How It Really Happened — Season 8

Diving to Titanic is similar to preparing for space travel – it's a very hostile environment and less than 50 people have ever done it. Even more than 100 years later, the Titanic is still leading people to their death. Recent advances in science and technology have led to brilliant new discoveries and uncovered move of Titanic's hidden secrets, and this episode of How It Really Happened examines how the latest Titanic learnings upend our previous thinking about many of the ship's mysteries and myths. Weaving together the narratives of the shipwreck on April 14, 1912 and a recent underwater Oceangate voyage to the wreck that cost more human lives, this episode features interviews with Titanic historians, wreck analysts, descendants of Titanic passengers, and writer and producer Julian Fellowes (Titanic).

Diving to Titanic is similar to preparing for space travel – it's a very hostile environment and less than 50 people have ever done it. Even more than 100 years later, the Titanic is still leading people to their death. Recent advances in science and technology have led to brilliant new discoveries and uncovered move of Titanic's hidden secrets, and this episode of How It Really Happened examines how the latest Titanic learnings upend our previous thinking about many of the ship's mysteries and myths. Weaving together the narratives of the shipwreck on April 14, 1912 and a recent underwater Oceangate voyage to the wreck that cost more human lives, this episode features interviews with Titanic historians, wreck analysts, descendants of Titanic passengers, and writer and producer Julian Fellowes (Titanic).

Following the 2001 terror attacks on 9/11 which shook the country to its core came a second wave of threats, potentially even more deadly. Anthrax has been called "the poor man's nuclear bomb" – it is a spore-forming bacteria that is only a few microns in size and has the capability to kill millions. Both easy to make and easy to weaponize, these biological attacks gripped the nation with fear and launched one of the largest investigations in FBI history. This episode of How It Really Happened features interviews with former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, former Senate Democratic Majority Leader Tom Daschle, former CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding, Dr. Jean Malecki who identified the case in the Anthrax attacks, and US postal workers and members of the media who survived exposure to Anthrax.

The shocking shooting death of Reeva Steenkamp at the hands of Olympic superstar and convicted murder Oscar Pistorius on Valentine's Day of 2013 pulled the curtain back on the storybook romance of a celebrated Hollywood couple. It started as a charming love affair between a world-famous athlete and a fashion model and ended with four hollow-point bullets through the bathroom door. This episode of How It Really Happened investigates whether this was a terrible accident, or a callous murder. Did Pistorius shoot Steenkamp mistaking her for a home invader, or did he intentionally shoot to kill? This episode features footage from the court in Pretoria, South Africa during Pistorius's 2013 murder trial and 2023 parole hearing and original interviews with Steenkamp's mother, modeling agent and family attorney.

Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is known for its vibrant art collection depicting renaissance scenes. But on the night of Saint Patrick's Day in 1990, robbers swept in, terrorizing the guards and taking 13 pieces of art which have never been recovered and are now worth half a billion dollars. This episode of How It Really Happened includes an interview with the museum security guard on duty who details the events of that night and his experience being held captive by the intruders, with never-before-seen museum security footage. FBI special agents, government officials and local journalists who covered the case provide expert insight into the international undercover operation attempting to recover the missing art and the key players in organized crime who have been suspected of the heist.

In the summer of 1996, all eyes were on Atlanta, Georgia for the centennial Olympics. On July 27 at a celebration in Centennial Park, a security guard noticed a suspicious backpack under a bench. Security and law enforcement moved quickly to evacuate the massive crowd, but time was not on their side – two people were killed, and more than 100 others were injured. Several more bombings in the next eighteen months led investigators to suspect a serial bomber was stalking Atlanta.This special episode of How It Really Happened features interviews with former special agents and journalists who were on scene at the time of the Centennial Park bombing and investigated the case. It also features interviews with friends and the attorney of falsely accused suspect Richard Jewell.

Interviews with former special agents, journalists, and Richard Jewell's associates provide insight into the case and its aftermath. Subsequent bombings over the next eighteen months led investigators to suspect a serial bomber in Atlanta.

On September 29, 1982, seven Chicago-area residents were suddenly stricken with a deadly illness. At first doctors were at a loss, but they soon discovered a sinister connection: all the victims had recently taken cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules. This launched an investigation that has lasted over four decades and forever changed the way medications and other goods are packaged in stores. This episode features interviews with family members of the victims, law enforcement who were first responders on that day, medical examiners and investigators on the case. 

On July 5, 1998, a wealthy widow named Irene Silverman disappeared from her New York City townhouse. While police went on a frantic search for her, they had no idea the investigation would unravel one of the most shocking series of crimes they had ever seen – a trail of violence and fraud that stretched from the Bahamas to Los Angeles perpetuated by mother-son duo Sante and Kenny Kimes. This episode features interviews with Sante Kimes's son Kent Walker, Sante Kimes's attorney, NYPD officers who worked the case, and a journalist taken hostage by Kenny Kimes in prison.

When Iranian students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran in November 1979, they took the Embassy staff hostage and held them for 444 days. Only a handful managed to escape, but they were trapped in Iran until the CIA came up with a daring plan to bring them home. This top-secret mission was the subject of the Academy Award-winning film Argo. In this episode, several former hostages detail their time in captivity, and three of the Tehran Six escapees tell of their daring rescue.