The New Newgate Calendar

This spring I will be teaching History 3098: Policing and Imprisonment in the US since 1877. It will meet 2:00PM – 3:15PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays... read more »

On this date in 1946, Japan Gen. Takashi Sakai was shot by the World War II Allies at Nanking for war crimes. Fifty-eight years old at his death, Sakai... read more »

In the 1840s, campaigners for the abolition of convict transportation engaged in a campaign of scare-mongering about the prevalence of sexual acts between... read more »

From the diary of Felix Platter, a Swiss youth studying in Montpellier, France. It is not completely evident from context (“afterwards …”)... read more »

This is fine group of Colonial Georgian buildings comprising a granary, store and residence built about 1832 by James Kestall Buscombe. The buildings are... read more »

We have visited previously the 16th century diary of Swiss medical student Felix Platter during his studies in Montpellier This book portrays the 16th... read more »

From the diary of Felix Platter, a Swiss youth studying in Montpellier, France: On the 28th [of September, 1554] the Provost came to Montpellier, and there... read more »

By Cassie Watson; posted 27 September 2016. Prologue: Murder in Wales, Summer 1766 On 21 July 1766 William Thomas, the Calvinistic schoolmaster of Michaelston-super-Ely... 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 1568, Leonor de Cisneros was burned as a heretic in Valladolid — nine years late, by her reckoning. Leonor de Cisneros (English Wikipedia... read more »

We all know that person — that superhuman Ph.D. candidate teaching for the first time. She spends hours crafting her lectures. She took a whole weekend... read more »

Launceston gained its first overland mail service from Hobart in 1816, a decade after the city was established in 1806. It is claimed that this was the... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1987* in the Belarusian SSR, highly prolific serial killer Gennady... read more »

The U.S.S.R. executed alleged* U.S. mole Adolf Tolkachev on this date in 1986. Tolkachev (English Wikipedia entry | Russian) had grown up during the Stalin... read more »

Kate Summerscale tells the true-crime story of child murderer Robert Coombes. No author of historical crime-fiction could come up with a more credible... read more »

It was likely on, and certainly about, this date in 1675 that the Riegersburg Castle keeper’s wife was burned as the “flower witch”.... read more »

[1681 September] 22. There were 3 persons executed in Boston[.] An Englishman for a Rape. A negro man for burning a house at Northampton & a negro... read more »

Over the course of the last twenty-four posts published on this blog, I’ve established beyond reasonable doubt that Derbyshire-born dentist Joseph... read more »

Three hundred years ago today, five Jacobites were hanged in London for raising a riot on behalf of the exiled Pretender. The 1714 childless death of Queen... read more »

The Presbyterian Church was built in 1886 for about 500 pounds on land that had been donated by James Hadden from the Grange. James’ Mother, Jane... read more »

On this date in 1937, the dancer Marina Semyonova lost her husband to the Great Purge. Semyonova was perhaps the premier Soviet ballerina in the interwar... read more »

Our recent trip to Australia for the Digital Panopticon conference was an invaluable opportunity for so many reasons. We were able to connect and learn... read more »

On this date in 1719, Dutch guild chief Frans Anneessens was beheaded on Brussels’ Grand Place. The southern Low Countries — today’s... read more »

A sad traveller’s tale from early 18th-century Denbigh, occasioned by this tweet: Ouch! #histmed #earlymodern accidents while travelling or working!... read more »

On this date in the year 96, the Roman Emperor Domitian was assassinated … his very last act in the purple having been to condemn to death an astrologer... read more »

The Eastern State Penitentiary in Pennsylvania, USA, opened in 1829, was the first prison using the ’separate system’. The idea had originated... read more »

The city of Charleston, Virginia — soon to become Charleston, West Virginia — hosted the unctuously ceremonious public hanging of a killer... read more »

On this date in 1776, Robert Harley and Edward George hanged at Tyburn for murder. Harley and George are the postscript to a strange story already seen... read more »

On this date in 1921, the Mad Baron* of the Russian Civil War was shot in Novosibirsk. “Before fleeing the Red Army, Whites torch the grain”:... read more »

When our party took over political power, the exploiting classes and reactionary forces went into action. The only rusty and antiquated tool that they... read more »

For those of you who like such things, this post explores the rationale and methodology for my work on London Lives Petitions: it’s a revised/extended... read more »

The Hobart Girls Industrial School opened as the Hobart Town Female Refuge in 1862. It was for girls considered to be neglected. Hobart Girls' Industrial... read more »

If the death in 1855 of Joseph Boden, the bigamous husband of my great-great-aunt Elizabeth Robb, wasn’t already a miserable enough affair (Joseph... read more »

Case files for murder trials: The case of Cyril Johnson / Auntie MaggieWhile I’ve been wrapping up on my PhD I’ve been working one afternoon... read more »

My great-great-aunt Elizabeth Boden née Robb lived for five years after the death of her bigamous husband Joseph in 1855. In the last post I described... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) At noon on this date in 1862, William Robert Taylor was hanged at Lancaster Castle... read more »

From the Lowell (Mass.) Patriot, September 18, 1835 — channeling, as the headling indicates, the Boston Morning Post. In addition to a wanton overuse... read more »

In 1851 my possibly-bigamous great-great-aunt Elizabeth Robb and her almost-certainly -bigamous husband Joseph Boden were living in Lawrence Lane, off... read more »

Zum Kampf! Zum Kampf! from Max Bruch‘s 1877 oratorio about Teutoburg Forest victor Arminius. Also be sure to check out the Handel opera. September... read more »

The Catholic community began to establish itself in Sorell from the late 1840’s and first requested the government for an allotment on which to build... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in September 10, 1893, the same day that they admitted to their roles... read more »

From the New York Times, September 17, 1853: Last Hours of Reese Evans. Correspondence of the New-York Daily Times. WILKESBARRE. Tuesday, Sept. 13, 1853... read more »

In the light of yet another modern-day, 'mad or bad' killer - Sarah Williams - comparisons were drawn with Mary Pearcey, 24, who, in late 1890, killed... read more »

During my PhD study and for the first ten years of my academic career, I researched alone. I went to the archives, I discussed and presented my work to... read more »

Bob Shoemakers’ keynote address from the Penal History in a Digital Age conference in Tasmania, June 2016, focused on the project’s... read more »

I’m trying to piece together the story of the final years of Joseph and Elizabeth Boden. In doing so, it’s important to understand the part... read more »

The British military shot 306 soldiers for desertion or cowardice during World War I, but the very first of them was 19-year-old Thomas Highgate on September... read more »

We know very little about the lives of Joseph Boden and Elizabeth Robb in the early years of their marriage (if we set aside for now the possibility... read more »

Hated Edinburgh gendarme Captain John Porteous was lynched on this date in 1736. September 7 was the date of Porteous’s own scheduled hanging, for... read more »

Anyone who has seen the winter flood waters surge down the Cataract Gorge will understand its potential power. So too did Andrew Sibbald and John Walker... read more »