The New Newgate Calendar

It’s not often that my historical research links with my love of cycling, but there are occasions. Sometimes the narrative is still relevant today.... read more »

In May, at the Digital Histories 'Our Criminal Past' event, Lesley Hulonce spoke of the value of emotional engagement. This struck me as an interesting... read more »

The July 13, 1793 Wyndham (Conn.) Herald quotes the last dying words of Ezra Mead, hanged May 31 at Poughkeepsie, N.Y. I, Ezra Mead, aged forty years,... read more »

Two weeks ago I attended a lecture at The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies given by Professor Thomas Gallanis, Chair in Law at the University... read more »

Thursday, 31 May 1928: The 'committal proceedings' at the magistrates' court in Coleford open, presided over by five magistrates (four men and one woman).Officially,... read more »

On this date in 1868, Joseph Brown hanged in Hudson, N.Y.. He and his wife Josephine had recently moved to the hamlet of Canaan just this side of the Massachusetts... read more »

One of the striking things about the crimes described in the Old Bailey cases is the frequency with which they involved violations of ‘family’... read more »

On this date in 1818, Abraham Casler was hanged in Schoharie, N.Y. for escaping an ill-advised marriage by means of an illicit powder. Casler had got... read more »

On this date in 1829, George Chapman became the first person hanged in Waterloo, N.Y. According to the July 29, 1829 New York Spectator, the tailor Chapman... read more »

Come with us now to a bygone New York State, before the days when it pioneered the electric chair, before the days when it was the world oligarchy capital... read more »

Thanks for the guest post to Nancy Bilyeau, the author of The Crown and The Chalice, thrillers set in Tudor England. The main character is Joanna Stafford,... read more »

I’ve been using WordPress since 31 July 2004 (I wouldn’t remember myself, but the archives are there to tell me so), which was something like... read more »

On 7th October 1769 widow Jane Whitfield confessed to a magistrate that earlier the same day Joseph Waller came to her house to search for... read more »

We seem to lack an exact date to attribute the evocative action so economically described in this May 30, 1991 Reuters wire story: BEIJING — A man... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1721, Joseph Hanno was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts for the... read more »

I was asked a question a few months ago about how we could go about giving academics more scholarly recognition and credit for blogging, and I realised... read more »

On this date in 1872, a faltering John Presswood Jr., “nearly 18 years old,” was publicly hanged in Smithville, Tenn., for a still-infamous... read more »

As criminals go, the Lennie mutineers were neither organized nor gifted. Indeed, they likely did not fancy themselves mutineers when they perpetrated a... read more »

Wednesday, 23 May 1928: Parliament, London.Labour MP Will Thorne raises questions to the Home Secretary about the Pace matter, suggesting that the police... read more »

Lately, I’ve been reading about European police agencies to better understand nineteenth-century English prejudices against continental policing.... read more »

On this date in 1942, this happened: The young man striking the dramatic pose is Stjepan Filipovic, an anti-fascist partisan hanged in the city of Valjevo... read more »

Tuesday, 22 May 1928: 12th sitting of the coroner's inquest, in Coleford.Rowland Ellis is recalled and gives brief testimony about a 'dolly tub' at the... read more »

As a result of my earlier blog on female horse thieves, a friend called to me in Sainsbury's car park and asked, 'Why did they all take place in March,... read more »

On this date in 1940, Cayetano Redondo was shot at Madrid’s largest cemetery. Cayetano Redondo (English Wikipedia page | Spanish | Esperanto), a... read more »

Continuing with the sifting of the voluminous and chaotic sources available on the web, having previously codified Luttrell, I now present the Somers’... read more »

(From the May 22, 2001 Eugene Register-Guard, which is also the source of the quoted text below.) Sex workers face a struggle worldwide for labor rights... read more »

Reblogged from Early Modern Notes: Talk given at Our Criminal Past: Digitisation, Social Media and Crime History Workshop, London Metropolitan Archives,... read more »

Reblogged from WaywardWomen: So much of the history of crime focusses upon the interaction between the legal apparatus of the state - the police, the court... read more »

My first blog is for Professor Peter Edwards who was my mentor during the M.A. and Ph.D., processes. Any grammatical errors are always my own, as Peter... read more »

Think of this as the “more hack, less yack” post. I’m putting together an aggregator for history of crime/justice/punishment blogging:... read more »

My digital crime history talk included some mention of ‘crowd sourcing’ and our stuttering efforts in this direction (on various projects)... read more »

It might have been May 19, 399 BCE* — and if not, we’re in the neighborhood — that the original gadfly** philosopher Socrates obeyed... read more »

A second follow up to my digital crime history talk with (hopefully) some more practical notes and resources. I’m as guilty as anyone of holding... read more »

A quick post, just to expand on my thoughts about the Text Creation Partnership in my talk. How might this model work in practice for crime (and other)... read more »

Talk given at Our Criminal Past: Digitisation, Social Media and Crime History Workshop, London Metropolitan Archives, 17 May 2013 My academic apprenticeship,... read more »

On this date in 1891, U.S. President Benjamin Harrison settled a death penalty case from the remote Navassa Island by granting a commutation. Back in the... read more »

Thanks for the guest post to Nancy Bilyeau, the author of The Crown and The Chalice, thrillers set in Tudor England. The main character is Joanna Stafford,... read more »

  The Home secretary Theresa May has announced that the government intends that those convicted of murdering a police officer will face a life sentence... read more »

It is 50 years today since Soviet military intelligence officer Oleg Penkovsky was executed for spying for the Americans. Penkovsky, whose father died... read more »

On this date in 1863, two men were shot* on the beach at Johnson’s Island in Lake Erie, site of a Civil War prison. Their crime: recruiting for the... read more »

The Fall. BBC2, Monday 13th May 2013 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00wrk40 Gillian Anderson (DSI Stella Gibson) Jamie Dornan (the killer, Paul Spector)... read more »

Tuesday, 15 May 1928: 11th sitting of the coroner's inquest, in Coleford.After brief testimony from police superintendant J. Shelswell and a recalled Alice... read more »

So much of the history of crime focusses upon the interaction between the legal apparatus of the state - the police, the court room, the prison- and the... read more »

(Thanks to historian Courtney Thomas for the guest post. -ed.) The crimes of Mervyn Touchet (executed on May 14, 1631), second Earl of Castlehaven, caused... read more »

Monday, 14 May 1928: 10th sitting of the coroner's inquest, in Coleford.Other than brief testimony from a former quarry co-worker of Harry's, Ralph Dowle,... read more »

By Paul Emanuelli, reposted with permission from unpublishedwriterblog. In the winter of 1803, everyone in Hammersmith had seen the white ghost, or knew... read more »

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: The Murder in Angel Lane Paddy Considine, Olivia Coleman ITV 8pm, Sunday 12th May http://www.itvmedia.co.uk/highlights/New-commissions/the-suspicions-of-mr-whicher-2-commissioned... read more »

On this date in 1945, five days after the Germans had surrendered to the Allies in World War II, two deserting sailors were shot at Amsterdam. Dorfer... read more »

Thursday, 10 May 1928: 9th sitting of the coroner's inquest, in Coleford.Drs Du Pré and Nanda are recalled to clarify certain matters. Chief Inspector... read more »

Wednesday, 9 May 1928: 8th sitting of the coroner's inquest.Having heard a great deal of what could be called 'circumstantial evidence' in previous sittings,... read more »