Is Steve Pankey a cold-blooded killer who got away with murder for decades, or just a true-crime obsessive craving attention?

From happy-ending masseurs to incompetent bank robbers, these are the stories that most enthralled our readers this year.

From the one-eyed African queen to undercover anarchists, don’t miss our team’s favorite stories from the past year.

When the Great War sent the men of Europe to the front lines and left a legendary family business on the brink of bankruptcy, two brave women stepped into the ring.

After the King of France beheaded a nobleman on questionable charges, his devastated widow transformed into “the Lioness of Brittany” and spent the next decade exacting her revenge.

Renegade developers co-opted this controversial video game’s source code to build a complex alternate universe where breaking character is the cardinal sin. Millions tune in to watch.

In 1850s Vermont, Achsa Sprague swore that the spirits who miraculously helped her walk again also possessed her with a crucial mission: freeing every soul in America.

Everyone from bawdy bachelorettes to married lesbians pay Ray the masseur to get them off. And he gloats that when it comes to female pleasure, he’s the G.O.A.T.