The New Newgate Calendar

On this date in 1915, Ottoman major Cerkez Ahmed (often Ahmet) hanged in Damascus. The officer had been an important figure months earlier in the opening... read more »

Here are a few of the links that have interested me over the course of this month. The Girl In The Box: The Mysterious Crime That Shocked Germany The... read more »

I promised that this blog would return to the events of 1888 and the so-called Whitechapel or ‘Jack the Ripper’ murders. In the early hours... read more »

A Thai national named Navarat Maykha was hanged in Singapore on this date in 1995 for drug-smuggling. “An impoverished and uneducated woman, and... read more »

The Alhambra Theatre of Variety, Leicester Square c.1874 Today’s blog concerns the problematic area of tipping in a restaurant or bar. Should you... read more »

Cuban patriot Eduardo Facciolo Alba was garroted on this date in 1852. The 23-year-old was the typographer of the magazine La Voz del Pueblo Cubano... read more »

Mr. A’Beckett’s courtroom at Southwark was packed in late September 1854 as the Bermondsey Improvement Commissioners brought a series of ‘health... read more »

Below follows the full text the gallows ephemera by which print culture recalls for posterity a domestic tragedy of colonial Boston … whose arch... read more »

Some areas of the capital were notoriously difficult to police. There were several streets and alleyways in Spitalfields and Whitechapel where the police... read more »

Socialist journalist Javier Bueno was garotted by the fascists on this date in 1939. Bueno (Spanish Wikipedia entry | Asturian), “instigator of the... read more »

I am (sadly) rarely supervised at the cruelty that some human are capable of showing to others and to defenseless animals, but this case is extreme and... read more »

A sketch of the incident on the front page of the Illustrated Police News, 30 January 1930. Image courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive. On the morning... read more »

From a New York Times report of Nov. 13, 1852, corroborated by other press by foreign and domestic. On September 25, 1852, in Athens, Greece, the unnamed... read more »

The nature of the law is at the centre of discussions this morning. Yesterday judges sitting in the highest court in the land – the Supreme Court... read more »

Robert Anthony Buell, a former Akron city planner, was executed by lethal injection on this date in 2002. He’d been condemned for abducting 11-year-old... read more »

Historians of crime have estimated that in the 18thand 19thcenturies only a small percentage of assaults (even fairly serious ones) reached the courts.... read more »

Iraq’s June 1948 elections hard in the wake of the humiliating defeat of Iraq’s expeditionary by the infant state of Israel ushered in a ferociously... read more »

Homelessness is very much a part of life in London in the 21st century, something, I feel, we should – as a society – feel ashamed of. ... read more »

September 22 is the feast date of early Christian martyr Saint Maurice, and of the legendary all-Christian Theban Legion which he commanded. This legion... read more »

By Cassie Watson; posted 22 September 2019. The trial of the notorious Rugeley Poisoner, William Palmer, opened at London’s Central Criminal Court,... read more »

When PC 64E reached the small crowd gathered outside the Lyceum Theatre on the Strand he found a man writhing around on the pavement, and frothing at the... read more »

Italian artillerist Amos Pampaloni, the real-life model for the title character of the novel and film Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, miraculously survived... read more »

The wild publicity surrounding the Ripper murders in 1888 escalated after the murder of Annie Chapman on 8 September. Lots of suspects began to emerge... read more »

From the Galveston (Texas) News, September 24, 1878: Execution of Speer. The First White Man Hanged is in McLennan County. A Solemn and Impressive Scene... read more »

The very last case heard at Guildhall Police court on 19 September 1864 was a tragic one, and one that might have been written by the capital’s greatest... read more »

“every man is presumed to be innocent till proved guilty …” -Whig barrister William Garrow, coining a soon-to-become-foundational juridical... read more »

Mary Anderson Mary Anderson was an American actress, born in Sacramento, California, in 1859. She had been on the stage since the age of 16, enjoying success... read more »

Hannah Williams loved James Newbold and she thought that the young engineer would marry her. She believed this and that had led her to support him while... read more »

Richard Thursgill and his family were awakened by someone ringing violently on their doorbell.  It was about a quarter past one in then morning of... read more »

Horman was interrogated at the military school and then transferred to the national stadium for further questioning. He was ordered shot and killed the... read more »

Uruguay-born World War I spy Augusto Alfredo Roggen was shot in the Tower of London on this date in 1915. Like most German-on-British agents during the... read more »

An 1865 issue Victorian florin (not actual size…) I suppose that in these days of contactless payment fewer and fewer of us use real money any more.... read more »

To whom much is given … BEIJING — A man who in 2009 killed six of his family, including his own children, was executed Friday [September 16,... read more »

I have spent the last two weeks following the metropolitan police courts in one year, 1888, the year of the Whitechapel murders. I’ll return to 1888... read more »

Heretical prelate Jan de Bakker went to The Stake at The Hague on this date in 1525. Stained glass dedicated to Jan de Bakker at Sint-Jacobskerk in The... read more »

As PC Olding (269D) patrolled the streets in central London in September 1888 he may have counted his blessings that he had not been seconded to Whitechapel,... read more »

From news reports: The management of the federal Kober Prison in Khartoum North on Sunday [September 14, 2014] carried out the death penalty against two... read more »

One can imagine that with tension riding high in September 1888 violence was on everyone’s mind, even violence that might have seemed ‘commonplace’ previously.... read more »

The notorious Dutch criminal Huttenkloas was broken on the wheel on this date in 1775. The distinctive brand Huttenkloas today attaches to a brewery with... read more »

Anti-immigrant sentiment was on the rise in the 1880s fueled by racists (anti-alienists) like Arnold White, a populist politician in the Farage mold. White... read more »

Private John Abigail of the Royal Norfolk Regiment was shot on this date in 1917 for World War I desertion, at the village of Esquelbecq on the French-Belgian... read more »

There are some historians and historical criminologists whose work leaves you cold, and others whose work gives you a little bit of professional jealousy,... read more »

Yesterday’s blog concerned a violent assault in Berner Street, where Liz Stide was murdered on 30 September 1888. Today’s is about a theft... read more »

Ottoman officer Yakub Cemil was executed on this date in 1916 as an aspiring putschist. A Circassian infantryman who served under Enver Pasha in the 1900s,... read more »

The panic over the Whitechapel (or ‘Jack the Ripper’) murders were really beginning to set in by the second week of September 1888. Martha... read more »

On this date in 1731, a double execution of 50-year-old Catherine Bevan and her young servant — perhaps lover — Peter Murphy was nightmarishly... read more »

1882 saw an important breakthrough in women’s rights. Not quite as important as the vote perhaps, but more practical, at least for women who worked... read more »

Elsjen Roelofs was broken on the wheel at Assen on this date in 1767 — an unusual fate for a woman, inflicted for poisoning her husband. The sources... read more »

One the most powerful images of the negative effects of alcohol is William Hogarth’s ‘Gin Lane’. The engraving is Hogarth’s attack... read more »

The Capital Punishment UK Facebook page exhumes a ghastly artifact for us in the form of the September 8, 1873 hanging of James Connor at Kirkdale Gaol... read more »