The Air Mail Archive: Every weekly issue

Issue No. 216

September 2, 2023

Hot Water

From Nantucket, Clara Molot reports on the climate activists who gate-crashed a fundraiser for Massachusetts governor Maura Healey and were physically threatened by the liberal donors in attendance

Singing the Blue

From Virginia, Diana B. Henriques says that liberal critics of Oliver Anthony’s MAGA-beloved hit country song, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” have got it all wrong

Desperately Seeking Sinatra

From New York, New Journalism legend Gay Talese recalls going deep into Frank Sinatra’s shady inner circle, in part two of our exclusive excerpt from his new memoir

Issue No. 215

August 26, 2023

Forest Grumps

From California, William D. Cohan reports on the drama at Bohemian Grove, the ultra-secretive, all-male campground beloved by Bill Gates and Clarence Thomas

Hunting Ol’ Blue Eyes

From New York, literary legend Gay Talese describes the painstaking reporting involved in his most acclaimed magazine piece, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” in an exclusive excerpt from his new memoir

Barb-arians at the Gate

From Hollywood, Stuart Heritage contemplates the truly terrifying consequences of Barbie’s box-office success

Issue No. 214

August 19, 2023

Up, Up, and Away

From the editors’ desk, Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley unveil AIR MAIL’s reimagined Arts Intel Report, our one-of-a-kind resource for the discerning world traveler

Death and Taxes

From New York, Johanna Berkman chronicles how the financier Leon Black thought he could avoid paying more than $1 billion in taxes—with the help of his friend Jeffrey Epstein—in part two of her exclusive investigation

Dirt Digger

From the courtroom, Jack Crosbie reveals the identity of Sam Bankman-Fried’s private investigator, whose previous clients include O. J. Simpson, Ghislaine Maxwell, and John Gotti Jr.

Issue No. 213

August 12, 2023

Below the Law

From Washington, D.C., Jeffrey Toobin reveals how a midlife crisis transformed the lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, a mild-mannered “nerd among nerds,” into Co-Conspirator 5, the mastermind behind Trump’s fake-elector plot

Death of a Master

From Hollywood, Graydon Carter hymns the protean originality of the late filmmaker William Friedkin, who could be exceptionally charming, or charmingly cantankerous, depending on the day

Nocturnal Animals

From downtown, Jake Malooley unveils an eye-opening oral history of After Hours—the black comedy that revived Martin Scorsese’s career—featuring Griffin Dunne, Catherine O’Hara, and Scorsese himself

Issue No. 212

August 5, 2023

Dark Money

From New York, Johanna Berkman untangles the sordid links between the billionaire financier Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein to reveal a world of fine-art collecting, high-end Russian escorts, and alleged sex trafficking

In the Shadow of a Doubt

From the campaign trail, Jonathan Darman wonders whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s conspiracy theories are a sign of the times or, rather, of a fine old American tradition

Kicking and Screaming

From the U.K., Jonathan Margolis reports on the disastrous first season of the world’s only carbon-neutral, Palestine-supporting, vegan soccer team—and their ultra-violent head coach

Issue No. 211

July 29, 2023

Defense of a Suspect

From the courtroom, Howard Blum’s latest dispatch on the Idaho student murders reveals a new defense angle, clouding the case against alleged killer Bryan Kohberger

Going AWOL

From Israel, Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv report on the elite soldiers who say they will not show up for duty in protest of Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to tame the courts, as talk of a civil war grows

Nuclear Family Man

From the archives, as Robert Oppenheimer gets his day in the light of a thousand suns, Lesley M. M. Blume uncovers Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little author E. B. White’s decades-long campaign against Oppenheimer’s atomic progeny

Issue No. 210

July 22, 2023

Not So Charming

From Italy, Beatrice Borromeo pulls back the curtain on the Prince of Naples—the heir to the Italian throne—and the German model who tried to bring him to justice for the callous killing of her beloved brother

Striking Behavior

From Paris, Alexandra Marshall reports that French journalists are on strike—mais bien sûr!—but this time, they might have a point

Freaky Friday

From Boston, John Glatt tells the astonishing story of Shelby Hewitt, a 32-year-old social worker who infiltrated a number of different high schools posing as a teen as young as 13

Issue No. 209

July 15, 2023

MARTIAN LAW

From the edge of space, Rich Cohen reports on the latest breaking developments in U.F.O.-ology—a U.S. Air Force whistleblower! A crashed alien spacecraft! Congressional hearings!—and why now is the time to start believing. No, really!

INTO THE WILD

From London, Simon Callow recalls how the cultured exterior of his friend the late actor Julian Sands masked a wild man who kicked down Callow’s front door and branded him with a coat hanger

FIGHT OF THE VALKYRIES

From the orchestra pit, John Mauceri muses on why Putin’s chef turned mutineer, Yevgeny Prigozhin, named his supposed anti-Nazi mercenary group after Hitler’s favorite composer. And how do you pronounce it?

Issue No. 208

July 8, 2023

LONG ISLAND ESPRIT

From Montauk, Vincent Fremont looks back at how Andy Warhol’s beach house in the once sleepy fishing village played host to Jackie O, Truman Capote, Lee Radziwill, and many others

DÉJÀ PROFUMO

From the archives, newly declassified intelligence reports about Britain’s orgy-filled Profumo affair remind Calder Walton of Russia’s attempts to put Trump in the White House

LADY BOSS

From Hollywood, Rory Green reveals how her mother, the blockbuster novelist Jackie Collins, reveled in her ability to shock, and instilled in her daughter her own fiery brand of feminism

Issue No. 207

July 1, 2023

ON THE ROCKS

From Milan, Elena Clavarino reports on a gruesome murder involving a bartender at the prestigious Bamboo Bar, his pregnant girlfriend, and his wronged mistress

THE END OF THE RAINBOW

From the culture wars, David Kaufman laments how the hyperfocus on transgender issues in the L.G.B.T. movement has kicked the L’s, G’s, and B’s to the curb

CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT

From the U.K., Michael Odell speaks to the BBC’s “booker extraordinaire” about her months-long quest to secure that Prince Andrew interview

Issue No. 206

June 24, 2023

PARKS AND INCARCERATION

From New York, Jeffrey Toobin observes that Linda Fairstein, the trailblazing female prosecutor who sent the Central Park Five to prison, has been exiled from polite society, while one of the Five is now running for City Council

DOUBLING DOWN

From Las Vegas, Michaela Seward reveals the story of Sara King, a beautiful, gambling-addicted fraudster who thought she’d mastered the Las Vegas slot machines, until she started losing—big

VULGAR ON THE VOLGA

From Moscow, Tom Parfitt reports on the bling-filled, oligarch-funded compound Vladimir Putin has created for his ex-wife and daughters, complete with a $72,000 gold-plated chandelier

Issue No. 205

June 17, 2023

SIGNOR SCANDAL

From Italy, Alessandra Stanley observes that for all of Silvio Berlusconi’s bunga-bunga parties, spray tans, and corruption charges, the late P.M. was still more likable than Trump

PRINCE OF WAILS

From London, Camilla Long witnesses the bizarre performance of Prince Harry, the first royal to stand in a witness box in 130 years

FOURTH TIME’S NO CHARM

From New York, William D. Cohan pulls back the curtain on the messy legal battle between the late publishing giant Richard Snyder and his sticky-fingered fourth wife

Issue No. 204

June 10, 2023

Temper of our Times

From quarrels at the White House to brawls at the Waffle House, anger is quickly becoming the defining feature of our decade. Mind the smoke emanating from the Raging 20s

Chips Ahoy

From Silicon Valley, how the multi-billionaire founder of Nvidia, chipmaker to the A.I. revolution, may well destroy humanity

The Mormonic Inferno

From Utah, the grisly tale of the young mother of three who allegedly poisoned her husband before self-publishing a children’s book dedicated to him

Issue No. 203

June 3, 2023

HELL’S COOK

From Russia, Andrew Ryvkin reveals that Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin’s chef turned mercenary, aspires to be Donald Trump, Kremlin-style

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD WHITE MEN

From Hollywood, Sam Wasson reflects on the Oscars’ new diversity quotas and what they mean for the future of the motion-picture industry

Armie Hammer: Coda

From Los Angeles, James Kirchick revisits his exclusive interview with the actor as sexual-assault charges against him are officially dropped

Issue No. 202

May 27, 2023

YES! OUI! CANNES!

From Cap d’Antibes, we offer an inside look at the AIR MAIL–Warner Bros. Discovery party at the picturesque Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc

THE RUB OF TIME

From the editor’s desk, Graydon Carter recounts how Martin Amis grappled with growing old yet never lost his fizzy linguistic fireworks

STATE OF TERROR

From the art world, Alexandra Bregman untangles an alleged $160 million fraud scheme that spanned 10 years, 52 family members, Picassos, and Warhols

Issue No. 201

May 20, 2023

The View from Here

Graydon Carter on the glories of the Cannes Film Festival

Beating the System

Apocalypse Now almost broke Francis Ford Coppola. Then it broke the box office

The Château That Ate Provence, Part III

The gaudy, illegally built château that just won’t quit

Issue No. 200

May 13, 2023

LEAVING IN STYLE

From Palm Beach, Bridget Foley interviews Tom Ford about his fashion fights and his obsession with death, as he steps down from his eponymous label

RUNNING FOR HIS LIFE

From Sudan, Peter Mennin recalls being caught in Khartoum as the civil war erupted, and escaping the country by the skin of his teeth

INVESTOR RELATIONS

From Wall Street, William D. Cohan explores the irregular friendship between Goldman Sachs C.E.O. David Solomon and the property developer Mike Meldman, creator of havens for the hyper-rich

Issue No. 199

May 6, 2023

Career Suicide

From Idaho, Howard Blum probes deep into the mind of alleged student murderer Bryan Kohberger, a smart criminal-justice scholar caught by the very methods he studied

Religious Sexts

From Germany, Laura Moser unravels the sordid web of pornographic messages, sexual harassment, and academic fraud surrounding one of the country’s most powerful rabbis

The People’s Paparazzo

From the U.K., Henri Cartier-Bresson’s street photographs hearken back to the time England crowned its last king

Issue No. 198

April 29, 2023

WAILING TOWN

From Nantucket, Clara Molot reports on the housing crisis that has seen tiny fishermen’s cabins selling for millions of dollars on the tony island, and the murky forces at play behind the scenes

FRENEMY OF THE STATE

From Buckingham Palace, Lois Rogers reveals how Wallis Simpson coldly betrayed her childhood best friend in her insatiable quest to become Queen of England

ABOVE THE GLASS CEILING

From the first-class lounge, Rich Cohen charts the unashamedly sexist history of the Executive, the men-only flight that offered free cigars and unlimited cocktails in the Mad Men era

Issue No. 197

April 22, 2023

New Dogs, Old Tricks

From the editor’s chair, Graydon Carter charts how high-end thievery and unaccountability in the U.S.—from Clarence Thomas’s holidays to Jared Kushner’s Saudi kickbacks, to Trump’s staggering frauds—are starting to resemble Russia’s after the fall of the Soviet Union

Trumpsclusive!

From Mar-a-Lago, we present MAGAzine! The hugely anticipated second volume of the Official Lifestyle Publication of Your Once and Future Favorite President features Marjorie Taylor Greene’s fashion tips, a sneak peek at Trump’s Memorial Service, and much more!

The Trial That Never Was

From Delaware, Mark Bowden reports on the shocking last-minute settlement that ended the Dominion vs. Fox trial before it even began

Issue No. 196

April 15, 2023

The Chicago Way

From the newsroom, Alessandra Stanley suggests that the only way to deal with the Russian arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is to hit Putin back Untouchables-style

Courting Disaster

From Westchester, William D. Cohan uncovers how an upmarket country club’s squash program has been a hotbed of steamy affairs and sexual harassment

Leaving in Style

From the Upper East Side, Sam Kashner goes behind the scenes at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, which has ushered everyone who’s anyone—including Succession’s Logan Roy—into the hereafter

Issue No. 195

April 8, 2023

THE SPY WHO LOATHES ME

From Israel, Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv report on how even super-secretive Mossad agents are openly protesting Netanyahu’s efforts to weaken the nation’s judiciary

Blood in Brussels

From Belgium, Joseph Bullmore unravels the violent murder of a billionaire baroness by her own stepson, a counter-espionage spy

Daylight Grubbery

From New York, Alan Richman chews over the sky-high prices in the city’s restaurants

Issue No. 194

April 1, 2023

Construction Zone

From New York, Charles Bagli laments the roughly 380 miles of scaffolding currently in place throughout the city

Après Moi, Le Déluge

From Paris, Alessandra Stanley looks past the marches, the strikes, and the uncollected trash at the man behind it all

A New Hope

From Syracuse, Howard Blum reflects on the exoneration of Anthony Broadwater, who spent 16 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit

Issue No. 193

March 25, 2023

Black Market in Red Square

From Moscow, Andrew Ryvkin discovers the hustles and work-arounds that Russians are using to get their hands on Western luxury goods—and enrich Putin at the same time

America’s Nightmare

From New York City, James Wolcott marvels at Rudy Giuliani’s ability to relinquish all shame, honor, and self-respect, and how he managed to disgust even Trump

The Royal Me

From Buckingham Palace, Stuart Heritage considers the multitude of ways Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have forgotten their manners

Issue No. 192

March 18, 2023

Inside Man

From New York, a top art dealer turned fraudster divulges the deceptions and cons of the big-time art world as well as how he taught the Situation to play Scrabble behind bars

Own Goal

From the U.K., Stuart Heritage recounts the disastrous battle the BBC has been waging—and spectacularly losing—against national treasure and former soccer player Gary Lineker

Reich Here, Reich Now

From Germany, Antonia Woloshyn exposes the neo-Nazis who have been murdering immigrants, robbing banks, and making bombs, all while the police look the other way

Issue No. 191

March 11, 2023

Mother’s Ruin

From rehab, Lyndall Hobbs speaks of her heartbreaking quest to save her daughter from the ravages of fentanyl addiction

Tears for Sears

From Wall Street, William D. Cohan recounts the precipitous fall of a great American institution—and how the financial somersaults concocted by the hedge-fund manager Eddie Lampert only hastened its demise

Model Murder

From Hong Kong, Eric Wilson reports on the gruesome killing of the model, influencer, and socialite Abby Choi, whose body was dismembered—and worse

Issue No. 190

March 4, 2023

All the World’s a Stage

From Hollywood, Edward Zwick tells of the outrageous backroom maneuverings that got Shakespeare in Love to the screen, including the sexcapades of Daniel Day-Lewis and Julia Roberts

Crazy Like A Fox

From the newsroom, Brian Stelter reveals how Fox News host Maria Bartiromo went from being a respected business journalist to a full-blown election conspiracist. Was she after higher ratings, or did she actually believe it?

Philophilia Returns

From London, Vassi Chamberlain seeks out the enigmatic Phoebe Philo, the fashion darling and former creative director of Celine, as she returns to the spotlight