The New Newgate Calendar

A century ago today, seven hostages taken from the German pre-Nazi Thule Society were executed by the short-lived Munich Soviet just before it was crushed... read more »

‘Mrs Fry reading to the prisoners in Newgate’ A little bit of prison history today: this appeared in The Sphere on 14 February 1903. Newgate... read more »

Whilst I live in the capital I work in Northampton and yesterday I had a meeting with some members of local history and community group who wanted to discuss... read more »

Turncoat Czechoslovakian resistance fighters Karel Čurda and Viliam Gerik were hanged for traitors on this date in 1947. Čurda (left) and Gerik... read more »

Yesterday’s blog concerned the Salvation Army with two of their ‘soldiers’ being warned about annoying a local man with the ‘infernal... read more »

Lollard heretic Joan Boughton was burned on this date in 1494 — purportedly England’s first female Christian martyr. Followers of pre-Luther... read more »

It was 10.30 on a Sunday morning in late April 1896 and Mr Eamonson had settled down to write in his study when, once again, his peace was broken by the... read more »

James Edward Singleton caught a death sentence in Texas after setting out from Beeville with a business partner carrying a wad of cash with which they... read more »

There are certain crimes so horrific, so difficult to comprehend, that they stay in your memory, lingering somewhere at the back of your mind. Child abductions... read more »

PC James Baker (127E) was on duty in Chenies Street, off Tottenham Court Road, one late evening in early April 1863. As he walked his beat he noticed a... read more »

This episode from Mexican Alta California comes from the short-lived administration of Manuel Victoria, who proved himself such a martinet in his few months... read more »

There are moments in historical research when you discover something that distracts you from your core purpose and sends you in a different direction.... read more »

(cc) image by Paebi “We are free Swiss, completely equal citizens. That government that will not hear the voice of the people is a tyranny.”... read more »

The interior of St Stephen’s Church, Westminster in the nineteenth century  I think we imagine Victorian Britain as a much more religious place... read more »

Greek independence hero Athanasios Diakos died by Ottoman impalement on this date in 1821.* Though he acquired his nickname Diakos (“deacon”)... read more »

Here are two theft charges, heard at the Marlborough Street Police court in 1889, neither of which resulted in convictions or further action. There must... read more »

word frquencies An extended version of my paper for the April 2019 workshop held by the AHRC Research Network on Petitions and Petitioning from the Medieval... read more »

Hanged April 23, 1845 for poisoning her brother Charles Dimond — and commonly suspected to have offed several other family members by means of arsenic... read more »

New Orleans, c.1841 John Burns was a steward on board a merchant ship named the Rio Grande. He’d sailed with it to New Orleans in 1849 where he’d... read more »

Spanish general Jose Aranguren was shot on this date in 1939 by Franco’s Spain. A brigadier general of the Civil Guard — an internal-to-Spain... read more »

In 1887 ‘Buffalo’ Bill Cody brought his travelling Wild West Show to Europe. The show featured wild animals, reenactments of historical events... read more »

The Domshof town square still holds a spuckstein (“spit stone”) where passersby can revile Gesche Margarethe Gottfried, a serial poisoner beheaded... read more »

As I was sitting on a Great Northern train at Finsbury Park four excited GN employees got off and went in separate directions. They looked pumped up for... read more »

Protestant theologian turned apostate Judaizer Nicolas Antoine was burned at the stake in Calvinist Geneva on this date in 1623. Antoine (English Wikipedia... read more »

Thomas Cooney was a crossing sweeper on the Bayswater Road. Sweepers were ‘beggars of a sort, demanding alms in return for a useful, almost essential... read more »

The Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh reported on April 26, 1800 news from across the Inner Seas at Carrickfergus, north of Belfast. (Line breaks have been... read more »

At about a quarter to four in the afternoon of Friday 13 December 1867 a bomb went off in London. A barrel of gunpowder, hidden under tarpaulin, positioned... read more »

On this date in 1975,* Iran extrajudicially executed nine political prisoners. This photo is a dramatic re-staging — evocative of a famous photo... read more »

April 1889 must have been a hard month for those living in London. The 1880s were a period of economic slump, if not a full-blown depression, and unemployment,... read more »

From the Hampshire/Portsmouth Telegraph (Leeds, England), Monday, April 26, 1802: read more »

The police are never far from criticism by the media in this country. In the late twentieth century there has been widespread condemnation of their handling... read more »

April 16, 1947, was the hanging-date of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss. Not to be confused with the Rudolf Hess, the Nazi party defector held by... read more »

Before I entered the heady world of academia I had mostly earned my money working in shops. Indeed, I partly funded my studies at undergraduate and postgraduate... read more »

On this date in 1939, the Old Bolshevik Aleksei Gastev, a theorist of scientific management for the Soviet state, was shot in Stalin’s purges. Expelled... read more »

Map of Bethnal Green (from Cross’ London Guide 1844) The marriage between Thomas and Lucretia Gates was not a happy one. The relationship had soured... read more »

Marker located at the entrance to the Burns Mall from Kilmarnock Cross. (cc) image from @mafleen. John Nisbet was hanged on this date in 1683 for having... read more »

Today we operate a society largely underwritten by credit. I hardly use cash to pay for anything and for many things that I buy I use a credit card. My... read more »

This is one of those frustrating cases where you really feel you should be able to find out more than you can about it. On Thursday 12 April 1883 a 45... read more »

Mao Ran, a 25-year-old export/import employee with a heroin trafficking empire dating back to her university days, was executed in Xiamen on this date... read more »

Edward Burnworth and his gang — a group of villains who “seem to have risen to notoriety on the downfall of [Jonathan] Wild” by the estimation... read more »

In 1874 Easter fell over the weekend of the 4thand 5thApril and the weather was fair in London. On Easter Sunday lots of Londoners headed to the parks... read more »

I am not sure what Margaret Brown hoped to achieve when she prosecuted Matthew Max Plimmer for an assault at Westminster Police court. Margaret (a 32 year-old... read more »

From the Bristol Mercury of April 16, 1827: EXECUTION OF SARAH JONES. This unfortunate victim to seduction was 26 years of age, and lived with her father... read more »

On this date in 1945, during the last weeks of World War II, Dutch print artist Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman was shot by the Gestapo in the forest near Bakkeveen... read more »

I’ve been meaning to write about this for ages – for nearly three years, in fact, which is quite a shocking period of time to procrastinate,... read more »

Advert for a magic lantern. c.1885 Have you ever stood and watched the rolling advertisement we now get in some underground and other railway stations?... read more »

The story behind this stunning photograph of Alexander Anderson and Henry Richards on their Lancaster, Pa., gallows on April 9, 1858 we’re going... read more »

Politics, as we have seen recently, can sometimes get a little heated and nothing gets more heated than local politics. Having stood as a candidate... read more »

On this date in 1818, Andrew Jackson had two Creek leaders summarily hanged two Creek leaders in Florida. The Creek in the American Southeast were a longtime... read more »

Throughout the nineteenth century there were parts of London that were almost off limits to the police. Almost all of Seven Dials (near Covent Garden)... read more »