Criminal Curiosities.
Execution has long been part of criminal history, society’s ultimate sanction for the very worst offenders. Less enthusiastic supporters regard it as a necessary evil and a deterrent even while acknowledging its distasteful nature. Opponents believe it no deterrent at all, that it’s applied arbitrarily and makes society as uncivilized and barbarous as the condemned … Continue reading Justice; Regular or Extra Crispy.
It’s a fact that, for all their ruthlessness and guile, murderers can and do make the most idiotic mistakes. Louisa Merrifield was certainly one of them. Born in 1906, Merrifield was a liar, a fraudster, a cheat and ultimately a murderer. Today in 1953 her criminal career ended abruptly at the end of Albert Pierrepoint’s … Continue reading On This Day in 1953 – Louisa Merrifield, the Blackpool Poisoner.
It’s common to find ‘Peachtree Bandit’ Frank Dupre, armed robber and murderer executed on September 1, 1921 with Luke McDonald, listed as the last man to hang in Georgia. He wasn’t. That was Arthur Meyers, a murderer hanged at Augusta on June 17, 1931 for a murder committed in March, 1924. It’s equally common for … Continue reading On This Day in 1924 – Howard Hinton, Georgia’s first electrocution.
The dawn on September 11, 1977 dawned damp and grey for the citizens of Marseilles, especially those residing in Les Baumettes Prison. All the inmates (and some of the staff) were were in a dark mood as they contemplated the rising of the dawn and the falling of executioner Marcel Chevalier's blade. Inmates of … Continue reading On This Day in 1977 – Hamida Djandoubi, last man to face a French guillotine.
A long, long way as it turned out. When Vere Goold took his own life on this day in 1909 he was far from Tipperary (his ancestral home) and everything else he'd ever known. Once the son of a prominent Irish family, a talented boxer and Wimbledon tennis star, he died a convict, murderer and … Continue reading On This Day in 1909, Vere Thomas ‘St. Leger’ Goold: A long way from Tipperary.
At dawn on September 3, 1915 Sing Sing Prison's original Death House was almost full. With only eight cells and seven condemned men occupying them it was busy by Death House standards. It wouldn't remain so for very long. Today was a dark day for Death House denizens. Unusual even when Sing Sing's death chamber … Continue reading On This Day In 1915: Five Die At Sing Sing.
"This is Orson Welles speaking from London. The Black Museum, repository of death... Here, in this grim stone structure on the Thames which houses Scotland Yard, is a warehouse of homicide where everyday objects, a piece of wire, a chemist's flask, a silver shilling, all are touched by murder..." In today's internet age … Continue reading Orson Welles and the Black Museum.
