Documentary / Biography

What do 13 signers of the Constitution and 15 presidents have in common with Duke Ellington and Mozart? All of them along with many other influential figures were members of the world's largest and oldest secret society, the Freemasons. A favorite subject of conspiracy...

They are the cars that appeal to a certain kind of "businessman"--the kind that has a lot of enemies. Smooth, sleek, and glamorous, they've helped make outlaws like John Dillinger, Al Capone, and John Gotti look like gentlemen instead of killers. Some did zero...

For over half a century, she endured threats and ridicule in her tireless quest for reform. She did not live to see the victory she helped bring about. Susan B. Anthony earned her place in history as an unstoppable crusader for woman's suffrage, helping...

In modern times, the first UFO was reported in 1947. But many people believe that aliens have been among us for thousands of years. And for evidence, they point to certain ancient texts and monuments. Do they, in fact, tell the story of extraterrestrial...

THE AXIS: Between 1939 and `45, the world was locked in a nightmare struggle of unprecedented ferocity. When the smoke from WWII cleared, bizarre stories emerged of extraordinary armaments dreamt up by both sides' most inventive minds--weird weapons unlike anything before. New ways of...

Whether it's a bank heist or a traffic violation, there's a punishment in America for every type of crime. Hosts Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran take viewers behind some bizarre bars to investigate our weird fascination with criminals--both lives of crime and time in...

It has endured for centuries as a vision of perfection on earth a mythical valley where a race of immortal humans live in total harmony. From ancient myths to the recent bestseller Lost Horizon, Shangri-La has fascinated us for ages. TIBET'S LOST PARADISEunravels the...

Within the Island of Cozumel in Mexico, there winds a 6-mile underwater cave system named Cueva Quebrada. Almost a mile from any entrance lies a significant cache of Mayan artifacts, a burial mound, found in 1991 by cave explorers Jeff Bozanic and Steve Ormeroid....

This eye-opening investigation delves into the strange history of voodoo from its origins in ancient African religions to its spread and practice in Western countries through slave trade. We'll go in search of its secrets as we witness modern rituals, andsee why this religion...

In this World Premiere documentary special, teenagers get the opportunity to speak out about violence, high school, and their thoughts about what triggered the tragedy at Columbine High School.

This is the epic story of the monumental soldier and statesman who-perhaps more than anybody else-shaped the world we live in today.

In October 1888, two struggling artists joined forces in a tiny yellow house in the South of France. This is the story of the tense friendship between Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin and their "Studio of the South". Though it lasted only 9...

BORN INTO WAR--From the Continental Navy to the steel steamships of the early 20th century. FIRE AND WATER--World War I, its aftermath, and the desperate beginning of WWII.

A powerful tribe of headhunters once ruled the jungles of Ecuador. For the Shuar, the collecting of human heads was much more than a method of defense, it was a right of passage. It is said that you were not a Shuar male unless...

Explore an exotic world of shimmering beauty and sudden death...A place where honor means more than life itself...the world of the old Japan, The Samurai. Discover how their code of honor was born and what sacrifices they were willing to make to live up...

A veteran of the brutal naval battles of World War I, the German submarine UB-107 was discovered on the floor of the North Sea in 1985. An important find itself, it harbored a surprise that would force experts to re-examine the records of the...

The art of modern design is featured in this spectacular episode. Viewers learn how architect Steven Ehrlich transformed a 1950s suburban home into a study of the modern art form, and visit a luxurious New York penthouse that brings modernism to a whole new...

A surprise witness with a stunning story helps crack open the case of a mysterious hit-and-run in a Boston parking garage.

The incredible story of Marion Pruett, a "mad-dog killer" who went on a murder spree while he was in the government's witness protection program. This documentary features footage of Pruett two weeks before he was executed and interviews with his victims' relatives and the...

In 1983, two bankers were murdered on a secluded Minnesota farm. Their deaths and the lives of their troubled killers shocked the small town of Ruthton and became a disputed national symbol for the farm crisis of the early 1980's.

At the height of its notoriety in the late seventeenth century it was known as "the wickedest city on earth," a hangout for pirates, adventurers and sailors. Then a cataclysmic earthquake and tidal wave sent half the town into the sea. Ever since Port...

In the past few years, police car chases have become a staple of local television news, and a voyeuristic thrill for millions of viewers. The question left unanswered is why? Why do motorists run when they know the chase will likely end in an...

The contestants look like refugees from science fiction movies, strange metal contraptions with any number of wheels, treads, arms, scoops and unidentifiable parts. Their masters are high-school-aged kids, and they are hoping that their creations will prove to be the best at a wild,...

There's a new kind of theft growing in America--identity theft. Using stolen credit cards and driver's license numbers, thieves are breaking into citizens' bank accounts. Bill Kurtis shows you how to protect your money and your good name.

Curtis Thompson, who had intimidated his neighbors in the farming community of Toulon, Illinois, goes on a rampage and guns down three people before he's finally brought down in an "Old West"-style shoot-out. In the wake of the killings, townspeople wonder if they'd missed...

Since the ancient pharaohs' time, the Isthmus of Suez has been the gateway to trade between East and West. It's thought that the pharaohs could connect the Red Sea with the Mediterranean using a system of small canals; but the desert sands buried them....

Its 36 chapters detail the complete range of erotic experience from formulas for aphrodisiacs to foreplay and explicit details of intercourse. More than 2,000 years after a forgotten Hindu high priest sat down to compile all that was written about sex and sensuality, the...

On February 9, 2001, the commander of the nuclear submarine USS Greeneville ordered a spontaneous surfacing drill to impress a group of onboard civilians. As the vessel broke surface at high speed, it collided with the Ehime Maru, a Japanese fishing trawler carrying students...

John Orr dreamed of being a policeman, but when he was turned down for the job, he decided to serve the public as a fireman instead. But something went awry, and while Orr became one of California's top arson investigators, he was also putting...

During WWII, one airplane was equally at home at 30,000 feet on a reconnaissance mission as it was skimming over treetops while taking the fight to the enemy. With a speed of over 400 mph, the Mosquito was so fast and maneuverable that Germany...

He was an undercover FBI agent who assumed the identity of Donnie Brasco, a jewel thief. For six years, he kept his true identity secret as he infiltrated successively higher levels of the New York Mafia, at ever greater risk. In the end, his...

In the annals of the Civil War, the great battles dominate. Names like Gettysburg, Chancellorsville or Antietam are famous by sheer weight of blood and horror. Where armies of men by the tens of thousands opposed each other, these were the vast, open, visible...

Fugitive Task Force member and ICE /DRO Supervisor Tommy Kilbride has been in law enforcement for 20 years. But for Tommy the cat-and-mouse game never gets tired, the faces just get familiar. One of those familiar faces has been deported from the U.S. twice...

In Tucson, a grandfather is shot after answering a knock at his front door. The suspect's getaway car crashes a few blocks from the crime scene and the suspect flees. Det. Bill Hanson and his team hope that clues from the car will lead...

Asa, 28, was born into a blue-collar, mixed race family in a predominantly white, small town in central coast California. His father was hard on him growing up and his mother showed her affection for him through food. As a child, Asa struggled with...

Corey Haim and Corey Feldman's first meeting since their fallout continues to flare at the diner and topics and personal accounts that were never made public come flying out. When they are unable to see eye-to-eye about their issues, they decide to see a...

Deep within the former Soviet Union lies a classified, subterranean world of Cold War secrets. In Ukraine, which once had the world's third largest nuclear arsenal, Don ducks behind the Iron Curtain to reveal a how the Soviets were really preparing for a Nuclear...

In Miami, Detective Carlos Castellanos is working the homicide case of a man found dead in a motel bathroom, the victim of an apparent robbery. With little evidence to go on, Castellanos must track down the victim's missing belongings in the hopes that what...

Our modern day landscapes are littered with the remains of amazing ancient superstructures. But new, cutting edge archaeology is beginning to reveal that this century's most exciting discoveries will lie at the bottom of the ocean, where entire submerged cities and extraordinary structures are...

Adventure has a new name! Host, Navy pilot and survival expert Hunter Ellis takes a fresh look at the world's greatest ancient mysteries and puts adventure back into history as he travels to some of the most intriguing, remote and physically challenging locations in...

MODERN DADS features four unapologetically loud, riotously funny, unconventional stay-at-home dads in Austin, Texas who get the job done. Banding together like a fraternity, their "guys club" is a tribe of suburban, child-rearing dudes who are just trying to do their thing...with a kid...

On 9/11, photo-journalist & filmmaker, Andrea Booher, was designated by Mayor Giuliani as one of only two photographers to be allowed unlimited, 24-hour access. She was assigned to the Urban Search & Rescue teams, whose only mission was to find survivors. At the World...

Viewers will feel like they're in the battle, facing the enemy, while watching this new series that recreates famous battles using state of the art computer graphics. US Air Force fighter pilots risk their lives flying sleek F-86 Sabres above "MiG Alley", the most...

In Memphis, Sergeant Caroline Mason and her team respond to a convenience store shooting, where surveillance cameras captured the last few moments of a man's life. Investigators must sift through the footage for clues that will point them to the killer. And in Miami,...

When this 60 tons of high-tech military hardware rumbles onto the battlefield at nearly 40 mph, there's nowhere for the enemy to hide. Behind its impenetrable armor lies one of the most effective computerized weapons systems. Its main weapon--an awesome 120mm rifled gun that...

There was only one ancient city in the Americas that ever truly rivaled the size, scale, and power of its Old World counterparts--Teotihuacan, the City of the Gods. And today, it's the largest ghost town in the world. Still home to the world's third...

Once scorned and rejected by Ford, it took a struggling company like Chrysler to gamble that the minivan might work. The minivan was an entirely new type of vehicle--a cross between a conventional van and a station wagon. Introduced in 1984, the minivan became...

A wall of silence from a frightened community hampers efforts to solve a brutal murder; and a mother of two is shot execution-style in her kitchen in an affluent neighborhood. In a visual style more like drama than reality show, we tail Miami homicide...

Coyame, Mexico is a small town not far from the US border. It's home to three thousand people and possibly the best-kept secret of all-time. In August of 1974, the USA military was tracking a mysterious object over Mexico; then suddenly it disappeared from...

Family and friends stage interventions to halt the self-destructive behavior of Cristine, a wife and mother who drinks at least 18 beers a day, not stopping until she passes out; and Kelly, an anorexic who weighs 93 pounds and whose 3-year-old daughter isfollowing in...