The BEST episodes directed by Rob Rapley
#1 - The Poisoner's Handbook
American Experience - Season 26 - Episode 4
The story of New York City's first medical examiner, Charles Norris (1867-1935), and his chief toxicologist, Alexander Gettler (1883-1968), who pioneered the use of forensic science to explain violent and suspicious deaths. Included: remarks from renowned medical examiners Marcella Fierro and Michael Baden; and author Deborah Blum ("The Poisoner's Handbook"). Oliver Platt narrates.
Watch Now:Amazon#2 - The Abolitionists: 1854-Emancipation and Victory
American Experience - Season 25 - Episode 4
Examine the forces leading to war and to the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment.
Watch Now:Amazon#3 - The Abolitionists: 1838-1854
American Experience - Season 25 - Episode 3
See how the activities of the five principals intersect and affect the anti-slavery movement.
Watch Now:Amazon#4 - The Greely Expedition
American Experience - Season 23 - Episode 10
In 1881, 25 men led by Adolphus Greely set sail from Newfoundland to Lady Franklin Bay in the high Arctic, where they planned to collect a wealth of scientific data from a vast area of the world’s surface that had been described as a "sheer blank." Three years later, only six survivors returned, with a daunting story of shipwreck, starvation, mutiny and cannibalism. The film reveals how poor planning, personality clashes, questionable decisions and pure bad luck conspired to turn a noble scientific mission into a human tragedy.
#5 - Murder of a President
American Experience - Season 28 - Episode 7
The story of James Garfield, one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president, and his assassination by a deluded madman named Charles Guiteau. Follow Garfield's unprecedented rise to power, his shooting only four months into his presidency, and its bizarre and heartbreaking aftermath.
#6 - The Secret of Tuxedo Park
American Experience - Season 30 - Episode 2
In the fall of 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his country’s most valuable military secret — a revolutionary radar component — to a Wall Street tycoon, Alfred Lee Loomis. Using his connections, his money, and his brilliant scientific mind, Loomis and his team of scientists developed radar technology that played a more decisive role than any other weapon in World War II.
#7 - The Abolitionists: 1820s-1838
American Experience - Season 25 - Episode 2
Abolitionist allies Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown and Angelina Grimké turned a despised fringe movement against chattel slavery into a force that literally changed the nation.
#8 - Wyatt Earp
American Experience - Season 22 - Episode 2
The complex life of a man who has come to represent western justice but had many connections to lawlessness.
#9 - Buffalo Bill
American Experience - Season 20 - Episode 13
The varied career of William Cody - from western legend to even greater fame in preserving the culture and mystique of the lifestyle through his "Wild West" shows.