The New Newgate Calendar

Hannah Newman was a confident (one might say ‘cocky’) character. At half past ten on the 29 November 1858 she was on Cheapside, in the City... read more »

Southampton’s dark history told at new heritage experience Stories Behind The Stones covers details about 18th century prisoners and Southampton’s... read more »

From the Dec. 1, 1903 Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle: read more »

When Percy Lefroy Mapleton plunged through the gallows-trap at Lewes Prison on this date in 1881 for robbing and murdering a train passenger, he had the... read more »

Mary Barrow surrendered her bail and appeared before the magistrate at Highgate Police court to answer a charge of being ‘drunk and riotous’.... read more »

On this date in 1499, the Plantagenet prince Edward, Earl of Warwick lost his head — and his once-mighty house lost its last direct male successor... read more »

With all the trouble surrounding the release of Blue Story, Andrew Onwubolu’s (aka ‘Rapman’) new film about love and friendship amongst... read more »

Calvinist nobleman Michal Piekarski was spectacularly executed in Warsaw on this date in 1620 for attempting the life of the Polish-Lithuanian king. The... read more »

Anne Ferrell (or possibly Varrell) had only a short interval between her twin appearances at the bar of the Worship Street Police court in 1844. On the... read more »

Lithuanian anti-Soviet partisan Jonas Žemaitis was shot in Moscow’s Butyrka prison on this date in 1954. He’s one of the big names in... read more »

This is a case of conflicting versions of ‘the truth’, which has probably been lost somewhere in between. On 25 November 1888 four people appeared... read more »

Spanish trade unionist Manuel Molina Conejero was shot in Paterna on this date in 1939. Expect Spanish-language links throughout this post. A longtime... read more »

Alfred Mackness was insistent that Robert Couldry had stolen his prize-winning show cat. So convinced was he that he took out a summons to bring the other... read more »

November 24, 851 was distinguished by the beheadings of Saints Flora and Maria of Cordoba. These Christian denizens of Muslim Spain embraced their own... read more »

I know that there are people in this world that believe that society has become too soft: too soft on crime, on beggars, on children, on immigrants. They... read more »

The first woman hanged in colonial Australia was Ann(e) Davis, on this date in 1789. Convicted in London “for feloniously stealing, on the 27th day... read more »

Joe Jackson was a thief with a clever modus operandi. Operating in the late 1880s he perfected a ruse whereby he approached the houses of ‘well-known... read more »

On this date in 1883, the Boer South African Republic hanged Bapedi chief Mampuru. Sekukuni Mampuru is notable as the half-brother and rival —... read more »

William Hurley admitted to being a thief.  However, on this occasion, as he stood in the Bow Street dock on 21 November 1898 he strongly denied he... read more »

Spanish terrorist Santiago Salvador died to the garrot on this date in 1894. A central-casting figure from the heyday of anarchist bomb attacks on bourgeois... read more »

By the mid 1840s the Victorian reading public were familiar with the work of Charles Dickens and his stories of everyday life. Between 1837 (when the young... read more »

Volkmar Limprecht, a pedagogue and city councilor of Erfurt in Thuringia, was beheaded on this date in 1663. Almost all the links in this post are in German.... read more »

The latest issue of the Prison Service Journal offers historical perspectives on prison and criminal justice issues nationally and locally, with... read more »

Murder, Mystery and My Family By Karen Farrington, forewords by Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC No one wants to believe that their mother, sister or... read more »

Police constables Rudkin (696Y) and Mitchell (467Y) had got a tip off that an illegal prize fight was happening on their patch, which covered the area... read more »

From IANS on Friday, Nov. 19 of 2010. (via) China executes official for plundering cultural relics Beijing, Nov 19 (IANS) China Friday executed an official... read more »

Police constable William Gearing (86B) was on his beat in Horseferry Road when he noticed two things that were suspicious. First, a lamp in the street... read more »

It can’t have been much fun being a solicitor’s clerk in the Victorian period. In fact I doubt its that much fun now but at least you probably... read more »

Spanish seaman Joseph Garcia was hanged at Usk Prison on this date in 1872, for the Llangibby Massacre. It occurred in the Welsh village of that name,... read more »

German spree killer Fritz Angerstein was beheaded on this date in 1925. This tuberculotic managerial type (English Wikipedia entry | German) completes... read more »

Mrs Isabel James was on her way home wither husband one Sunday night in November 1886. It was late, around midnight, and she was passing a warehouse... read more »

(Thanks to Elizabethan Catholic martyr Edward Osbaldeston for the guest post on the 16 November, 1594 York execution of Elizabethan Catholic martyr Edward... read more »

It was probably quite an embarrassing appearance in court for Mr Chamberlain. On Saturday, November 13 1858 he was out late in Bridgewater Gardens ... read more »

On this date in 1615, Anne Turner hanged at Tyburn for a shocking society murder remembered as the Overbury Affair. Turner was quite a character herself,... read more »

Having just formally committed William Herbert to the Old Bailey to face trial for murder the Clerkenwell magistrate then had to deal with a string of... read more »

South Africa conducted its last execution on this date in 1989: that of Solomon Ngobeni, for robbing and murdering a taxi driver. Apartheid South Africa... read more »

Emily Jane Towner was, by all accounts, a nice woman. She was polite, hard-working, respectable. She was also a loving mother to four young children, and... read more »

Lydia Morgan was drinking with her husband in a pub in Chelsea when an argument broke out. Her husband was quarrelling with another, younger, drinker when... read more »

On this date in 1951, Marcel Ythier lost his head as France gained a headsman. Ythier escaped a life sentence at hard labor and fled to Aix-en-Provence... read more »

All sorts of business came before the Metropolitan Police courts, much of it very far from what we might describe as ‘criminal’. The reportage... read more »

Angel Vicente Peñaloza — “Chacho” to friends and to history — was stabbed and shot to death on this date in 1863. This caudillo... read more »

“The Ninth of November, 1888” by William Logsdail I remember watching the Lord Mayor’s Show on television as a boy, fascinated by the... read more »

A century ago today, an Armistice Day parade turned the Pacific Northwest logging town of Centralia, Washington into a battlefield. By the time night fell... read more »

Posted by Krista Kesselring, 11 November 2019. The early modern Court of Star Chamber lives on in some popular historical accounts as an engine of despotic... read more »

O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”; But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the... read more »

On this date in 1657, the Italian marchese Gian Rinaldo Monaldeschi was put to summary death by the command of Queen Christina of Sweden, at her court... read more »

In the years following the murders of several women in Whitechapel in 1888, rumours of ‘Jack the Ripper’ continued to haunt the capital. The... read more »

On this date in 1716, a woman named Maria was burned for leading a slave rebellion on the West Indies island of Curacao. Maria was a cook owned by the... read more »

Samuel Harris and George Edwards were, it was alleged, members of a notorious gang of smartly dressed criminals who targeted the  pockets of the wealthy... read more »

On this date in 1842, four men hanged in Australia for the mutiny on the Governor Phillip.* In this abortive rebellion, a dozen prisoners being carried... read more »