19th Century
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The Ordeal of George Elmes
Leavenworth Daily Commercial, Thursday, 15 July 1875. In the summer of 1875, George Elmes, a German-born resident of Hays City, Kansas, ‘an honest, hard working fellow,’ loaded up a wagon with goods purchased from a sutler’s store and started on a trek from Hays City to Trinidad, New Mexico, where he planned to sell his… Continue reading
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Resurrectionists at Merrion Churchyard
By Hablot Knight Browne – https://archive.org/stream/chroniclesofcri01pelh#page/n317/mode/2up, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24087051 On a Thursday evening early in December 1828, several men, including four brothers named Ryan, gathered at the Merrion churchyard, Dublin, to watch over the grave of the brothers’ recently deceased sister. Around the same time that Miss Ryan was buried, Arthur Flaherty, a painter of… Continue reading
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Robert Thorley and the Footpad
On a Saturday afternoon in November 1812, Robert Thorley was riding from London to his home at nearby Petersham, along the Wandsworth road, when he noticed a woman dressed like a Quaker. Following the woman along the footpath was a man with an apron folded round him in the style of a carpenter. As Thorley… Continue reading
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The Mysterious Case at Balby
On Tuesday, 22 March 1852, an inquest was held in the South Yorkshire village of Wadworth, on the body of 19-year-old Hannah Adams, ‘who had come to her death under circumstances of a very extraordinary and painful nature.’ Hannah Adams was employed as a housemaid by Mrs. Shepphard, in the village of Balby, a short… Continue reading
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‘I Never Did Anything But Thump Her A Bit’: The Smithies Tragedy
Weekly Examiner, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. 27/03/1852 Early on the morning of Wednesday, 24 March 1852, Francis Atkinson was walking to work at a colliery in the South Yorkshire village of Smithies, when, passing along Carlton Lane, he discovered the bodies of a woman and a baby lying in an embrace, ‘weltering in a pool of… Continue reading
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A Case of Avunculicide: The Murder of Giovanni Kalabergo
Portrait of John Kalabergo. Engraved by E. Jewitt of Camden Town. The original was in the possession of Mr. Craddock, of Banbury, Oxfordshire. On Saturday, 10 January 1852, Dr. Harris’, a surgeon at the Queen’s Hospital, Birmingham, visit to his father’s house in the north Oxfordshire hamlet of Williamscote (now Williamscot), was disturbed by the… Continue reading
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An Extraordinary Event at Cracow: From the Newspaper Archives
The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday, November 1, 1865. I discovered the following stories in the Hamilton (Ontario)Spectator published on Wednesday, 1 November 1865. The Hamilton Spectator was first published on July 15, 1846, as The Hamilton Spectator and Journal of Commerce. An Extraordinary Event at Cracow An extraordinary event is reported at cracow. On the 13th… Continue reading
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Horrible Scenes at the Execution of Three German Criminals
Following on from the last post, this graphic account of a triple execution in Mecklenburg was featured in the same issue of the Daily Evening Herald. German journals give a horrible account of the execution by beheading with the sword at Butzau, Mecklenberg, of three murderers, Henry Schaffer, Peter Nopp, and Francis Newmann. The crowd… Continue reading
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Mr. Cyrus King Finds Relief
I discovered the following two stories while trawling through newspapers.com. Both articles were featured in the Thursday, 8 August 1872, edition of Stockton, California’s Daily Evening Herald. Driven to Desperation Smith Johnson, of Detroit, driven to desperation by the wiles of a widow, promised to marry her, and then attempted to get out of it… Continue reading
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‘As I Stand on the Brink of the Grave’: Who was ‘Sue Monday’?
On Sunday, 12 March 1864, a detachment of 50 men from the 30th Wisconsin Infantry, under the command of Major Cyrus Wilson, surrounded a tobacco barn at Webster, Kentucky, and after a brief firefight in which three members of the infantry were slightly, and one mortally wounded, captured the notorious Confederate guerrilla Sue Monday (Mundy,… Continue reading
Hellish Fiends, and Brutish Men 