The New Newgate Calendar

Vietnamese General Nguyen Van Nhung was (apparently) executed on this date in 1964. He was the victim of a South Vietnamese coup, after having been a key... read more »

Life Courses of Young Convicts Transported to Van Diemen’s Land   I have a new book out this February. This monograph is the culmination of... read more »

Here are some of the articles relating to crime history that I’ve come across this month. As Nick Ross would have said: “Don’t have nightmares”.... read more »

Muhammad Indera — popularly known as Mat Indera — was executed on this date in 1953 in British-controlled Malaysia. The imam turned Communist... read more »

That life is often cheap is Executed Today‘s stock in trade and few hanged cheaper than Henry Neal on this date in 19733. Two bare entries at the... read more »

El Salvador campesino Jose Feliciano Ama was hanged in the town square of Izalco on this date in 1932 during a ferocious repression of the peasantry. In... read more »

In late January 1852 a man calling himself George Parker was placed in the dock at Lambeth Police court charged with returning from transportation. George... read more »

It’s the old, old story: conniving war profiteer helps client get divorce, conniving war profiteer installs divorced client as mistress, rival lover... read more »

Blood accumulates upon us. Verily, it does seem that the reins of justice have been loosely thrown to the devil, and that we are all driving at breakneck... read more »

On this date in 1774,* in the British official John Malco(l)m was tarred and feathered and mock-executed by enraged Bostonians during the tense run-up... read more »

Danish scheming archbishop Didrik Slagheck was burned in Copenhagen on this date in 1522 — sacrificed to his sovereign’s convenience. Slagheck... read more »

Eighteen- or nineteen-year-old student and revolutionary Võ Thi Sáu was shot by the French on this date in 1952. (cc) image from Michal... read more »

Claudius Smith, a feared Tory guerrilla during the American, was hanged in Goshen, N.Y., on this date in 1779. “The Cowboy of the Ramapos”... read more »

On this date in 2014, China executed a man named Li Hao “for keeping six women in a dungeon as sex slaves and killing two of them,” per CNN’s... read more »

On this date in 1877, the British put a bow on a suppressed rebellion in Malaysia by executing one of its leaders. The conflict is known as the Perak War.... read more »

Hungarian politician József Dudás was hanged on this date in 1957, for participation in the previous year’s abortive Hungarian Revolution.... read more »

America’s crisis of police violence has produced innumerable horrific snuff films. One of the worst is the January 18, 2016 bodycam footage of Mesa,... read more »

One of Russia’s most cherished national myths is that of the “Third Rome” — Russia (via its protean polity, Muscovy) as the successor... read more »

The BBC in their infinite wisdom have decided to celebrate the 70th anniversary of George Orwell’s death (an arbitrary anniversary if ever there... read more »

You can search for mugshots on the NYCMA site I recently discovered the NYC Municipal Archives Online Gallery, which contains nearly a million images from... read more »

Treasure-hunters mark this date in 1891, the hanging of an elderly Katzie indigenous man named* Slumach. Did he take with him to the gallows the secret... read more »

Longtime Saddam Hussein aides Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar — who were co-defendants with the boss at his trial under U.S. occupation... read more »

A 28-year-old Afghan nationalist was executed in Berlin’s Ploetzensee Prison on this date in 1935. “During a heated argument” with Sardar... read more »

U.S. serial killer Earle Nelson hanged in Winnipeg, Canada on Friday the 13th of January in 1928. A disturbed and preternaturally balding 30-year-old,... read more »

Argentinian politician Antonino Aberastain was executed on this date in 1861, after the Battle of Rinconada del Pocito. A polymath barrister from Buenos... read more »

While the Metropolitan Police courts dealt with all manner of crimes, misdemeanors, and complaints, the press only selectively reported them. Sensational... read more »

On this date in 1915, Mewa Singh Lopoke was hanged in British Columbia, Canada. He was part of a massive influx of Punjabi migrants to Canada, and particularly... read more »

(Thanks to Victorian historian William Hepworth Dixon for the guest post, excerpted from his John Howard, and the Prison-world of Europe The date is confirmed,... read more »

The French murderer Pierre François Lacenaire, guillotined on this date in 1836, aspired to be a man of letters … and at least ended up a... read more »

When Alice Lisle married Edward Montague Balmerino Lisle at St. George’s Church, Hanover Square, little did she suspect that her marriage would be... read more »

It was the autumn of 1841, and in the village of Bulkington, some six miles from Coventry, Obadiah Sharp, a hand loom weaver, was working. His master,... read more »

The last woman hanged in New South Wales, Australia was the “Botany Murderess” Louisa Collins, on this date in 1889. A transport convict’s... read more »

On this date in 1959, in the city of Santa Clara lately captured by Cuban revolutionaries, Col. Cornelio Rojas Fernández, commander of the city’s... read more »

You have to feel sorry for Mrs Alice Lisle. The ‘petite, fair, blue-eyed, young lady’ appeared at the Bow Street Police Magistrates court in... read more »

Posted by Krista Kesselring, 6 January 2020. At the root of our own, looser use of the term, ‘disparagement’ once had real legal and social... read more »

More than one hundred prisoners awaiting their sentence have also been slain in their attempts to escape. Here, too, the official story has been written... read more »

An Iranian criminal named Yaqub (or Yaghoob) Ali was publicly hanged on this date in 2011, at Kaj Square in Tehran’s tony Sa’adat Abad neighborhood.... read more »

Juan Oliva Moncusi (sometimes given as Moncasi) was publicly garroted at Madrid’s Campo de Guardias on this date in 1879 for his failed assassination... read more »

On this date in 1963, Cameroon guerrilla Tankeu Noé He had been a commander of rebels in Cameroon’s Littoral Province in the 1950s —... read more »

In the last two blog posts I explored the murder of John Broome Tower, whose lifeless body was dragged from a reservoir in Stoke Newington. No one was... read more »

Well here we are then….2020! Unsurprisingly, it feels very much like 2019. One of the many lessons of life is really how little does change over... read more »

On this date in 2016, Saudi Arabia beheaded Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr (familiarly known as Sheikh Nimr) — one of 47 executions carried out... read more »

On this date in 1573, the Swedish commander of Weissenstein (present-day Paide, Estonia), Hans Boije af Gennäs was executed when his fortress was... read more »