19th Century
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‘If She is a Dead Woman, I Shall Die Happy’: Richard and Ann Griffin
In September 1810, Richard Griffin, a 29-year-old journeyman blacksmith, from Saffron Hill, London was indicted at the Old Bailey for the ‘wilful murder’ of his 34-year-wife Ann. Ann Griffin had been absent from her home for a day and a half when she encountered her husband Richard at Bartholomew’s Fair on 4 September. Richard had been… Continue reading
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‘Blood in the Snow”: The Wolves of Turku
By User:Mas3cf – This file was derived from: Eurasian wolf.JPG, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95523086 Beginning in 1880, a series of wolf attacks brought terror to the countryside north of the city of Turku, in south-west Finland. Continuing into the latter part of the following year, reports suggest that 22 children were killed by a trio… Continue reading
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Dillie Welsh’s Four-Legged Saviour
The following collection of stories was published in Michigan’s Grand Rapid’s Press on Friday, 7 May 1886. Saved by a Calf A story comes from Alabama to the effect that Four-year-old Dillie Welsh, while playing with a pet calf, went to a well and peeped over the low curb. The calf caught her dress in… Continue reading
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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
Hellish Fiends, and Brutish Men 