America's top gumshoes are back to prove once again that an object found in an attic or backyard might be anything but ordinary.
Your Investigation
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Wesley Cowan, independent appraiser and auctioneer; Gwendolyn Wright, historian and professor of architecture, Columbia University; Elyse Luray, independent appraiser and expert in art history; Dr. Eduardo Pagán, professor of history and American studies at Arizona State University; and Tukufu Zuberi, professor of sociology and the director of the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, leave no stone unturned as they travel around the country to explore the stories behind local folklore, prominent figures and family legends.
The card has a phone number and his father's name, Fred Nicolls. He's heard that his father worked at the Club Continental; and according to the family story, a mobster named Nola Hahn ran the club. Fred Nicolls did some prison time for bootlegging during Prohibition, but was later pardoned.
"History Detectives" host Eduardo Pagán steps in to connect the dots and reveal the facts about Fred Nicolls and his business card.
The gun came to our contributor’s family after it was handed down through two generations of prominent Chicago families. It’s a Western Field single-barreled repeating action 12-gauge shotgun. The barrel and the stock were once shortened just the way the Capone gang liked its guns: easy to conceal and with more destructive force.
"History Detectives" tests the gun’s firepower, consults with ballistics experts, and combs through physical evidence to see if the gun can be placed at the scene of the crime.
The program seems to promote some kind of high society theme party at the opulent Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Who was Cobina Wright and what do the Boy Scouts, FDR and Cobina’s Circus -- with its lengthy “who’s-who” celebrity list have in common?
"History Detectives" explores New York City’s 1930s high society and illuminates a connection between FDR and the Boy Scouts that inspired one of the most popular and effective pieces of the President’s New Deal program.
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