The New Newgate Calendar

On this date in 1731 the English madam Elizabeth Needham stood in the pillory at Park Place, St. James’s, London. It wasn’t a death sentence... read more »

Here are a couple of true crime or crime history links that I’ve found interesting this month. Enjoy! The face of a killer: Dr Crippen’s courtroom... read more »

On this date in 1972, (former) King Ntare V of Burundi was summarily executed at the outset of the 1972 genocide of ethnic Hutus. He was the son of Mwambutsa... read more »

Posted by Krista J. Kesselring, 28 April 2020. Recent news reports on the high rates of COVID-19 infection amongst people living in prisons and other... read more »

This musing on the torments for condemned prisoners of seeing their own rickety gallows put up in their own prison yard comes via Ken Leyton-Brown’s... read more »

Twining’s Bank, at 215 The Strand  On 6 June 1870 Elizabeth Smith pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to ‘feloniously forging... read more »

On this date in 1663, the Swedish pirate Gustav Skytte caught a fusillade. A nobleman of illustrious lineage* during the height of Sweden’s great-power... read more »

We’ll never have the actual execution date, of course, but April 26 in 1952 was the date that researchers in Jutland hauled out of a peat bog the... read more »

French royal treasurer Pierre de Remi was hanged on the Montfaucon gibbet on this date in 1328.* A commoner made good, Pierre de Remi ascended, descended,... read more »

Greek Venizelist generals Anastasios Papoulas and Miltiadis Koimisis, and major Stamatis Volanis, were shot on April 24, 1935, for a failed coup attempted... read more »

Following a spate of street robberies (or muggings) in London and elsewhere in the 1860s, colloquially known as the ‘garroting panic’, parliament... read more »

The Tews were cordwainers and boot-binders I’ve sometimes complained about how disappointed I am to be a crime historian with not a single criminal... read more »

(Thanks to Robert Elder of Last Words of the Executed — the blog, and the book — for the guest post. This post originally appeared on the Last... read more »

On this date in 1986, Vietnam War veteran David Livingston Funchess was electrocuted in Florida for a double stabbing committed in the course of robbing... read more »

Posted by Krista J. Kesselring, 22 April 2020. Can you steal a peacock? Jurists once debated this question and, for a time at least, said ‘no’.... read more »

Countrymen, Brothers and Sisters of Niger, In the name of the Nigerien officers and soldiers aware of the incessant evil perpetuated by a regime of men... read more »

(Thanks to Richard Clark of Capital Punishment U.K. for the guest post, a reprinted section from a longer article about under-18 girls executed in the... read more »

Peter Rushton. As I write this I am sat in my garden in Walker, Newcastle. The sun is shining and I am  listening to the birds in the surrounding... read more »

The Boulevard des Otages in Senlis, France is so named for the hostages executed under the city walls on this date in 1418. This incident during the France’s... read more »

The influx into Great Britain from the start of the 16th century of itinerant Romani — also known as Romanichal, English Travellers,* or (for their... read more »

French adventurer Bolo Pasha (English Wikipedia entry | French) was shot at Fort Vincennes on this date in 1918 as a World War I German agent. Paul Bolo... read more »

At 10.05 p.m. on Tuesday the 21st of September 1965 a home made bomb was detonated in a gambling den in Kowloon Tsai in Hong Kong. One man died at the... read more »

I have a bit of a backlog in terms of books to review at the moment – the one bonus, I guess, of the current pandemic and its repercussions is that... read more »

An Italian friar known as Beomondo di San Severo was flogged to death in Naples on this date in 1327 at the behest of the Inquisition. Little is known... read more »

On or about this date in 1974, French journalist Marc Filloux was killed in Khmer Rouge captivity along with his Laotian translator and girlfriend Manivanh.... read more »

The Castle & Falcon Inn in Aldersgate Street, c.1827 What does ringing the changes mean to you? I’d always thought it was a phrase that suggested... read more »

On this date in 1560, the son of Renaissance polymath Gerolamo Cardano was beheaded for murdering his — the son’s — wife. While Cardano... read more »

“The Martyrdom of Thomas Losebie, Henrie Ramsey, Thomas Thirtell, Margaret Hide and Agnes Stanley at Smithfield on 12th April, 1557”, woodcut... read more »

On this date in 2015, Bangladesh hanged the former assistant secretary-general of the militant Jamaat-e-Islami party, Mohammad Qamaruzzaman. He’d... read more »

The Ottoman Empire besmirched this date in 1821* by launching the Constantinople Massacre of Orthodox Greeks, prominently including the summary hanging... read more »

Louis Anastay was guillotined on this date in 1892. The young army lieutenant, catching word of a windfall coming to a wealthy benefactress of his named... read more »

The BNA Instagram post that got me looking at the Money family The British Newspaper Archive recently posted to Instagram two photos that caught my eye.... read more »

On this date in 1756,* robber John Symmonds (Symonds, Simmons) aka “Spanish Jack” hanged at Maidstone. One “Gonzalez” by birth... read more »

Guest post by Cynthia J. Neville, 8 April 2020 Among the papers of the Boyd family of Kilmarnock currently housed in the National Records of Scotland is... read more »

On 7 March 1887 the readers of the ‘occasional notes’ section of the Pall Mall Gazette were introduced to the ‘wickedest woman in... read more »

From the New England Weekly Journal, July 23, 1733 — a three-month-old news item (part of a roundup of dated minor dispatches) that had to cross... read more »

John Gavin/Gaven, a 15-year-old who had been transported from England just months before, hanged at Fremantle on this date in 1844. This was the day between... read more »

The Dundee Courier of Feb. 7, 1923, brings us the dramatic entrance into the criminal justice system’s toils of Bernard Pom(e)roy, who murdered his... read more »

Six Somali migrant workers were publicly beheaded in Jeddah on this date in 2005 for robbing taxi drivers. The muggings, though violent, were not fatal... read more »

I do enjoy it when historical research throws up well-known modern names in unconnected situations. The ‘John Major’ who is the subject of... read more »

On this date in 1799, the Jacobin mayor of the Calabrian city of Crotone was shot by counterrevolutionists with three comrades. Francesco Antonio Lucifero... read more »

A sad selection from the Newgate Calendar: MARY EDMONDSON Strongly protesting her Innocence, she was executed on Kennington Common, 2nd of April, 1759,... read more »

On this date in 1918, General Paul von Rennenkampf dug his own grave by the side of the railway tracks near Taganrog, then was shot by the Bolsheviks for... read more »