The New Newgate Calendar

Two days ago, we noticed imprisoned English radical John Hobhouse, noticing a hanging. (Not his own.) As jarring and “frightful” as this event... read more »

This Christmas, Sheriff Tom Dart put out a press release called “A YEAR IN REVIEW: UNJUST INCARCERATION BY THE NUMBERS.” I’m not going... read more »

The house was constructed in 1831 for Sandy Denholm, a blacksmith. It is a two storey brick and stucco Georgian building with a stone rear section, It... read more »

On this date in 1948, Arthur George Osborne hanged at Armley Gaol in Leeds for murdering 70-year-old Ernest Westwood in the course of a robbery. Osborne’s... read more »

The diary of a man imprisoned at Newgate recorded for this date in 1819 that A man was hanged this morning for an unnatural crime. Had my windows fastened... read more »

On this date in 2006, the People’s Republic of China executed a gentleman by the name of Qiu Xinghua. Qiu’s offense, at bottom, was one of... read more »

The Church of Scotland submitted a petition to the government in August 1839 requesting the erection of a church at O’Brien’s Bridge (today’s... read more »

Though it is not certain, it is thought that December 27, 1539 might have been the execution date of Catholic martyr St. John Stone in England. An Augustinian... read more »

Confederate agent James Morgan Utz had a blue Christmas indeed in 1864, awaiting his December 26 execution for espionage. The Missourian had been captured... read more »

On Christmas Day of 1553, the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia, noted as the founder of Santiago, Chile,* was executed by Mapuche Indians who had... read more »

Since my last post introducing the new London Lives petitions project, I’ve released a slightly updated version of the data: I added some petitions... read more »

Illustration of the second ‘revolting oven tragedy’ in the Illustrated Police News There were at least two murders in the 1890s that were... read more »

Last Christmas, I presented several seasonally-themed cases. This year, much for the want of time, I have pulled a few Christmas crackers, from across... read more »

The fate of the last Commander in Chief of Home Army General Leopold Okulicki “Niedzwiadka”, imprisoned in Moscow and murdered there, symbolize... read more »

The auto de fe — those great spectacles of Spanish ecclesiastical power, enacted on the bodies of heretics and apostasizers — were scarcely... read more »

The building which now accommodates the Friends' School was previously known as Hobartville.  The land was originally owned by David Lord, a wealthy... read more »

As we have seen in the past two posts, the character exalted in the Newgate Calendar as William Davis, the Golden Farmer bears scant resemblance to the... read more »

Christmas is a time of year that feels inescapably Victorian. Some of our most loved traditions and most familiar images of the festive season were made... read more »

Yesterday, we posted about “William Davis, the Golden Farmer” — a character in the Newgate Calendar. While the calendar is presented... read more »

From the Newgate Calendar: The Golden Farmer was so called from his occupation and from paying people, if it was any considerable sum, always in gold;... read more »

This site owes a fair few posts to the Newgate Calendar, a heap of crime stories collected higgledy-piggledy in the 18th and 19th century. For a time,... read more »

A memorandum from Lieutenant Governor George Arthur, dated September 1827, announced the erection of the first gaol at Oatlands. A log-jail, containing... read more »

How can we frame convict labour in the broader context of entangled labour relations? This is one of the key-questions in the Carceral Archipelago project,... read more »

A piece titled “Extract of a Letter from Edinburgh, dated Dec. 20″ in the May 16, 1751 edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette: John Young, late... read more »

Advert for rat poison, in Royal Society of Health Journal, 1814 (Uploaded from Flickr Commons) In my last post, “A Tarring and Turfing in the Forest... read more »

This date in 1946 saw the largest mass execution in Alberta: five men all hanged for murder. One of these, Donald Sherman Staley, was a hated sex-murderer... read more »

Last week a new entry appeared in the Prosecution Project database. Trial #64652 records the conviction on 16 February 1870 of Joseph Bragg on the charge... read more »

On this date in 1591, Elisabeth von Doberschütz was beheaded at Stettin (Szczecin) as a witch. Elisabeth (English Wikipedia entry | German), whose... read more »

This date in 1897 marked the last public hanging in the history of West Virginia. The chief character in the dramatic milestone was a fellow named John... read more »

The old Bothwell State School operated from 1887 until 1965. For most of its life it was operated as a two teacher school. At the official opening of the... read more »

On this date in 1889, the Germans hanged Abushiri as a rebel. European empires arriving to East Africa naturally entered a going history of local conflicts... read more »

A tale of audacity and chutzpah, this book, by Nicholas Booth, details the lives and escapades of two American brothers, George and Austin Bidwell, and... read more »

A cartoon from the 1850s published in response to the trial of Ann Merritt who was accused of poisoning her husband with arsenic.  The cartoon illustrates... read more »

We’ve touched in these pages on the appealing diary of Felix Platter, a youth from Basel, Switzerland, studying medicine in Montpellier, France.... read more »

In a pathbreaking series of talks on the psychological impact of slavery, “Soul Murder and Slavery,” historian Nell Irvin Painter asserts... read more »

Today is the feast of Saint Lucy, a Diocletian martyr and one of Christendom’s best beloved saints. As here Wikipedia page observes, “all the... read more »

A number of recent events in the annals of crime and insanity demand comparison with the Victorian age. On this occasion, prompted by last September's... read more »

About four years after they commenced, the congregation worshipping in Collins Street Chapel first determined upon a new and more suitable place for public... read more »

On this date in 2013, according to North Korea’s state news organ, Kim Jong-un‘s uncle was sentenced to death and directly executed. Days earlier,... read more »

“Tarring a Grocer at Lydbrook”, from the Illustrated Police News, 1 Sept 1877. (From the British Newspaper Archive. Image copyright The British... read more »

The New York Evening Post published this item excerpted from the Philadelphia Democratic Press on Thursday, December 17, 1812. On Friday, a large concourse... read more »

Seven people were hanged at Tyburn on this date in 1754. For these minor malefactors — six thieves and a murderer, the latter of whom was ordered... read more »

(Note: This is a slightly edited copy of an article I had published on the Gazette website a few months ago. I am now part of the ‘official public... read more »

The former coaching inn stands on six hectares in the historic village of Kempton, where its first occupant, ex-convict embezzler-turned-innkeeper William... read more »

On this date in 1746, Jacobite lord Charles Radclyffe was beheaded at Tower Hill as a rebel. He was the 5th Earl of Derwentwater — or would have... read more »

On this date in 1938, serial poisoner Anna Marie Hahn was electrocuted in Ohio. The Bavarian-born immigrant had arrived to Cincinnati espoused to a young... read more »

Today is the feast day of Santa Claus himself, St. Nicholas. Nicholas was a real-life bishop in fourth century Asia Minor. He’s among the prelates... read more »

This house was constructed in 1844, built for Father William Bond, the first Roman Catholic chaplain appointed to the settlement. By 1843, the Catholic... read more »

Sometime in December of the year 999 — the exact date is not recorded — Fulk III, Count of Anjou (allegedly) had his wife, Elisabeth of Vendôme,... read more »

When the Huguenot prince turned Henri IV of France finally mastered his realm by attending Catholic services in his capital city with the legendary words... read more »