Mysteries: Risque Dance, Vanishing Lake Pictures
Don Wildman examines the bullets that killed a notorious mobster, and the feathery props that belonged to a risqué dancer who captivated a city in the midst of the Great Depression.
On display at the Chicago History Museum is a set of feather plume fans that were used for a burlesque show at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair.
Sally Rand’s career skyrocketed after she debuted her risqué fan dance at the fair.
The International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, houses the make-up that was used to disguise the 6 American diplomats who evaded capture during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979.
The CIA used a fake film project -- a sci-fi movie they called Argo -- to disguise the Americans as a Canadian film crew and rescue them from Iran.
The LA Police Museum houses bullet fragments found at the scene of notorious mobster Bugsy Siegel's murder.
In 1941, Bugsy Siegel was shot dead in his girlfriend’s home in Beverly Hills, CA.
Siegel’s murder remains shrouded in mystery, and we may never know who fired the bullets that killed him.
At the Baltimore Medical Examiner's office is a collection of meticulous, miniature crime scene dioramas created by the “Mother of CSI,” a millionaire heiress named Frances Glessner Lee with an interest in forensics.
These morbid displays of death played an unexpected role in the history of modern crime scene investigation.
At the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, is a “Blue Box,” a contraption invented by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs that, in the days of rotary telephones, could hack the phone network to make free long-distance calls.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were so delighted by their success with the Blue Box that they decided to continue their partnership -- eventually resulting in the creation of Apple computer
At the Joseph Jefferson Mansion and Gardens on Lake Peigneur in New Iberia, LA, is an antique urn that was one of few relics to survive a terrifying and earthshaking disaster.
On Nov. 20, 1980, a mining accident caused a giant whirlpool to form -- sucking in 65 acres of buildings, barges, trees and terrain surrounding the lake.