The New Newgate Calendar

On this date (or very close to it) in 628, the Persian emperor Khosrau* II was put to death by the order of his son and usurper. Chip off the old block,... read more »

Marie Manning, hanged with her husband Frederick outside Horsemonger Lane Gaol on 13 November 1849 – witnessed by Charles Dickens. “I was a... read more »

Click here for the full page image from the 1871 Curiosities of Street Literature: Comprising “cocks”, or “catchpennies”, a large... read more »

Tiny Liechtenstein last conducted an execution 230 years ago today: Barbara Erni — the legendary “Golden Boos”. Nicknamed for her strawberry... read more »

On this date in 1601, Queen Elizabeth’s last great favorite became the last man beheaded in the Tower of London. Vain and dashing Robert Devereux... read more »

On this date in 1937, Ethiopian prince Desta Damtew — the son-in-law of Emperor Haile Selassie — was captured by the Italian troops occupying... read more »

Niccolo Machiavelli‘s exile from Florentine politics — and subsequent entry into the intellectual canon — was cinched this date in 1513... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1848, Harriet Parker was publicly hanged in front of the Debtors’... read more »

Of all historical periods and subjects, crime and justice in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century London is the most extensively digitised. Through the digitisation... read more »

If present-day electoral politics strike you as disreputable, take comfort in the knowledge that the Republic has survived its share of low-down, brass-knuckle... read more »

I’ve been meaning to do this post since last summer – but better late than never! This is an insight into one of the magistrates I studied... read more »

I have one body And to you I offer and return it. Here is my flesh; Here is my blood; Let me be slain, reduced to nothing; Let my bones be split apart For... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1942,* a middle-aged man was hanged in the Lodz Ghetto in front... read more »

Inspiration for posts about crime and insanity originates from a thousand sources. This latest offering came after spying a 'heritage blue plaque' while... read more »

The retaliatory executions a U.S. Army lieutenant carried out on this date in 1861 helped set in motion a decade-long war with the Apaches. Three years... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for discovering the original June 1813 broadsheet we reprint here.) LINES COMPOSED ON THE EXECUTION OF W.... read more »

Guillaume Jobert, one of the first Reformation martyrs in Paris, had his tongue bored through on this date in 1526,* then was burned at the stake at the... read more »

On this date in 1894, a young Indian named Joe Dick was executed outside the courthouse of Eufaula in present-day Oklahoma. At the time, Eufala was part... read more »

Around this time in 904, Pope Sergius III allegedly had one or both of his deposed predecessors put to death in prison. Sergius held the throne of St.... read more »

In 2013 ten people were killed in level crossing incidents in the UK. This death toll is serious, is avoidable and the aim should be to achieve perfect... read more »

Not a crime story, but I liked this Valentine’s story from 1871, so thought I’d share it: “On the evening before St Valentine’s... read more »

On this date in 1942, German troops in Russia’s Pskov Oblast summarily executed 83-year-old peasant Matvey Kuzmin for leading them into an ambush. World... read more »

Illustrated Police News, 23 Sept 1871 (Courtesy of British Newspaper Archive). The above image appeared on the front page of the Illustrated Police News... read more »

Anthony Vaver’s captivating Early American Crime blog neatly summarizes this story. But for readers with a taste for an original colonial hanging-pamphlet,... read more »

I have previously discussed the ballad Francis Winter’s Last Farewell, an account of the execution of Captain Winter, condemned to hang for his part... read more »

On this date in 1858, Charlotte Jones and Henry Fife hanged side by side in Pittsburgh for murdering Jones’s elderly aunt and uncle the year before.... read more »

It is not every day that the world wakes up to the crisis in America’s jails. Thanks to an important new report by the Vera Institute, my twitter... read more »

On this date in 1691, Russian Orthodox priest Sylvester Medvedev was beheaded on Red Square. Medvedev was a protege of the great progressive clergyman,... read more »

Supreme Court justice Anacleto Diaz and his two sons were among 300 Filipinos machine-gunned by the Japanese on this date in 1945 during the Battle of... read more »

new York Herald, June 10, 1887 UTICA, N.Y., June 9, 1887. — Clement Arthur Day, about twenty-five years old, has been lock tender at No. 66, some... read more »

On this date in 1943, days before their city was liberated, five members of the anti-occupation resistance were shot in Krasnodon in the Donbass. That... read more »

This great photo was tweeted earlier today by @oldpicsarchive. Alas, there is no information about its provenance, and all we are told is that it is “1920s... read more »

At the Police History Society conference, September 2014 As some of you know, I present talks on topics related to my three main (and somewhat diverse)... read more »

On this date in 1527, apostate Catholic priest Georg Wagner went to the stake in Munich. Called “Carpentarius”, Wagner’s renounced a... read more »

On this date in 1545, the leaders of the violent Anabaptist Batenburgers were burned at the stake in Utrecht. We know Anabaptists best as peaceniks, but... read more »

CitC’s first guest post of 2015 is by Ian Petrie, on teaching with Old Bailey Online in combination with other digital tools. In spring 2013 I first... read more »

Annie Wilson, admitted to Dorchester Prison in 1900 (Dorset History Centre, via Ancestry.co.uk). When I was applying for university at 18, I originally... read more »

On this date in 1528, Anabaptist Ambrosius Spittelmayr was beheaded in Cadolzburg, Bavaria. Baptized by Hans Hut only the year before, Spittelmayr propounded... read more »

One of the recurring themes that these grim annals encounter is the Anabaptists; one might almost say that the movement’s birth pangs can be written... read more »

I promised to return to this subject if I retained my sanity from the events relayed in Part 1. It has been a close run thing but, though mentally scarred,... read more »

On this date in 1601, Serbian-Romanian hajduk Starina Novak was slow-roasted in Cluj with two of his captains. The hajduk in the Balkans was a romantic... read more »

In 1883 Broadmoor Superintendent William Orange delivered his Presidential Address before the Medico- Psychological Association. Referring to insane convicts... read more »

The Carceral Archipelago project faces enormous challenges in writing the history of punishment as global history. Our research ranges across almost five... read more »

This morning at Swaqa prison south of Amman, Jordan executed two operatives of al-Qaida in Iraq in retaliation against ISIS for the murder of a captured... read more »

Although most people envision the jury’s role as simply determining the guilt or innocence of a defendant, the outcome of a jury trial can actually... read more »

(Thanks to Harry Brodribb Irving for the guest post, originally published in his Book of Remarkable Criminals. Some formatting has been adjusted for readability.... read more »

On this date in 1905, “baby farmer” Elisabeth Wiese was beheaded in Hamburg. In a luridly reported case “revolting in the extreme, proving... read more »

On this date in 1612,* Bishop Conor O’Devan(e)y and Father Patrick O’Loughran were hanged, drawn, and quartered as traitors at George’s... read more »