The New Newgate Calendar
Post Archives
Archives for December 2016
Chinese serial killer Gong Runbo was executed on this date in 2006. Runbo’s Jeffrey Dahmer-like hidden life had been exposed that February when a...
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The publishers of the Penny Cyclopæedia presumably believed they were contributing to public knowledge and entertainment at the same time. From...
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In the past few years we have rightly been exercised by child abuse and while most of the dreadful stories in circulation have concerned individuals such...
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Elizabeth Woolcock on December 30, 1873 became the first and only woman ever hanged in South Australia. The daughter of a gold prospector, Elizabeth Oliver...
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One of the things that fascinates me about exploring the reports of cases in the old newspapers is the references to London landmarks (famous and mundane)...
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On this date in 1594, Catholic militant Jean Châtel was dismembered for the near-assassination of King Henri IV. Just two days before his public...
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Today we are protected by considerable and complex laws affecting our consumer rights. Food is labeled (albeit confusingly at times) with levels...
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In 1869, the Tasmanian Government had made an bonus offer of 1000 pounds for the first firm that was to make sales of 1000 pounds of woollen goods that...
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From the San Francisco Bulletin, Dec. 28 1888:
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It is fairly unusual to see the police in the dock at the Police Courts, mostly they appear as prosecutors or witnesses. However, from the creation of...
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(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On December 27, 1864, Richard Hale was hanged at the Stafford Gaol for the murder...
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This is the martyrdom date in 831 for the iconodule saint Euthymius of Sardis. Euthymius was just a child when Byzantium’s century-long internal...
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The London Police Courts did not sit on Christmas Day but the Boxing Day papers were still published for Victorian fathers and grandfathers to read over...
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On this date in 2014, Saudi Arabia beheaded Ismail Khan Sayed for smuggling “a large amount” of heroin into the kingdom. Despite (or because...
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In the 1860s the Police Courts closed at Christmas but just as we are used to that last minute rush for a present so the Victorian court system...
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Old Blighty celebrated Christmas Eve of 1744 by weighing the Tyburn’s triple tree with no fewer than 18 thieves — 16 men, one woman, and one...
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As Christmas approached I decided to look in the British Newspaper Archive confident it would have some suitably salutary stories about how Christmas...
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PC George Stent (186M) was patrolling his beat along Rockingham Street at about 10.30 on the evening of the 14 December 1870 when he heard a noise....
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This date in 1569, Orthodox Metropolitan Philip II of Moscow was martyred for his opposition to Ivan the Terrible. He was elevated in 1566 as Russia’s...
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Borough Market in the 1860s Later today I’m off to doing my Christmas food shopping at Borough Market in Southwark. Today its a cosmopolitan...
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On this date in 1651, Sweden’s Queen Christina revenged a libel on the head of Arnold Johan Messenius and his 17-year-old son. The educated and determinedly...
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The operating theatre at St Thomas’ Church in London [http://thegarret.org.uk] In December 1836 the Union Hall police magistrate was presented with...
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The unique appearance of the Hobart Synagogue is truly remarkable as it the oldest synagogue in Australia and is also a very rare example of a style of...
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In 1827 the Metropolitan Police were yet to be created. Sir Robert Peel (Home Secretary from 1822 to April 1827) was not in post but would...
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By Cassie Watson; posted 21 December 2016. The literature that considers law and crime in the city of Oxford is relatively sparse. Giles Brindley’s...
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Pakistan Pakistan hanged four militants on December 21, 2014, after abruptly lifting a standing moratorium on the death penalty in response to a Taliban...
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The Swan & Sugar Loaf pub in Holborn, c.1919 Joseph Howitt, the landlord of the Swan and Sugarloaf pub in Fetter Lane found himself in front of...
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The honor posterity pays to Sir Thomas More‘s valor for his own eventual martyrdom has always been attenuated by More’s own keenness to visit...
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Continuing the tradition of a compendium post in the run-up to Christmas - here is this year's selection of seasonal madness and crime…Cruickshank...
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Our conference to mark the completion of the Digital Panopticon project will be held on 13-15 September 2017, St George’s Hall, Liverpool,...
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Do you know the muffin man? The muffin man, the muffin man. Do you know the muffin man Who lives in Drury Lane? Are you familiar with this old nursery...
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From the Monroeville (Ala.) Monroe Journal reported on Christmas Day 1925: For the second time within a period of forty years, Monroe County has had a...
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Eastern State Penitentiary (Philadelphia) as it is today Today’s tale from the Police Courts is less of a particular crime and more a report of how...
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On about the 18th December 1942 a group of about 6 prisoners intended to escape but were betrayed by somebody. All six prisoners were led out ofthe camp...
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As far back as 1827 Archdeacon Scott, at the Instigation of Thomas Anstey, Police Magistrate of Oatlands, had applied to the Government for appointment...
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Jack Hall, chimney sweep turned robber turned folk song antihero, hanged at Tyburn on this date in 1707, along with five other men. Two of those others,...
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It is the time of year when charities ask us for money to help the homeless, the elderly, refugees and abandoned pets. Of course they do this all year...
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On this date in 1946, Alawite prophet Sulaiman Murshid (German Wikipedia) was hanged by the newly independent state of Syria as a traitor and a blasphemer....
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Sketch of the “Shocking tragedy at Bourton-on-the-Water” in the Illustrated Police News, 8 Jan 1881, via British Newspaper Archive. (Image...
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1888 is a year which has gone down in criminal infamy for the unsolved murders committed by the person known to history as ‘Jack the Ripper’....
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Mr. and Mrs Chabot had not long been married when they appeared at the Lambeth Police Court in December 1847. The appearance was a memorable one,...
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Merry England – An engraving by William Heath from 1831 showing the artist’s view of justice. Taken from The Hanging Tree by Vic Gattrell....
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Thanks to James Joyce for the guest post on “the ancient tribe of the Joyces”, originally published as “Ireland at the Bar” on...
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Mughal prince Murad Bakhsh, the youngest son of Taj Mahal builder Shah Jahan, was executed on December 14, 1661.* There’s blood in the stones …...
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The 13 December 1867 saw a massive terrorist attack in London. Irish republicans (‘Fenians’ as they were called) exploded a bomb at...
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Here is something a little different to usual that I discovered whilst reading through one of noted Hobart historian Donald Howatson’s sensational...
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On this date in 1943, German troops occupying Greece massacred the entire male population of the town Kalavryta. Weeks earlier, resistance partisans had...
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This week I thought I’d do something different, so I have a short film for you. My girlfriend did the flowers for a wedding at Woodhill Hall...
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Willow Walk goods yard in the early 20th Century John Wright was employed as an inspector by the London and Brighton Railway Company*. He was on...
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From the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Dec. 13, 1924: Shreveport, La., Dec. 12 — Alfred Sharpe, about 25 years old, a negro, was hanged here today...
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