If someone told you they could read your mind, levitate, walk through walls, or make your heart explode in your chest, you’d probably either say they were crazy or wait to hear the punchline, and you’d be right to do so.

But for over 30 years, the US government spent tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money attempting to create psychic super soldiers of the future, with all those skills and more. This is the ShortHand on Jim Channon and the First Earth Battalion.

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When Omar Mateen stepped into Orlando’s Pulse nightclub and fired into the crowd, 10 years ago this week, it was the start of three hours of unimaginable terror for the city’s gay community. The Islamic State claimed responsibility. The FBI rushed to explain it. The media searched for answers.

But as investigators uncovered Mateen’s history, the picture only got more complicated. There were zero clear ties to any terrorist groups. And then, reports emerged that he had been a regular at the club, flirting and dancing with patrons, going back years. Whatever the 2016 Pulse attack was – devastating, senseless, heartbreaking, profound – it was not simple.

On the 10th anniversary of the Pulse shooting, Hannah and Suruthi revisit the tragedy, and ask what really drove one of the deadliest attacks in modern American history.

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Back in 1483, two young princes mysteriously vanished from the Tower of London…
And more than 500 years later, we’re still arguing about what happened to them. 

Were Edward V and his little brother Richard murdered on the orders of their dastardly uncle, Richard III? Or did they secretly survive – becoming pretenders to the throne amid the bloody War of the Roses?

From Tudor propaganda to academic skulduggery, we’re digging up one of Britain’s greatest unsolved mysteries.

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Netflix's new drama 'The Witness' and documentary 'The Murder of Rachel Nickell' have brought Rachel Nickell's case back into public attention. For the true story behind the murder that rocked the UK, we've resurfaced our episode from February 2023.

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Rachel Nickell’s brutalised body was found on Wimbledon Common with her two-year-old son Alex wiping her bloodied face and begging her to 'wake up'. The nature of the broad daylight attack and the horrific injuries put enormous pressure on the Met to get the case solved and fast. However, none of that justifies the shoddy police work, cut corners, and tunnel vision that allowed serial rapist Robert Napper to go unchecked for years.

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The 1994 excavation of curious buried ruins in southeastern Turkey might have chucked a big rock through the window of archaeological history – shattering everything we thought we knew about our ancient ancestors.

With its intricate carvings, and towering megaliths built long before the wheel or even written language, Göbekli Tepe could rewrite the story of civilisation. But who built it? And why? Join us on a journey into the distant past as we attempt to find out.

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Two chainsaws and a paddling pool; a very public relationship; along with a litany of texts and Discord messages, all pointing to one thing: David “D4vd” Burke killed Celeste Rivas Hernandez. In the eyes of the public, it was that simple.

And yet, it took prosecutors seven months to arrest and charge Burke with Celeste Hernandez’s death, even after her body was found decomposing in his car. Why?

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Naked, clutching the telephone receiver, and with a stomach full of prescription meds, Marilyn Monroe was pronounced dead at 4:25am on the 5th of August 1962. 

Today, a century after her birth, the iconic “blonde bombshell” is still one of the most famous people who has ever lived. She epitomised Hollywood: the fame, the fortune, and the chaos. Rumours placed her in bed with two Kennedys – and under surveillance from the FBI and CIA. Marilyn Monroe was the tainted American Dream.

Could someone so special really have died from something as simple as an overdose?

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The KKK are the OG far-right trolls: one of the most evil groups in US history, and the best-known purveyors of white racism in the United States. 

They have been responsible for countless deaths and acts of discrimination – but where did it all begin? And what do wizards and dragons have to do with it? This is the ShortHand. 

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Dismembered and stuffed into the “frunk” of David “D4vd” Burke’s Tesla: 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez's body was found more than four months after she visited the up-and-coming singer’s house in the Hollywood Hills. Immediately, the story exploded across the internet.

Burke had always maintained that he’d only met Celeste once, and that he didn’t know that she was underage. However, Burke’s fanbase knew all too well that this wasn’t the truth.

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Shot and killed in front of a crowd of terrified onlookers, Harambe, a western lowland gorilla, will go down in history. His death – seemingly while trying to rescue a small boy who had fallen into his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and Biological Gardens – caused ripples across the world.

On the ten year anniversary of his death, we try to answer the million-dollar question: did Harambe need to die?

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