The New Newgate Calendar

Today was the first time that I’ve used this blog in my own teaching. I’ve discussed it at conferences and with colleagues but thus far I hadn’t... read more »

I’ve recently been researching petty offences in the early part of the 20th century, and tracking how changing technology and transportation affected... read more »

(Thanks to Richard Clark of Capital Punishment U.K. for the guest post, a reprint of an article originally published on that site with some explanatory... read more »

Italian Communist Vincenzo Baccala was executed on this date in 1937 … but not by the fascists. The blackshirted turn of his country in the 1920s... read more »

The act of going to law was often a last resort, a necessary act to put an end to a problem that had resisted all attempts resolution. While it was sometimes... read more »

On this date in 1857, the Utah Territory finished the extrajudicial executions it had botched three days before. As we have detailed, Utah’s Mormon... read more »

Henry Morris was woken in the middle of the night by a cry from his brother. Getting up he noted that it was four in the morning and he shuffled his way... read more »

Nevada executed Floyd McKinney in its gas chamber on this date in 1943. McKinney had caught a ride westward across the state on Highway 50 with 2nd Lt.... read more »

In 1871 Queen Victoria had been on throne for 34 years. Her husband Albert had been dead for a decade and she was yet to adopt the title of Empress of... read more »

We resort to a footnote in a Newgate Calendar edition for today’s interesting anecdote: John Clarke was a watch-case maker, of good repute, in London.... read more »

William Slade wasn’t a bad lad but like many nine year old boys he was fascinated with guns. His father kept a loaded revolver in his desk and, while... read more »

By Eddie Mullan “The couple had disappeared under mysterious circumstances.” It was this comment from a fellow researcher that led me to uncover... read more »

“Six ‘gentlemen of good address,’ known as the Aiken party, rode into Salt Lake Valley from California in October 1857 and were never... read more »

The first “executions” meted out by Mormon captors to the Aiken or Aikin Party men who were attempting to cross the war-footing territory eastward... read more »

Mr Adams had employed George Groves in his warehouse for 14 years. In that time the man had been a model employee, never late, never any trouble, always... read more »

This week my undergraduate students at Northampton have been looking at marital violence in history. I’ve set them reading by a variety of historians... read more »

On this date in 1793, Clément Charles François de Laverdy, Marquis of Gambais and the ancien regime‘s former Controller-General of... read more »

The late 19th century saw increased efforts to solve crimes and apprehend criminals using scientific methods. In France, the criminologist Alphonse Bertillon... read more »

There are few crimes that generate so much emotion as the killing of a child. Every year at least one of my students is likely to come forward to suggest... read more »

This primer appeared in Lloyd’s Evening Post (Dec. 21, 1763) and is also to be found in a 1764 compendium called The polite miscellany: containing... read more »

On this date in 1635, Dutch soldiers occupying Formosa (Taiwan) massacred 26 people of the holdout aboriginal village of Mattau. The Dutch had established... read more »

When Edward O’Connor got home from the pub he was disappointed that his wife hadn’t got his dinner ready. Mrs O’Connor was pretty used... read more »

The name at the head of this page is probably unknown to the English reader, and yet I think it should become a household word like that of Garibaldi or... read more »

PowerPoint presentation: What is Murder? Click on the link above to access my PowerPoint “What is Murder?” It will run automatically,... read more »

The detective department were a belated addition to the Metropolitan Police. When Sir Robert Peel created his ‘bluebottles’ in 1829 he modeled... read more »

William Charles Benson hanged at Wandsworth prison on this date in 1928, the murderer of his ice cream factory co-worker’s wife. Benson in 1925 had... read more »

As a follow up to my previous post on the Journals of the House of Commons, a list of freely available volumes of its companion,  the Journals of... read more »

The morning after the Duke of Wellington’s funeral was a busy time for the Guildhall Police court. By all accounts the funeral was a extraordinary... read more »

William Blake said, “Nothing can be more contemptible than to suppose Public RECORDS to be True.” And I am bemused that I spend so much time... read more »

You might be forgiven for thinking that a London waterman was someone that worked on the river in the Victorian period. This is certainly what these men... read more »

“This story transports readers back to a pre-internet Golden Age when newspapers enjoyed handsome profits and were the major provider of in-depth... read more »

(Thanks for the guest post to American newsman and reformer John L. O’Sullivan. Best-known as the fellow who coined that potent brand for American... read more »

On this date in 1936, the Seven Martyrs of Madrid became martyrs.* These sisters of Catholicism’s Visitandine or Visitation Order were the last... read more »

Mrs Sarah Cameron ran a tobacconist shop on the Broadway in Westminster, central London. One evening in November 1840 a young man  called William... read more »

Some of the cases that came before the Police Court magistrates seem particularly unimportant or trivial. It must have been quite frustrating, if not downright... read more »

A French evangelical named Claude Le Painctre — on mission evangelizing back in his dangerous homeland after previously escaping to exile in Geneva... read more »

On this date in 1888, Massachusetts almost hanged Sarah J. Robinson. The reader will easily infer from press appellations such as the “Massachusetts... read more »

If you visit Hyde Park this weekend you will see many things: couples strolling arm in arm, dog owners walking their pets, cyclists clad in lycra and joggers... read more »

The publisher Pen & Sword appears to be increasingly publishing books by academic crime historians – a move that I heartily approve of, perhaps... read more »

On this date in 1822, Johan Wilhelm Gebhardt was executed at the Dutch-founded South African settlement of Paarl. His offense, unusual but not unheard-of... read more »

Lynsey Black, Maynooth University This article first appeared in BSC Newsletter No. 82, Summer 2018, ISSN 1759-8354 11 http://www.britsoccrim.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Black.pdf... read more »

This is another example of mid-nineteenth century attitudes towards mental illness. At the time mental health was not as well understood as it is today... read more »

Iran today hanged two men for financial crimes. Vahid Mazloumin, dubbed “the Sultan of Coins”, was arrested in July with two tons of gold coins... read more »

This is a very sad story which really seems to have been the result of an accident rather than any intent on the part of the perpetrator. However, it is... read more »

On this date in 1989, Sri Lankan Marxist revolutionary Rohana Wijeweera was — by at least some accounts, properly disputed by the authorities —... read more »

Henry Yeomans, University of Leeds This article first appeared in BSC Newsletter No. 82, Summer 2018, ISSN 1759-8354 11 Available here   On 1st... read more »

The London press delighted in occasionally giving their readership a flavor of the drama that unfolded in the metropolitan police courts. There was plenty... read more »

Iain Channing, University of Plymouth This article first appeared in BSC Newsletter No. 82, Summer 2018, ISSN 1759-8354 17 Available here. We are... read more »

David Churchill, University of Leeds This article first appeared in BSC Newsletter No. 82, Summer 2018, ISSN 1759-8354 11  Available here Criminology... read more »

On this date in 1717 a witch hunt in the Bavarian town of Freising concluded with the beheading of three beggar children as magicians.* The accusations... read more »