A 71-year-old famous American writer pens a final letter saying he is leaving for an unknown destination in the middle of a violent revolution, then vanishes without a trace. It is one of the most famous unsolved disappearances in American literary history, but his death overshadows an explosive life.

This episode unpacks Ambrose Bierce, the man who pioneered psychological horror, fought at Shiloh, took down a 130-million-dollar railroad monopoly, and ultimately wrote himself out of history. It is a study of how an uncompromising intellect was forged on the battlefield and why a man who fought to be heard chose silence.

• His traumatic brain injury at Kennesaw Mountain that left him with lifelong fainting spells and irritability
• The 1896 railroad bill, where he derailed a secret 130-million-dollar bailout and told Huntingto ...