LBR Picks: The Best of May 2026

She booked the flights and arranged the cash for Jeffrey Epstein. Does she really know nothing?

Plus: three prize-winning stories that might be AI, Nicolas Cage explains himself, and the great artisanal cheese heist.

A 14-year-old paid $250 to make deepfake porn of his classmates

Plus: the only woman ever sworn into the yakuza, a Nevada mom jailed over a stillbirth Facebook post, and Trinity test downwinders finally compensated.

The Rolex Killer's daughter on what true crime steals.

Plus: a century of machines trying to write like humans, cutting crime with streetlights, and an Italian novelist who keeps swapping his apartment to fund travel.

He spent 23 days in jail. His stalker put him there.

Plus: the lawyers using wrongful death suits to punish abortion helpers, a 10-time Jeopardy champ's playbook, and mahjong's $400 makeover.

He thought he hit a deer. He'd killed a 10-year-old.

Plus: the 1876 fair that hid a country falling apart, the orangutan rescues that may be killing them, and Gen Z's 1830s twin in Paris.

Gemini convinced him he was running a $200 million empire.

Plus: the world's richest cat, the Gawker fallout ten years on, and Colombian cartels recruiting kids on TikTok

The Met's $4 Million Looted Egyptian Coffin Scandal

Plus: an unsolved 1992 Los Angeles murder, Bowlero's private equity playbook, and one writer's months inside the Replika AI friendship app.

He spent 15 months undercover. His landlord threatened to kill him.

Plus: fake viral music, Americans living in the desert for $180, and Gen Z students who can't unsee what they've seen.

He bombed a nuclear power station and rode out on his bicycle.

Plus: Elizabeth Strout's 11th novel, an American tween on the edge of everything, and why Little Debbie matters.

Every orange tree in Florida has this disease. There is no cure.

Plus: a life sentence for an unloaded-gun robbery, Shteyngart's miserable week on the world's biggest cruise ship, and the myth of Man the Hunter.

He Fell for a Stranger Online. His Town Lost Everything.

Plus: a fake rehab's forced labor scheme, a Manhattan con artist who rented one apartment to 45 people, and the Saints emails that shook New Orleans.

The Chatbot That Talked a Man Into a Psych Ward

Plus: questions about a nonspeaking autistic author's novel, Telegram groups sharing assault techniques, and a 3D-printed housing scam in Illinois.

What Happened to Mariupol's 60 Missing Orphans

Plus: the Sims creator's decade-long quest to map the human psyche, the Penn State hazing death that could have been stopped, and two 58-year-olds training for Everest.

One in Four "Vegetative" Patients Is Conscious. Almost None Are Ever Tested.

Plus: the Buffalo Catholics who raided two draft boards in their underwear, how the Mellon Foundation controls American humanities, and a father's grief written from a looping TikTok video.

An Oklahoma law meant to free domestic violence survivors keeps failing them.

A GQ writer reckons with 80 pounds lost and a self rebuilt, cannabis farmers are being squeezed, and in an Australian town of 280 people, a rape conviction didn't end anything.