The story of the men on the roof didn't start with that prison takeover in 1991. It didn't start when they were detained in federal prisons. And it didn't start when the government made a secret list of their names in 1984. Instead, it started in the spring of 1980, with one of t ...Show more
The Rumors
During our reporting, we heard one story over and over again: that Fidel Castro had emptied his prisons to fill the boatlift. It's a story that's been told so often and with such conviction that of course it must be true, right? But what if this was more theater than history? Wha ...Show more
It all started with a photograph. A photograph from 1991 of a prison takeover in rural Alabama. A photograph of a group of men on the roof of that prison holding a bedsheet scrawled with a message: "Pray for us." In the first episode of the new season of White Lies, hosts Chip Br ...Show more
It all started with a photograph. A photograph from 1991 of a prison takeover in rural Alabama. A photograph of a group of men on the roof of that prison holding a bedsheet scrawled with a message: "Pray for us." In the first episode of the new season of White Lies, hosts Chip Br ...Show more
In November of 1978, 918 Americans died in the middle of the Guyanese jungle. It would be “the largest single incident of civilian death in American history” until September 11th, 2001. But who were these people? How did they really die? And why were they in South America to begi ...Show more
Locked cells, surrounded by an impenetrable concrete fortress, surrounded by high barbed wire fences, surrounded by water, on an island in San Francisco Bay. Alcatraz was considered the most 'inescapable' prison in the world. The worst of the worst were sent there. So how, in 196 ...Show more