Robert Peters was almost none of the things he claimed to be. For decades, Peters moved all over the world, talking his way into universities, teaching jobs and churches with forged references and invented qualifications. He married at least eight women, and even after being exposed he would simply disappear and start again somewhere else. This is the story of a historian who became obsessed with Peters, told by another historian who picked up the chase.

Read Adam Sisman’s book The Professor & The Parson

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In 2018, Michael Avenatti seemed to appear out of nowhere. A brash, flashy lawyer riding shotgun with the porn star Stormy Daniels as her allegations against Donald Trump exploded into a national scandal. Avenatti was everywhere and was even — briefly — considered to be a presidential contender. Then the mask slipped to reveal a man clinging to his own myth.

Read Matthew Shear’s 2018 New York Times profile of Avenatti

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When Esther was a teenager, her parents supported her in joining a group that promised to help her with her drug problem. She found a world of secret rituals, forced confessions, endless meetings — and a community that for a while at least, seemed to be exactly what she felt she had been missing her whole life.
 

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Steffen Baldwin was a tattooed dog whisperer with an apparent gift for rehabilitating dangerous animals. He was a beloved local celebrity with a reputation for saving the most difficult dogs from being put down. But after one pit bull named Remy vanished, a determined owner, a vet and a local detective began to piece together a pattern of deception that revealed a far more sinister character than anyone ever suspected. 

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Jacob Kingston wanted money, status and the approval of his family. Then he met a charismatic Armenian oil tycoon called The Lion. What began with a deal over a shipment of stranded biofuel turned into a sprawling billion dollar scam where religious extremism, organized crime and green-energy policy collide.

Listen to Michele’s podcast Kingdom of Fraud

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When Mike Shannon was nine years old, he was told that his father had died fighting the Germans at the Battle of El Alamein. Michael’s father hadn’t died at all. He’d been a successful novelist and, quite possibly, a spy. We follow one journalist down a rabbit hole into the astonishing hidden lives of Alexander Wilson.

Read Tim Crook's book The Secret Lives Of A Secret Agent

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A British band called The Zombies had a smash hit single in America with ‘Time of the Season’ in the late 60s. Shortly afterwards, four handsome Texans hit the road pretending to be the Zombies. This is the unbelievable true story of rock’s most brazen imposters… two of whom went on to form ZZ Top.

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The views from New York's luxury high-rise apartments can be spectacular. And the higher up you go, the more exclusive, and expensive the properties become. An artist became obsessed with those views, and the hidden world hiding behind them. She just needed to find a way in.

Discover more about the Andi Schmied and her book “Private Views A High-Rise Panorama of Manhattan”

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As a teenager in Milwaukee, Art Rapkin became a hustler, karate champion and a fake Bob Dylan. Then he started smuggling cocaine, before ending up in a Mexican prison, where he was tortured, before working with he FBI and DEA. 

Read Poison for Rats by Arthur Rapkin and Alec Banks

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Frank Abagnale Jr. became America's most famous con artist. He said he stole millions of dollars, posed as a pilot, a doctor and a lawyer, before working for the FBI. His story became a bestselling book, a Hollywood blockbuster and a Broadway musical. But what if the greatest con Frank Abagnale pulled was convincing the world that any of it was true?

Listen to Javier Leiva’s podcast The Real Frank Abagnale

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In the summer of 1991, a young woman walks into a police station in Ogden, Utah. She claims that just blocks away, amongst the manicured suburban sprawl, a self-proclaimed prophet has spent years building a secret religious empire — fuelled by fear, manipulation, and systematic abuse.

Listen to Mike King’s podcast Gardens of Evil: Inside the Zion Society Cult

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