19th Century
-
A Dark and Lonesome Passage to Eternity
Edward Bonney, a 38-year-old alleged counterfeiter from Montrose, Iowa, arrived in Chicago on the steamship Champion early on Thursday, 25 September 1845. Bonney was accompanied by two other men, identified by the local newspaper, The Chicago Democrat, as ’two of the five murderers of Col. Davenport, Wm. F. Birch, alias Haines, and John Long, alias Continue reading
19th Century, 4th of July, Aaron Long, Banditti of the Prairie, Counterfeiting, Crime, Crime and Punishment, Detective, Edward Bonney, George Davenport, Granville Young, Hangings, history, Illinois, Iowa, John Long, Justice, Murder, Newspapers, outlaws, Public Execution, Rock Island, United States History -
‘To be Master of The Devil’: Richard Faulkner
The Isle of Ely Summer Assizes, held at Wisbech on Friday, July 10, 1807, only had one prisoner to try, but he was ‘so shockingly depraved and hardened’ that his story bears retelling. Richard Faulkner was 15 when, on February 15 1807, in an act of revenge, he killed George Burnham at Whittlesea (now spelt Continue reading
-
‘Good God! How Grief Has Altered Him!’ Thomas Carson’s Gaol Break
On 27 August 1800, brothers Thomas and John Carson, members of the Meath Yeomanry, stood trial at Trim Assizes for the ‘Wilful murder’ of ‘one of His Majesty’s subjects’, Charles Casliny. Kilmainhamwood (Irish: Cill Mhaighneann), where the killing occurred, is a village on the River Dee in County Meath, Ireland.The Carsons were tried in front Continue reading
-
Dreadful Accident at St. James’
The following story was reported in the Bristol Mirror on Saturday, 3 August 1816. Miss Burrowes of Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell, was to be buried in the afternoon of Wednesday, 31 July 1816, at St. James’ church.The gravediggers were instructed to dig the grave to a depth of twenty feet to thwart resurrectionists. When Miss Continue reading
-
Inkpaduta, Henry Lott and the road to Spirit Lake
A bloody massacre. Illustration for True Stories of the American Indians by Edward S Ellis, nd. Credit: Look and Learn On Wednesday, July 1st, 1857, dawn had barely broken when a detachment of Company D, 10th Infantry soldiers from Fort Ridgely reached the Yellow Medicine River, five miles from the agency that bore the same name.The Continue reading
-
‘He is alive; go in and kill him.’ The Murder of George Morrey
Hannah Evans had not long retired to bed when she was awoken by ‘a great noise and two or three blows.’. It was the early hours of 12 April 1812. Hannah, a maid working at a farmhouse belonging to George and Edith Morrey in the village of Hankelow, Cheshire, had stayed up with her mistress Continue reading
Hellish Fiends, and Brutish Men 