The New Newgate Calendar

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1876, serial killer Jesse Pomeroy was reprieved by a 5-3 vote... read more »

I am fortunate to have been alive at the end of the twentieth century and living in the United Kingdom when I gave birth to two healthy children. I was... read more »

On this date in 1535, the Protestant Guillaume Husson was burned for heresy. The year before, Protestants had outraged the capital with a placarding campaign;... read more »

On this date in 2007, John Joe “Ash” Amador died of lethal injection in Texas. Amador, age 18, and a 16-year-old cousin, hailed a taxi in San... read more »

Our politicians seem to be planning their next military adventure, for David Cameron has recalled Parliament to discuss the crisis in Syria. I guess that... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1765, John Fagan, John Grimes and John Johnson alias Cochran were... read more »

Now that I’ve got your attention, I will be disappointing some of you by revealing that when female prisoners were described in a house of correction’s... read more »

On this date in 1853, John Hurley, hanged at Galway. He had bludgeoned a 16-year-old serving-girl to death to relieve her of seven and six her employers... read more »

The Canadian province of Manitoba logged its first judicial hanging on this date in 1874. Private Joseph Michaud, an artillery gunner, earned the distinction... read more »

On this date in 1916, Canadian World War I enlistee Benjamin De Fehr was shot for murder. De Fehr was one of 25 Canadians to go to the stake for military... read more »

On this date in 1290, the vaunting nobleman Zavis of Falkenstein was beheaded below the walls of Hluboka Castle. For from this eminence ye shall discern... read more »

I compiled a quick list very recently for someone who was looking for introductions to digital history and people doing digital history work. And having... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this day in 1849, forgotten mass murderer Rebecca Smith was hanged before a... read more »

This isn’t exactly the most historically important execution, but as the Newgate Calendar says, “The circumstance which attended the execution... read more »

This is the last of my short-series of blog posts on the subject of the senior detectives based at Scotland Yard in mid-Victorian London. The series... read more »

August 21 is the harvest-time feast of Consualia, honoring the Roman god of grain storage, Consus. We mark on this occasion the legendary capital punishment... read more »

There has a been a great deal of speculation since Gloucester Prison closed, concerning the number of executed prisoners who may lie buried in its grounds.... read more »

On this date in 1941,* Stalin’s own brother-in-law was shot in the gulags. In 1906, a whole lifetime before, the Georgian Alexander Svanidze introduced... read more »

Ford Madox Brown's Work[1] is a fascinating picture. It is a complex essay upon the themes of work and idleness, vigour and impotence, wealth and poverty.... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1897, a 23-year-old black man named Harvey DeBerry was hanged... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1941, 534 Jewish intellectuals were lured out of the Nazi ghetto... read more »

 "Vulnerable people deserve to be fully protected at all times, particularly when they need to be deprived of their liberty in their own best interests.... read more »

On this date in 1929, James Horace Alderman, the “King of the Rum Runners” or the “Pirate of the Gulf Stream”, was hanged at a... 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 »

The former location of Old Scotland Yard, including the Detective Department (Whitehall Place, London) This article is the penultimate one in the short... read more »

On this date in 1812, William Booth was hanged at Stafford for counterfeiting. Booth might have murdered his brother John, who was found beaten to death... read more »

On this date in 1480, Ottomans invading Otranto, Italy conducted a mass execution of prisoners. Landing at the southern Italian city on July 28, the Ottoman... read more »

On this date in 1997, Taiwanese airman Chiang Kuo-ching was shot for the rape-murder of a five-year-old girl the previous September. Chiang was nominated... read more »

Eighty-five years ago on this date, the last instalment of Beatrice Pace's six-part 'life story' appeared in the Sunday Express, the newspaper to which... read more »

On this date in 1936, the Spanish Republic executed Gen. Manuel Goded Llopis, who mounted an unsuccessful nationalist attack in the heart of Republican... read more »

Literary Landscapes, the first of the new series Open Book on Radio 4, started in England's most obvious literary landscape, the Lake District. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0381l66... read more »

On this date in 1703,* Thomas Cook was hanged at Tyburn. Cook — or the Gloucester Butcher, to use the sobriquet that advertised his prize fights... read more »

On Friday 9 August 2013 I sat down to write my concluding blog on the issues concerning poor relief and settlement in eighteenth century Thames Ditton.... read more »

On this date in 1949, Britain’s “Acid Bath Murderer”* was hanged by Albert Pierrepoint at Wandsworth Prison. The name really tells you... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On August 9, 1786, in the state of Franklin (in what is now eastern Tennessee),... read more »

John Rodda was hanged on this date in 1846 behind York Castle on “a charge so unusual and so repugnant to the ordinary feelings of human nature.”... read more »

On this date in 1864, Qing commander Zeng Guofan had his opposite number in the destructive Taiping Rebellion, previously surveyed in these pages. Stephen... read more »

FC Barcelona is many a sportive leftist’s major European football side of choice, thanks to the club’s longtime identification with its city’s... read more »

Eighty-five years ago today, the fifth instalment of Beatrice Pace's 'life-story' appeared in the Sunday Express, which had bought the rights to her autobiography... read more »

On this date in 1993, Joseph Paul Jernigan died by lethal injection in Texas. Yet he lives on still. A career burglar, Jernigan was surprised mid-robbery... read more »

On this date in 1899, the gallows of gold rush boom down Dawson City, Yukon strained for three murderers. The 1896 gold strike in the Klondike triggered... read more »

In an earlier blog I referred to pauper children housed with Mr Keel in the Thames Ditton, before the opening of the workhouse in 1760.[1] However, in... read more »

On this day in 1949, Jordan hanged Jacob Bokai. The Syrian Jew was the first Israeli intelligence agent put to death in service of the infant state. (At... read more »

The most recent execution in the Russian Federation was that of serial killer Sergey Golovkin on this date in 1996. Known as “The Fisher” or... read more »

On this date in 1556, Derby hosted the incineration of a young blind woman who refused to renounce her Protestantism. The ascendance of Queen Mary briefly... read more »