Day 20: Rivals

"Rivals can push us to greatness or drive us to madness.”

The intense rivalry between elite figure skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan culminated in one of the most shocking sports scandals ever. It’s a chilling tale where intense competition, bitter jealousy, and outright desperation collided on the ice.

On January 6, 1994, Nancy was brutally struck on the knee with a metal baton while she was practicing for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit. The investigation soon linked the attacker, Shane Stant, to Tonya's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, and her bodyguard, Shawn Eckardt, who had plotted to eliminate Kerrigan.

Tonya vehemently denied any direct involvement but later admitted she learned of the plot and helped cover it up. She pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution, receiving three years’ probation, 500 hours of community service, and a lifetime ban from skating. While Tonya's career disintegrated under global infamy, Nancy made a stunning recovery, going on to win the silver medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics.

When does rivalry stop driving excellence and start destroying it?

Day 21: Blast

"The Blast from the collar bomb was a horrifying end to one of America's most bizarre crimes."

On August 28, 2003, Brian Wells walked into a PNC Bank in Erie, PA, carrying a bizarre cane-shaped gun and wearing a bomb locked around his neck. After the robbery, police apprehended him. As he sat handcuffed, the bomb's timer ran out after 40 minutes, and the subsequent blast was fatal, killing Wells on live TV just minutes before the bomb squad arrived. The complex FBI investigation uncovered a plot by mastermind Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong to get money to hire a hitman to kill her father.

The case is called the "Pizza Bomber" because Wells, a pizza delivery man, was lured to a remote site via a delivery call. The fatal blast came from a sophisticated, hinged metal collar bomb with decoys, timers, and anti-tamper mechanisms designed to detonate if anyone tried to remove it, meaning Wells was likely doomed from the start.

Was he an innocent victim forced into a deadly plot, or a willing participant who tragically learned the bomb was real only when it was too late?

Day 22: Button

"Even the most meticulous criminal can't account for an unassuming, misplaced button."

In Button Holed, the first of the Button Box Mysteries by Kylie Logan, Josie Giancola is the nationally recognized expert on buttons and the owner of The Button Box specialty shop. Her expertise on rare and artistic buttons draws a major Hollywood starlet to her shop, looking for unique buttons for her custom wedding dress. However, the celebrity's visit quickly turns into a crime scene.

Josie's cozy world is completely flipped upside down when her shop is trashed, and then the actress is found dead right there on the premises! Homicide Detective Nevin Riley immediately focuses on an antique button hook from Josie's very own shop as the murder weapon. Another key clue? A single, weird button that isn't on her inventory list is found near the body, pulling Josie right into the thick of the investigation. The detective needs her insane button knowledge to figure out the tiny clues, but Josie soon realizes the killer is out to silence her for good. She has to use her expertise and hustle to pin the crime on the real culprit before she is permanently taken out of the loop.

Can the smallest detail really solve the biggest crime?

Day 23: Firefly

"The silent killer of the swamp, the female firefly understands this truth: survival is the ultimate seduction."

The femme fatale firefly is a predatory female Photuris firefly that mimics the mating flash of another species to lure and consume the unsuspecting males. This biological deception is the central metaphor in Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing.

The novel centers on the 1969 murder of local quarterback Chase Andrews. The investigation immediately targets Kya Clark, the isolated Marsh Girl he had secretly romanced and violently betrayed. Though acquitted due to a lack of evidence, the truth is revealed only after Kya's death. A poem, The Firefly, among her belongings is her confession. It describes how Kya, a brilliant naturalist, used the deceptive, lethal survival tactic of the predatory female firefly against Chase. She lured him to the remote fire tower under the pretense of reconciliation, using his own predatory nature against him to ensure her survival and permanent escape from his violence.

When the civilized world’s laws fail to protect, does the raw, amoral law of nature become the only true justice?

Day 24: Rowdy

"Brother, you got to be on the rowdy side to get anything done in this world."

"They Live" (1988), directed by John Carpenter, stars wrestling icon "Rowdy" Roddy Piper as Nada, a drifter who embodies the film's anti-establishment spirit. Nada stumbles upon special sunglasses in Los Angeles. When worn, they reveal a chilling reality: billboards and media are plastered with subliminal commands like "OBEY" and "CONSUME," and many wealthy elites are actually ghoulish, skull-faced aliens secretly controlling humanity.

Nada joins a resistance and fights to destroy the alien broadcast signal that hides the truth. The film functions as a visceral critique of consumerism and media manipulation, channeled entirely through a man who refuses to stay asleep.

Roddy's rowdy persona drives the narrative; his background lends authenticity to the desperate, violent fight against the invisible oppressors. The brutal, extended brawl with co-worker Frank over the glasses is a raw metaphor for the struggle to awaken the willfully ignorant.

Given the choice, would you fight for the truth or choose to remain asleep?

Day 25: Inferno

"As the inferno consumed the building, he watched not as a witness to the tragedy, but as the architect of the flames."

John Leonard Orr was a respected Glendale fire captain and arson investigator who secretly was one of the 20th century's most prolific serial arsonists, igniting nearly 2,000 fires across California between 1984 and 1991. Entrusted with solving the very crimes he committed, he would set fires and then "investigate" them, cultivating a reputation as a brilliant fire genius.

The 1984 Ole's hardware store fire killed four people, including a two-year-old child. Authorities ruled it accidental, yet John was the sole investigator insisting it was arson. His fingerprint on an incendiary device finally caught him, but the most damning evidence was his unpublished manuscript, Points of Origin, chronicling a firefighter-arsonist. The novel mirrored his real crimes in chilling detail and included information not released to the public. Convicted of murder and arson, he received life without parole.

If the hero meant to save you from the fire is the one who lit the match, who can you trust when the flames rise?

Day 26: Puzzling

"The most puzzling crimes are those that leave behind too many clues, not too few."

The Somerton Man case began December 1, 1948, on an Australian beach. Its enduring mystery stems from a barrage of contradictory clues. The man was impeccably dressed, yet every clothing tag and form of identification was meticulously removed. His cause of death was an untraceable poison, hinting at professional execution or suicide.

The core enigma was found in his trouser pocket: a tiny scrap with the Persian words "Tamám Shud" (translation: it has ended), from a rare poetry book, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. This clue led to the discovery of the source book, which contained two more inexplicable elements: a phone number and a five-line code scribbled in the back cover. The phone number connected to a local nurse, who denied knowing the man but appeared visibly troubled. The five line code too proved to be an unbreakable cipher, a seemingly random collection of letters that has defied cryptologists for decades.

This puzzle is a jumble of contradictions: intentional anonymity alongside a poetic, encrypted farewell, turning a death on a beach into an international cold case rife with spy theories.

Was the "Tamám Shud" code a message or a suicide note?