J. Mark Powell - Author

When you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go. Even when you’re 200 feet underwater.
But 70 years ago, answering Nature’s Call actually sent a submarine to the bottom of the ocean. You have to hear this bizarre tale to believe it. And I swear every word is true....

Was America’s favorite redhead really a Red?
Lucille Ball was no stranger to pressure. For years, she had appeared on stage and in live radio broadcasts. She had performed hilarious stunts before movie and TV cameras alike with equal ease.
But nothing, nothing at all, was like the pressure facing her on Friday evening, September 11, 1953. Because everything (and I do mean everything) hinged on the response that would greet her when she walked out before 300 people in the television studio...

“My father left, he never even married mom. I shared the guilt my mama knew.”
-Love Child, Diana Ross & The Supremes
We Americans idealize our presidents. We place them on lofty pedestals while forgetting that the men depicted in the marble statues were once real humans. All too human, in some cases … especially when it came to fooling around....

How racism, a famous uncle & Yellow Journalism created a Turn of the Century Whodunnit?
The late Victorians and Edwardians relished a good murder. Consider how our British cousins were fascinated by Jack the Ripper’s killings. The same was true on this side of the pond. When fame, notoriety and crime were rolled into one story, reported...