The last truly quiet town in America lies deep in the Appalachian Mountains: Green Bank, West Virginia. While astronomers at the Green Bank Observatory use the latest technology to search the depths of the universe, residents live device-free.  No WiFi. No iPads.  There is a ban on anything emanating radio frequencies that might interfere with the Observatory’s telescope.

His weapon of choice was poison. His victims were mostly women. In the span of 15 years, he murdered as many as ten people in the United States, Britain, and Canada, a death toll with almost no precedent in the late nineteen century. He was as brazen as Jack the Ripper. In fact, many people claimed he was the notorious serial killer. In truth, he was Thomas Neill Cream.  Dr. Thomas Neill Cream.  

This complex story begins in the eighteenth century. America’s Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams had great respect for the Persian Empire. In turn, Iranians saw America as an ideal to emulate for their own government.  So, how did two countries that once had such heartfelt admiration for each other became such committed enemies?

In 1932, Mildred Harnick began holding secret meetings in her apartment.  Together, this small band of political activists wrote leaflets that denounced Hitler and called for revolution. Under the cover of night, they slipped the leaflets into mailboxes, public restrooms, and phone booths around Berlin. Mildred also began helping  Jews escape, plotting acts of sabotage, and recruiting more and more working class Germans to the cause.  By 1940, hers was the largest underground resistance group in Berlin.