Vatican Spy Rings

Chuck Barris created game show classics like The Dating Game and The Gong Show. However, his memoir claims his prolific career was all a cover for his classified missions as a CIA assassin. The agency says his claim is 100% false, but as Barris notes, "Have you ever heard the CIA ...  Show more

1981, Skidmore, Missouri. Ken McElroy, the “bully of Nodaway County,” is gunned down in the street – in broad daylight, and in front of his wife and an untold number of witnesses. Despite multiple investigations and grand juries, nobody has ever been indicted in the case, thanks ...  Show more

All eyes have been on the Vatican in recent days, as the conclave have decided who will be the next pope. But how does the process today compare to that of past centuries? What have been some of the most dramatic papal elections down the centuries? And was there ever really a fem ...  Show more

Between 1610 and 1614, a series of anonymous letters claimed to reveal hidden knowledge about a mystical secret society. Were the missives divine revelations—or hoaxes? And did a fourteenth-century Christian monk unlock the key to immortality? Learn more about your ad choices. Vi ...  Show more

Giovanni de' Medici was a shrewd strategist who became pope before the age of 40. As a cardinal, he ended the Medicis’ exile in Florence, returning the dynasty to their seat of power. As pope, he would nearly bankrupt the Vatican — and upend the Christian world. Learn more about ...  Show more

From the lagoon of Venice to revolutionary Russia, counterintelligence has always been an important aspect of statecraft. In Brief Histories, the new monthly special from True Spies, series producer Joe Foley is your guide to this secret world - alongside a treasure-trove of stor ...  Show more