True Crime
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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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‘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
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‘This Hoary Sinner’ James Wilson
At the Middlesex Sessions held in September 1823, James Wilson, a watchcase maker, of Northampton Row, Clerkenwell, London, was accused of ‘having repeatedly endeavoured to ravish his own daughter.’ Wilson’s wife died in 1819, leaving behind two daughters and a son. Sarah, the eldest daughter, was around fifteen when her mother died and was serving Continue reading
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Turning King’s Evidence: Hylas Parrish, Charles Callaghan and the Murder of Moses Merry
Hylas Parrish, an 18-year-old apprentice shoemaker, first met Charles Callaghan at Vauxhall Gardens in the summer of 1813, when he attended a fete held to celebrate the victory of Britain and her allies, Spain and Portugal, over Napoleonic France in the Battle of Vitoria. At the fete, Parrish paid a penny for a ride on Continue reading
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The Orcadian Pirate
Although he was inextricably linked with the Orkney Isles, John Gow was born on the Scottish mainland at Wick, a stone’s throw from John O’Groats, around 1698. Like numerous others of his ilk, Gow ended his days at Execution Dock on the banks of the River Thames at Wapping on 11 June 1725. Gow spent Continue reading
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Illustrious Thieves: Highway Robbery in Early Modern Oxfordshire
In a previous post, we covered the story of the Dunsdon brothers. Today, we are looking at some other Highwaymen who haunted Oxfordshire’s roads during the Early Modern Period. Claude Duval and James Hind are the two most famous highwaymen associated with Oxfordshire. Duval was born in Normandy in 1643. He moved to Paris Continue reading
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‘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
Hellish Fiends, and Brutish Men 