Boundary Stones

Did you know that “The Exorcist,” one of the most famous horror movies of all time, was based on a real DC-area exorcism? The 1949 exorcism allegedly took place in PG, Maryland, and inspired “The Exorcist” author and producer William Peter Blatty while he was a student at Georgetown University. But some of the details in this famous case of demonic possession don't add up.

Tongsun Park operated one of the most exclusive Washington social clubs of the 1960s and 70s, rubbing shoulders with generals, members of Congress, even US presidents. All the while, he was on the payroll of a Korean spy agency, giving millions of dollars in gifts to elected officials. Park was charged with multiple felonies, the House opened up a massive investigation and then... nothing.

In 1976 D.C. police dressed as caricatures of Italian mafisosos and bought millions in stolen goods from local thieves. They called it "Operation Sting," and soon police across the country were launching "sting operations" of their own. But not everyone was so enamored with the tactic, especially the communities it was being used to target.

If you lived in Washington, DC on New Years Day of 1802, you may have noticed a giant wheel of cheese arriving at the White House — a gift to President Thomas Jefferson from a Massachusetts church. But this enormous cheese hadn't traveled hundreds of miles for purely celebratory reasons; no, this cheese had a message about religious freedom in the United States.

In the 1940s, civil rights activists discovered that the key to ending segregation in D.C.’s restaurants might be hiding in plain sight at the library. Civil Rights researchers discovered two old D.C. laws which made it a crime for restaurants to refuse service based on race. As Jim Crow tightened its grip, the laws had faded from memory but Mary Church Terrell was determined to bring them back.

George Cassiday, an unemployed army veteran from Southeast Washington, D.C. known as "The Man in the Green Hat," kept spirits flowing on Capitol Hill for 10 years. Despite the 18th amendment, he filled 25 orders per day for hard-drinking representatives and even had an office in the House Office building. But after he got in trouble with the D.C. police, Cassiday decided to expose his customers.

After Benito Mussolini’s execution in 1945, American psychiatrist Dr. Winfred Overholser of St. Elizabeth’s psychiatric hospital had a hunch that some medical condition might have to been to blame for the dictator’s extreme behavior. So he had samples of his brain sent to Washington, D.C., so that he could examine them. And then, one of the samples went missing.

In the late 1950s, D.C.'s Curtis Brothers Furniture Store partnered with Bassett Furniture, which built the World's Largest Chair – a 19.5 foot tall, 4600 pound Duncan Phyfe -- and installed it outside their showroom in Anacostia. Then, they built a glass apartment atop the chair and convinced 19-year-old Lynn Arnold to live there in plain view, 24-7.

In the winter of 1979, thousands of farmers drove their tractors to Washington, D.C., to demand agriculture policy reform. Their protests caused gridlock—until a blizzard hit on Presidents Day. The farmers sprang into action, plowing roads, delivering supplies and rescuing stranded residents, turning frustration into appreciation.

In 1913, thousands of women from across the United States gathered in Washington, D.C. to parade for the right to vote. But when belligerent, drunken men crashed the route, the suffrage march became a street fight.

At almost midnight on July 2, 1915 a bomb ripped through the U.S. Capitol. At the time, it was the most violent attack on the halls of Congress since the British torched the building during the War of 1812. The next morning, as police in Washington analyzed a note left by the bomber, financier J.P. Morgan, Jr. was shot at his home on Long Island. Was it possible that the same man was responsible?

In the 1930s, Jimmy “The Gentleman Gambler” Lafontaine made millions running the largest casino between New York and Florida from the D.C./Maryland line, despite the fact that gambling was completely illegal. But the city loved him, the police were in his pocket and business was booming — until the mob wanted in on the action.