From 1976 to 1986, one of the most violent serial criminals in American history terrorized communities throughout California. He was little known, never caught, and might still be out there. The author, along with several others, can’t stop working on the case.

William Sparkman Jr., a census worker, was found hanging from a tree in rural Kentucky. He was naked, hands bound, with the letters “FED” written across his chest. Inside the investigation into how—and why—he died.

After a botched bank robbery in 1990, Sture Bergwall, aka Thomas Quick, confessed to a string of brutal crimes. He admitted to stabbings, stranglings, incest and cannibalism. He was convicted of eight murders in all, and after the final trial he went silent for nearly a decade. But a few years ago, Bergwall came forward again—there was one more secret he had to tell.

How a killer and his teenage accomplice used listings for “the job of a lifetime” to lure their victims, all down-and-out single men, to the backwoods of Ohio.

The haunted past of Amy Bishop, a University of Alabama neurobiologist who shot six colleagues during a staff meeting.

How the United States came to spend more on defense than all the other nations of the world combined.

Last fall, a team of American Special Forces arrived in Nerkh, a district just west of Kabul. Six months later, amid allegations of torturing and murdering locals, the team was gone. Shortly after they left, the remains of 10 missing villagers were found outside their vacated base. An investigation into a possible war crime.

On decorated sniper Chris Kyle and the troubled young veteran who took his life.

After two tours in Iraq, the writer returns to a volatile region of Afghanistan as an embedded journalist.

As NATO leaves, the Afghan National Army grapples with a resilient Taliban.

Traveling with a sex tourist to the Uzbek city of Tashkent.

Cycles of boom and bust in the drilling town of Williston, N.D., as seen from the perspective of an itinerant dancer filling one of three slots at the only strip club in town, Whispers.

Entering her thirties single and adrift, the writer heads to San Francisco to spend time with Kink.com’s Princess Donna Dolore and attend a gangbang “where all the men were dressed as panda bears.”

Investigating San Francisco’s OneTaste, which promises personal and professional success through the practice of orgasmic meditation.

A visit to Tokyo’s first co-sleeping cafe, where one can pay a set fee to sleep next to a woman in 20 minute increments, though spooning, being patted on the head, and a change of pajamas are extra.

How Tim Armstrong bet AOL’s future on his own unprofitable baby, Patch.

How a pair of pharmaceutical companies set their prices.

The capitalist evangelism of Lean In.

A profile of Gina Rinehart, the richest person in Australia.

Ego, hubris, and the failure to adapt.

The emerging political consciousness of Silicon Valley.

On recreational genetics and the vulnerability of family secrets.

Inside the real program to sabotage Iran’s nuclear facilities.

How the city will drown.

Boomtown San Francisco, as seen from the “Google Bus.”

The use and abuse of civil forfeiture.

The shadowy cartel of doctors that controls U.S. healthcare.

The Vice President, his future, and the jokes.

How Hasidic Jews took over Ramapo, New York.

In Texas, politicians and CEOs are one and the same.

The Supreme Court justice on the Devil, among other topics.

Pope Francis introduces himself.

The interview that kicked off the season of Kanye.

How at least one person still makes lots of money off books.

The writer re-emerges after more than a decade.

A series of mysterious, dangerous interactions in a bathhouse.

A series of linked fantasies, veering from the whimsical to the grave.

The appearance of a “mole man” reflects the past and realities of a hardscrabble town.

A party game drives a woman to reflect upon a history of manipulation.

Greek heroes and gods roam suburban America.

A profile of Jordan at 50.

The girlfriend who wasn’t and everyone who bought it.

Bobby Riggs, the mob and “The Battle of the Sexes.”

The life and sudden death of NASCAR’s Dick Trickle.

How sports channels extort cable subscribers.

A trip to visit a friend in prison.

In defense of snark.

How a comedy writer making $300,000 a year ended up homeless.

An odyssey through America’s mental health system.

The thin, resentful line between comic and audience.

Searching for Dave Chappelle ten years after he left his show.

A few days in the life of Miley Cyrus.

An ode to Saunders.

A visit to Star Axis, a desert art installation that connects you to the cosmos.

On photographer Garry Winogrand and the unedited archive of more than half a million exposures he left behind.

A field study in Fresno.

A profile of Saunders as Tenth of December was published.

Saunders discusses his process.

Another short story from Tenth of December, one that took Saunders more than a dozen years to complete.

Saunders travels to Dubai; Arab children see snow for the first time, which is made by a Kenyan.

On the virtue of kindness.

On his last day at the paper, memories from Kaplan’s 15 years at the helm.

A profile of Beatty as Bulworth hit theaters.

A profile of post-Observer Kaplan.

Kaplan on 9/11 and the city he loved.

On the Wise and Cranky Kaplan Twitter feeds.

A profile of Gardner in her twilight.

On heading home for Thanksgiving.

How science changed our holiday feast.

The history of the first Thanksgiving: The Indians who first feasted with the English colonists were far more sophisticated than you were taught in school. But that wasn’t enough to save them.

Is there a way to keep the Black Friday crowds safe?

A Thanksgiving lesson in forgiveness.

When turkeys attack.

In a St. Louis suburb, the Turkey Day high school football game is more than just an old-fashioned rivalry

Susannah Breslin ambitiously self-publishes a piece on the rise and advancing crash of the pornography industry in a certain suburb of Los Angeles.

A former sex worker interviews a longtime John on how it feels to pay.

The Great Recession’s impact on the legalized prostitution industry in Nevada: more hookers, fewer johns.

A 3-part investigation of human trafficking and the international sex trade, with stops in Costa Rica, Moldova, and the Philippines.

Cycles of boom and bust in the drilling town of Williston, N.D., as seen from the perspective of an itinerant dancer filling one of three slots at the only strip club in town, Whispers.

The rise and fall of a boom-era escort agency in New York City.

The lives of women who make their living on the web.

The Spanish police believed he was a missing American teen. So did the Texas family who had lost him three years prior. But he was an adult Frenchman. And he had done it before.

He joined the right clubs, married the right woman, worked the right jobs, bought the right art. But the life Clark Rockefeller created wasn’t his. Neither was his name.

For nearly a decade, Laura Albert lived a double life as troubled teen turned cult writer JT LeRoy, writing books, chatting constantly with celebrities, and convincing another woman to appear as JT LeRoy in public.

The hidden, humble beginnings of a New York City blueblood.

For years, Alan Young has made a living off what he says is his only skill: pretending to be a member of The Temptations.

The story of a young man who got to be a high school basketball star. Twice.

A field study, in these Hard Times, of the Homeless (as observed in the H Street Encampment, Fresno, California). Being an examination of who they are, how they think, and what they do.

As a young soldier in Vietnam, Cecil Ison saw something, something so horrific that he buried the memory of it for thirty years and swore he’d never allow it to surface again. Then, on March 20, 2003—the day after we started bombing Iraq—the past leapt up and grabbed him.

It started with a candle in an abandoned warehouse. It ended with temperatures above 3,000 degrees and the men of the Worcester Fire department in a fight for their lives.

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

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

Twenty-two years after being sent to prison for an unspeakable crime he did not commit, Calvin Willis walked out a free man, the 138th American exonerated by DNA evidence. He has won his freedom, yes, but how does a falsely accused man reclaim his life?

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.

Sure, we may elect a black president this month. And yeah, Oprah has all kinds of white ladies in her audience. But in real life, it seems the older you get, the less chance you have of being friends with someone who is not in your racial demographic. Can a nice white boy make some black friends if he puts his mind to it? Devin Friedman posts an ad on Craigslist to find out.

If you could see into your future, would you want to? If you could know whether you’re going to contract Alzheimer’s, or if you’re likely to battle cancer or die of heart disease, would you want to? Last summer Richard Powers decided he did and became one of nine people on earth to have his entire genome sequenced. Here, a glimpse into his—and your—future.

Colin Powell and his inner circle on the difficulty of being diplomatic in a “my way or the highway” administration.

He has fungo bats that are older than Derek Jeter. He has come as close to seeing it all as a baseball man can possibly come. Now he’s in his fifty-third consecutive season in the dugout, and life has never been sweeter.

There, in the toilet, was the absolute biggest piece of work I have ever seen.

A profile of Messi.

Pelé as religous experience.

Why Neymar, one of the world’s best talents hasn’t taken the money and run.

The glory days of the New York Cosmos.

Sixty years ago, the U.S. upset England in the World Cup on a goal from Joe Gaetjens. In most countries he would have been idolized. Instead, he was ignored in America and marked for death in his native Haiti.

An oral history of the oral history master.

A classic piece of participatory journalism, a genre Plimpton basically invented, on his very brief tenure as quarterback of the Detroit Lions.

On Plimpton and the founders of The Paris Review.

An interview years in the making.

A father and his 9-year-old daughter watch Harvard play Yale in football.

Plimpton’s son on his dad’s signature style.

In January 1966, the month In Cold Blood was published, Truman Capote sat down with Plimpton to discuss the new art form he liked to call “creative journalism.”

A profile of a previously unknown rookie pitcher for the Mets who dropped out of Harvard, made a spiritual quest to Tibet, and somewhere along the line figured out how to throw a baseball much, much faster than anyone else on Earth.

A profile of Richard Avedon published early in his career.

A profile of Grace Coddington, creative director of Vogue and break-out star of The September Issue.

A profile of André Leon Talley, an “imposing, if improbable, fashion landmark.”

A profile of Anna Wintour.

A profile of teenage fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson published before she launched Rookie.

A well-crafted, in-depth profile of anarchist and Anonymous hacker Jeremy Hammond, who broke into the private intelligence company Stratfor and released millions of its e-mails. How does a talented kid from suburban Chicago end up facing federal charges in New York for hacking a company in Texas—and why did it seem worth doing? This piece provides a few answers.

I wrote this one, but I’m including it anyway because it was based on full transcripts of two FBI interrogations of suspected cybercriminals and provides a unique glimpse of exactly how agents talk and act when investigating internet crime. Sample quote: “The FBI does not fly us out here and we don’t break into your door to talk to you if we don’t have a substantial amount of evidence against you.” It also features one of the craziest (and poorly executed) blackmail plots you’ll ever find.

Swatting—faking phone calls to local cops in an effort to have them send a SWAT team to a victim’s home—has become a national problem, with hundreds of cases a year. This 2008 piece profiles one of the most extreme swatters, a young blind kid from Boston.

The recent revelations that the new Miss Teen USA was being surreptitiously watched by a hacker accessing her computer’s webcam stirred up renewed interest in the practice. Using Remote Administration Tools (RATs), hackers with minimal skill can now infiltrate the webcams, microphones, and files of computer users around the world—and whole forums exist in which the hackers share techniques and pictures of their “slaves.” This piece profiles one of the highest-profile hackers caught to date, a disabled California man called Luis Mijangos. What really sets the story apart is the author interview with Mijangos, who explains why he did it.

What happens when a nation-state embraces the techniques of criminal hackers to target Iranian centrifuges? You get a custom-made virus like Stuxnet, for one thing, and this piece explores the virus, its operation, and its discovery.<hr>Longform is proudly sponsored this week by The Internet Police: How Crime Went Online, and the Cops Followed. Buy it today.

How a serial killer and his teenage accomplice used listings for “the job of a lifetime” to lure their victims, all single men, to the backwoods of Ohio.

Inside the underground economy of stolen bikes.

A New Yorker finds an unlikely house guest on Craigslist.

An early investigation of “Craigslist Killer” Philip Markoff.

How Craigslist dealers do business.

In which the lead singer of The Kinks reveals, among other things, his true height.

In praise of the library as the rare “indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay.”

An aura of exclusion and elitism at Columbia University: “The question is not whether you are a New Yorker, but which New York you live in.”

[Subscription Required] Rebellious teens and their longhaired antics on Sunset Boulevard.

An obituary for the greatest boxing writer of all time.

[Google Books] On a bout of hubris and brawn.

Hungry young men and savage strikes: the most mythopoeic sport of all.

<

The multiple lives of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

How Jerry Lee Lewis got away with murdering 25-year-old Shawn Michelle Stevens, his fifth wife.

He was a nobody who became a porn star, a porn star who became a destitute freebaser, an addict who set up his dealer to be robbed, and finally witness to a retaliatory massacre at the house they called Wonderland.

How two friends, working with nothing but an Internet connection, a couple of cellphones and a steady supply of weed, beat out Fortune 500 giants like General Dynamics to score a huge arms contract.

How a middle-class jock from a Texas border town who became La Barbie, one of the most ruthless and feared cartel leaders in Mexico.

Matthew Weigman was blind, overweight, 14 and alone. He could also do anything he wanted with a phone. Sometimes that meant calling Lindsay Lohan. Other times it meant sending a SWAT team to an enemy’s door.For

Inside the most sensational murder in the history of study abroad.

An excerpt from Whitey Bulger: America’s Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice.

A view of the Barefoot Bandit from his hometown.

Can a writer disappear in America for a month with a $5,000 bounty on his head?

The story of how Benjamin Holmes, wanted by the FBI for arson, spent two decades hiding in plain sight. (Also the story of how, when Holmes finally came back to see his wife, she shot him.)

On the run in Canada with Randy Quaid and his wife Evi as the try to evade “the Hollywood Star Whackers.”

A visit to the French hideaway of Ira Einhorn, co-founder of Earth Day, who had avoided arrest on murder charges for nearly 20 years. Einhorn was extradited to the United State. in 2001 and is now serving a life sentence.