The New Newgate Calendar

Mary Ann Tracey, with two accomplices, Patrick Kearns and Hugh Burns,  was condemned to death in February 1880 for the murder of her husband, Patrick... read more »

John Lewis’ Oxford Street store, c.1885 Given the proliferation of shops in the capital it is not surprising that shoplifting was much more of a... read more »

It’s not hard to understand why the Andersonville Raiders turned criminal. But on this day in 1864, the group was decapitated when six of its leaders... read more »

Marine engineer George Johnson Armstrong on this date in 1941 was hanged at Wandsworth Prison … attaining an unenviable distinction as the first... read more »

The City of London’s Green Yard Victorian newspapers did not use headlines as we know them today but quite often they deployed a sort of headline... read more »

From about the middle of the nineteenth century mental weakness was used to explain some forms of petty offending, usually by women. The idea that female... read more »

A half-dozen murderers hanged in five different U.S. states on this date in 1880. Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, July 10, 1880. We make the count six,... read more »

[i] Mary Ann Tracey: sentenced to death for the murder of her husband, February 1880.   Mary Ann’s husband, Patrick Tracey, was shot dead in... read more »

One of the delights of the Police Court reportage is the additional information it gives me about the way society operated in the Victorian period. Because... read more »

Finland’s last peacetime execution occurred on this date in 1825: the instrument was an axe. Farmhand Tahvo Putkonen, deep in a blue gap celebrating... read more »

Chinese revolutionary Xu Xulin was executed on this date in 1907. As a civil servant in Anhui Province, this militant (English Wikipedia entry | German... read more »

Since the 1980s London has lost what remained of its working port on the Thames. The massive docklands development wiped away the last vestiges of warehouses... read more »

Shoko Asahara and six of his followers in the Aum Shinrikyo cult were hanged today in Japan as authors of one of the most infamous terrorist attacks in... read more »

Today, a new website resource, Prison History, is being launched at the National Justice Museum in Nottingham, itself the former county gaol. Those behind... read more »

In today’s post the normal tables are turned and as a policeman finds himself standing in a Police Court dock. PC Labram (186T) was up before Mr... read more »

Scottish “border reiver” John Armstrong of Gilnockie was hanged on this date in 1530 with his followers at Caerlanrig, without benefit of trial.... read more »

The reports of cases heard before the London Police Court magistrates can be frustrating. It isn’t always obvious what individuals roles are and... read more »

Police Magistrates had to deal with all sorts of things on a daily basis. As well as often being the first stage in most serious criminal prosecutions... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) Just before 6:00 a.m. on July 4, 1828, prison officers arrived at the cell of... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On July 4, 1941, a thirteen-year-old Jewish boy named Ephraim Sternschuss began... read more »

I’m really pleased today to be publishing a guest post from a fab crime historian and friend, Dr Lucy Williams. Lucy is a post-doctoral research... read more »

This is one of those cases where the truth is very hard to get at. On the surface it involves a deception but one in which the motive is far from crystal... read more »

Posted by Krista Kesselring; 2 July 2018. Sanctuary-seeking today typically refers to the efforts of refugees fleeing war or persecution who hope for... read more »

Catholic priest John Murphy was executed on this date in 1798 for his part in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The Black 47 jam “Vinegar Hill”... read more »

I’m thrilled to announce the publication of a new book, co-authored with my colleague Professor Barry Godfrey. Criminal Women 1850-1920: Researching... read more »

1829 was the year that the Metropolitan Police Act was passed bringing a fully regulated and hierarchical system of police to the capital’s streets.... read more »

Archbishop Oliver Plunkett earned the last Catholic martyr’s crown in Britain on this date in 1681.* Product of County Meath blood and Italian seminary,... read more »

When a young woman turned up at Mr Gilson’s fishmongers on New Bond Street asking if he would cash a cheque for her master, the Earl of Bective,... read more »