance resulted from a stunning collective madness. What led a tiny fishing nation, population 300,000, to decide, around 2003, to re-invent itself as a global financial power? In Reykjavík, where men are men, and the women seem to have completely given up on them, MICHAEL LEWIS follows the peculiarly Icelandic logic behind the meltdown.