The New Newgate Calendar

On this date in 1929, the Punjabi Muslim youth Ilm Deen was hanged for murdering a blasphemous publisher. The Rangila Rasul is a pamphlet-length send-up... read more »

Twelve angry men … the whole 12 jurors scene Mandatory: Dirty Dozen execution scene Twelve Apostles … frankly a shitload of twelve things... read more »

Here are some of the crime history-related links I’ve found interesting this month. What has that old villain been doing to you? Historian Helen... read more »

A veteran of the Crimean War Whilst today is Hallo’een and this evening we will be inundated with small children flying high on sugar and commercialized... read more »

This account of a dozen-strong summary execution at the Upper Galilee village of Eilabun by the Israeli Defense Forces during the Arab-Israeli War hails... read more »

In October 1889 the secretary of the Hope Teetotal Friendly Society* was summoned before Mr Montagu Williams at Clerkenwell to explain why he was refusing... read more »

Try to resist this riveting true crime hook from Murder By Gaslight, who’s been seen guest-blogging in these parts from time to time as well: In... read more »

Amongst the most common crimes that women were accused of at the summary courts was picking pockets. Female offenders appear in greater numbers (and larger... read more »

Polish serial killer Joachim Knychala, colorfully known as “The Vampire of Bytom” or “Frankenstein”, was hanged in Krakow just... read more »

On 27 October 1863 a ‘well-dressed’ man, who gave his name as Thomas Martin, appeared in the dock at Southwark Police court accused of molesting... read more »

The gorgeous Basilica de San Vicente* in Avila, Spain is dedicated to a trio of Christian martyrs whose feast day today is. (cc) inage from David Perez.... read more »

We’ve all heard strange noises at night and wondered if an intruder is in the house. Mostly it is the wind, or mice, or our imagination, but, just... read more »

October 27, 1959 headline of the Palm Springs, Calif., Desert Sun. Connecticut reluctantly electrocuted paraplegic murderer Frank Wojculewicz on this date... read more »

In late October 1888 a man appeared in court at the Guildhall after admitting to multiple murders. The fact that the magistrate let him go probably tells... read more »

Walkiria (or Walquiria) Afonso Costa was summarily executed on this date in 1974. Sickly and emaciated, the 27-year-old was the last guerrilla left in... read more »

London was a cosmopolitan city in the nineteenth century. Just as today it was home for thousands of Europeans who lived and worked alongside native Londoners... read more »

U.S. cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren answered on this date in 2006 for the murders of his disobedient followers. Lundgren cleaved off a small sect of devotees... read more »

We have spent the past few days in Whitechapel, looking at the cases selected for reporting at Worship Street Police court before Mr Montagu Williams.... read more »

On this date in 1908, the “negro boy scarcely of legal age”* Joe James hanged at Sangamon County jail in Illinois. His alleged crimes helped... read more »

‘Joseph Carney, a street vendor or “costermonger”, sells fresh herring from a barrow in a street market near Seven Dials’.1 The... read more »

On this date in 1943, French abortionist Désiré Pioge was guillotined in Paris by the family-values Vichy regime. Very much overshadowed... read more »

The East End of London is synonymous with boxing. I was fortunate enough to be invited to watch a series of bouts at York Hall a few years ago and the... read more »

Must Thieves who take men’s goods away Be put to death? While fierce blood hounds, Who do their fellow creatures slay, Are sav’d from death?... read more »

Yesterday’s blog was about youthful delinquency in 1840s Whitechapel. Today’s concerns more youthful criminals, this time in the West End of... read more »

Dictator Muammar Gaddafi (several alternate transliterations are familiar, such as Qaddafi and Gadhafi) was killed by his captors during the Libyan civil... read more »

Rosemary Lane had a reputation for criminality throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The street was one of several in Whitechapel where the... read more »

Brazil-born, German-descended businessman turned World War I spy Fernando Buschmann was shot for espionage at the Tower of London this date in 1915. Don’t... read more »

The poor servant girl ‘undone’ by the master (or another male of the house) is a well-worn trope of Victorian fiction. That said it is fairly... read more »

The sixfold Tyburn hanging on this date in 1769 — all six men condemned for non-homicide property crimes.* The acquitted Giuseppe Baretti. We notice... read more »

King’s Cross station, c.1862 When, in October 1868, a customer reported losing several of his possessions on a train the Great Northern Railway company... read more »

On this date in 1902, Jim Buchanan was tried, convicted, sentence, and immediately executed in Nagocdoches, Texas … with his full assent. Barely... read more »

The ‘From Hell or ‘Lusk’ letter  In mid October 1888 the London, national and even the world’s press were full of the news... read more »

Above: Cristus Factus Est, composed by the black Venezuelan musician Juan Antonio Caro de Boesi. He was shot on this date in 1814 by the notoriously brutal... read more »

The owner of Deacon’s Coffee House and Tavern on Walbrook in the City was disturbed by the sound of shattering glass. It was nine in the evening... read more »

Our old familiar the Newgate Calendar supplies us with this narration of a Scottish Jacobin to pop the powdered wigs from Edinburgh to Westminster. A published... read more »

Guest post by Ian Williams, 10 October 2019 Wager of law was a central part of a serious disagreement between the courts of King’s Bench and Common... read more »

The law is supposed to deal with everyone equally, regardless of race, gender, or class. The law supposedly protects the poorest in the land and the richest,... read more »

China Communist revolutionary hero Chen Jue was executed on this date in 1928 by the nationalist Kuomintang. Chen Jue with his wife Zhao Yunxiao or Yunqi... read more »

Police constable George Booty of the City force probably spent a considerable amount of his time moving on and arresting drunks. It was part and parcel... read more »

Endocrinologist Dr. Bronislava Poskrebysheva was shot on this date in 1941. She was the Jewish Lithuanian wife of Alexander Poskrebyshev, who was Stalin’s... read more »

Violence was topic for most of the cases reported in the evening Standard newspaper on 13 October 1877. Just as modern readers are shocked by hearing... read more »

On this date in 1942, the survivors of a remarkable rebellion in a Soviet gulag camp were shot. The Ust-Usinsky rebellion in Russia’s northern Komi... read more »

On Saturday 8 October 1853 Henry Julian, a young ‘gentleman’, took delivery a new suit of clothes. He had ordered a week earlier, from Thomas... read more »

October 11, 1636 was a grievous date for self-proclaimed prophet Johann Albrecht Adelgrief, who was burned as a sorcerer and heretic. Adelgrief (English... read more »

Augustus Guerrier was a troubled soul. In October 1883 the cook was charged with stealing and set in the dock at Wandsworth Police court where it was revealed... read more »

Polish murderer Waldemar Krakos was hanged on this date in 1983 in Warsaw’s Mokotow Prison. With a partner, Wiktor Maliszewski, he’d bludgeoned... read more »

By Krista J. Kesselring, 10  October 2019 Early modern coroners and their juries appear to have had extraordinarily high success rates in identifying... read more »

Clerkenwell Prison , c.1862 PC William Warren (208N) was perambulating his beat when he saw a man and a woman leant up against the railings at the corner... read more »

On this date in 1732, Tyburn groaned with 13 men (no women) hanged en masse for various crimes — the most eye-catching of whom per the account of... read more »

Indecent assault takes many forms, and in the rather staid newspaper reports of the 1800s, detail is rarely given. This case therefore is a little unusual... read more »