Indholdsfortegnelse for All About History: Most Wanted i All About History

Martha Tabram Separated from her husband and with a reputation for excessive drinking, Martha Tabram was destitute by August 1888 and making a living from prostitution. Her body was discovered with 39 stab wounds but she had not been further mutilated. Tabram is not generally considered an official ‘canonical’ victim of the Ripper. Polly Nichols Estranged from her husband and children, Polly Nichols had been in and out of workhouses for over five years by the time of her death. She had earned enough money for a bed on the night of her murder but spent the money on alcohol, forcing her back onto the streets. Annie Chapman Known as Dark Annie due to either her hair or her black moods, 47-year-old Chapman had fallen on hard times following the…

Gilles de Rais could have been one of France’s most heroic historical figures. Instead, he’s one of its most notorious. De Rais, once a loyal friend of Joan of Arc, fearless soldier and Marshal of France, is forever associated with depravity, occultism, Devil-worship, human sacrifice and murder. The Hundred Years’ War between England and France was actually an era of recurring campaigns lasting just over a century. Periodically flaring up between 1337 and 1453, it saw the kingdoms of England and France fight campaign after campaign. In France itself, rival factions jockeyed for power and position behind the scenes, while armies marched and fought rivals, schemed and plotted, especially the Burgundians. In 1425 minor nobleman Gilles de Rais entered the royal court of King Charles VII, officially Dauphin of France…

She was a Norwegian-American woman who stood somewhere between 1.7 and 1.8 metres tall and weighed more than 88 kilograms; a ‘brawny’ woman who wore long, plain dresses and was said to have a dour expression that dulled bright talk. She was also a serial killer, and even wrote to one victim: ‘When people come to visit me, they never want to go away again’. Belle Gunness went down in history as America’s ‘Lady Bluebeard’, but she started off life as Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth, a stonemason’s daughter from Norway. She grew up on a farm at Størsetgjerdet, near Innbygda, in the east of the country. The youngest of eight children, Belle lived in relative poverty, but in her teens started work as a servant, living on a larger, wealthier farm.…

Founded in 1852 under Emperor Napoleon III, no penal facility has a worse reputation. Devil’s Island itself only confined political prisoners, holding barely 50 during its career. The Penal Administration, however, comprised dozens of prisons and work camps where inmates lived and usually died in terrible conditions. Disease, escape, malnutrition, overwork and murder killed around 40 per cent of new prisoners within a year of their arrival. In bad years up to 80 per cent died. Of around 70,000 inmates only around 5,000 survived their sentences and 2,000 returned to France. Particularly hated was ‘le doublage.’ Inmates serving eight years or less had to spend an equal period in Guiana as workers or colonists. Inmates serving eight years or more could never return to France. The most hated people in…

On 1 November 1872, a new act on baby farming came into force in the UK. The Infant Life Protection Act made it more difficult for baby farmers to carry on their work – from now, a register had to be kept by each local authority, and anyone wanting to nurse more than one infant under the age of one, for money, had to register their details. If a baby farmer was found to have neglected their charges, a first offence was liable to a maximum prison term of six months or a fine of £5. However, unfortunately the act did not apply to any relatives or guardians who had care for infants, nor to public institutions, such as workhouses. Any child who died in a registered house had to…

Born in 1898 in a run-down district of Brooklyn to Italian immigrants Gabriele and Teresina Capone, Al Capone’s life of crime began early, brawling with street gangs and running errands for mobsters. One, a young rising star called Johnny Torrio, would loom larger in his life later on. Capone soon found work with Frankie Yale (born Francesco Ioele), a vicious thug with links to Torrio. Working as a barman in Yale’s bar, the Harvard Inn – a notorious haunt of prostitutes and gangsters – Capone got the vicious scars on his face when he leered at one mobster’s sister “Honey, you got a nice ass and I mean that as a compliment, believe me.” The furious Frank Galluccio called Capone out and slashed him three times across his cheek with…

Capone’s specially outfitted, bulletproof Cadillac was seized by the US Treasury Department in 1932. It was later used by the government as President Franklin Roosevelt’s limousine. Even though he is synonymous with Chicago, he only lived in the city for 12 years of his life. Allegedly, he had never heard of Eliot Ness, the government agent sent to bring him to justice. The man who helped America swim in booze during Prohibition’s favourite drink was Templeton Rye whisky. His men carried out most of the deaths he is responsible for, but Capone is still thought to have killed more than a dozen men personally.…

BUGSY SIEGEL: We’ll make him bring Hoover in front of me and let that tell me where he got it from… I said tell that dirty son of a bitch – you may say don’t give me a licence here and we go in and spend 3 million dol lars, every nickel we possess. He thinks it’s Meyer and I in there… Winchell apologised 40 times, said I would never do a thing like that. He said all right, you’re a friend of mine but these two either fellows are dearer friends to me in there, he said, and me especially is a very dear friend of mine, wouldn’t do a thing in the world to hurt him, said I want you to see the letter when you get back.…

With Colombia’s drug-dealing operations booming, there was a need to protect the dealers from revolutionary groups who sought to attack wealthy elites and kidnap individuals for ransom. In 1981, the sister of the Ochoas (Martha Nieves Ochoa) was kidnapped by the group M-19. Its chief claim to fame was the 1974 theft of Simón Bolívar’s sword from a museum. Escobar and his gang decided an autodefensa (vigilante) unit would be a great PR stunt, and made self-interest look like patriotism. It was also rich in irony, that a former kidnapper was suddenly fighting the good fight against the scourge. One of Death to Kidnappers’ most famous publicity stunts was to drop leaflets over a soccer stadium during a match with a warning to any would-be crooks: ‘Kidnappers will be hanged…

The infamous twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray developed a taste for violence at an early age. Born in October 1933, they grew up in London’s East End as it recovered from the Blitz, running in gangs that scrapped with their rivals among the rubble, and earning themselves a fearful reputation as boxers and as street-brawlers. “People called us the Terrible Twins,” recalled Ronnie. During their teens, that terror was visited upon a 16-year-old lad called Harvey with whom they fought outside Barry’s Dance Hall in Hackney. Not only was he punched and kicked all over but he was also been beaten with bicycle chains. Even at this age the twins loved vicious weapons — knives, coshes, Ronnie even carried a cutlass in later years — and they were always willing…

Maid Marian is more a complete fabrication than an embellished character. As a love-match and soul mate to Robin Hood, she popped onto the scene sometime in the 16th century and was likely derived from a 15th-century character: the Lady of May Day. This popular festival was a yearly tradition in the Middle Ages but it took several generations of storytelling before Marian and Robin were brought together. In fact, the increased popularity of the story of Robin Hood was probably brought about by three plays that are known to have been written for the May Day festivities: Robin Hood and the Sheriff, Robin Hood and the Friar and Robin Hood and the Potter. It is small wonder really, that some bard would eventually pen a romance between the dashing…

If Robin Hood and his Merry Men did exist in the time of King John, it’s highly unlikely they would have embarked on the scale of philanthropy portrayed in the modern tale. This idea likely came from an early medieval ballad involving Richard at the Lee, a knight who had fallen upon hard times. His lands were to be forfeited to an abbot because he couldn’t repay a loan to the abbey, so Robin gives him money to pay his mortgage. Historian John Paul Davis goes further as to suggest that Robin Hood stole from the rich and lent to the poor, as a kind of medieval loan shark. In his book Robin Hood: The Unknown Templar, Davis says that Hood loaned Richard a sum of £400, before stealing it…

The smoking man Blackbeard inserted slow burning canon fuses under his hat and lit them as he approached enemies. This would encircle him in smoke, and create a terrifying image. Weaponry To strike fear into his enemies, Blackbeard wore three pairs of cocked and primed pistols strapped to his chest over a sling. He also carried at least two cutlasses, and sometimes a further four pistols under his belt. A gruesome flag The flag was the first thing that approaching ships would look for, and Blackbeard’s incorporated all the morbid symbols it could fit. It showed a skeleton with horns, a spear and bleeding heart. A well-equipped ship Although he rarely needed to use the weaponry on his flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard ensured it was equipped to frighten any…

Doug Morrissey Writer, historian and iconoclast Doug Morrissey is author of Ned Kelly: A Lawless Life, a criticism of the “whitewashing of the bushranger’s criminal action”. It’s available from Connor Court Publishing and on Amazon, and was shortlisted in 2016 for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Australian History. “When you look closely at the history and motives involved, Ned Kelly damns himself by his actions and the wordsmiths find no fault. Kelly was a violent, narcissistic career criminal who bullied those around him and would listen to no counsel but his own. He committed murder and, if his grisly Glenrowan plan had succeeded as he had hoped, he would have been a mass murderer. That he is today regarded as a hero by so many has much to do…

On 4 May 1634, a baby girl was born who would one day enter the dark annals of England’s criminal history. She was Katherine Ferrers, the infamous Wicked Lady of folklore, a legend among highway robbers. Yet was Katherine really a bloodthirsty killer who consorted with a rakish highwayman, or has history done her a grievous disservice? Katherine was born in Hertfordshire to Knighton Ferrers and his wellborn heiress wife, Lady Katherine Walters. Over the centuries leading up to the little girl’s birth, her Protestant family had done rather well out of the royal family, and were particular favourites of those titans of the monarchy, Henry VIII and Edward VI. Thanks to their unquestioning loyalty to the crown, the Ferrers had been awarded extensive territories and property, and for young…

Defining moment Returning to jail Cassidy is famous for his honesty. One night before he was due to go to jail, he asked to have the night as a free man, saying he’d return the next day. The authorities agreed and, sure enough, Cassidy returned the next morning. 1894 Say the name Butch Cassidy and it’s hard to not immediately think of the Sundance Kid and the 1969 film. Its story of two wisecracking buddies is so ingrained in culture as to be taken as fact. But it isn’t fact. For a start, Cassidy and Sundance were not best friends. They did flee to Argentina together, but that was more opportunity than choice. But even if the film didn’t nail it in terms of accuracy, that is not to say…

Crossing state lines was one way to evade capture. Constant movement was another. Gangsters with money and connections had another option, safe havens operated by corrupt cops, politicians and local gangsters. If they could afford steep fees they could live, openly and unmolested, in towns where cops were as crooked as robbers. Hot Springs, Arkansas was effectively a gangster’s paradise run by transplanted New York gangster Owny ‘The Killer’ Madden. With Madden’s approval fugitives could live there in peace unless Federal agents found them. Local police were largely on Madden’s payroll, even chief detective ‘Dutch’ Akers. St Paul, Minnesota was run by Harry Sawyer out of his notorious ‘Green Lantern’ tavern. Gangsters like Dillinger and the Barker-Karpis Gang lived there quite openly. Through Sawyer and corrupt police and politicians, fugitives…

When Queen Elizabeth I drew her last breath on her mammoth 44-year-long reign, Catholics around England let out their own sighs of relief. Life under Elizabeth had not been easy. Perhaps in retaliation to the brutal rule of her sister Mary, the devout Catholic queen, Elizabeth had introduced a range of legislations that hit Catholics hard. She was likely fearful of Catholics, and she had reason to be, as a Papal Bull declared that a Catholic’s allegiance was not to the Crown, but to God. In one swift move, every Catholic in England was branded a traitor. Simply being a Catholic, or even sheltering Catholics, was not only illegal but akin to high treason. Terrified, but devoted to their faith, Catholics were forced underground and some 130 priests were executed.…

He’d had beer, probably plenty, but it was consumed in celebration rather than for courage. The day before, the Bolivian Army had been in a fierce firefight with communist guerrillas trapped in a mountainside gulley. The enemy had been routed and a few had been captured. But there had been dead on both sides, so when an officer called for an execution volunteer, Sergeant Mario Terán was more than ready to avenge his fallen Bolivian brothers. Beer was not going to affect his aim. Terán stepped into the humble schoolhouse, the main prisoner’s makeshift cell. The captive was filthy, his hair a tangled mess, his clothes torn and ragged. Rather than boots, he’d tied pieces of leather to his feet. Lying on the dirt ground, bleeding from a bullet hole…

GOOD The root of the problem Journeying through Latin America, Che observed for himself the problems faced by the vast majority of the region’s people. His analysis that this was caused by colonialism and exploitation, largely by corporations of the United States, was devastatingly accurate. Education, education, education The local recruits joining the rebels in Sierra Maestra were often illiterate. Che organised classes to teach them to read and write. Subsequently, the literacy campaign in Cuba that began after the revolution was one of his favourite initiatives. Medic! As a doctor, Che treated leprosy victims in Peru, people injured during the overthrow of Guatemala’s government, rebels under Castro’s command, the local population in the Sierra Maestra – and even wounded Batista soldiers after a raid on the El Uvero garrison.…

As the cold midwinter of 1610 seeped through the stone of Čachtice Castle in Hungary, screams could be heard coming from within. The 50-year-old widow, Countess Elizabeth Báthory, was indulging in some entertainment. At her feet lay a young serving girl who was being burned with red-hot irons. She would not survive. The Countess, who would come to be known as the most prolific female killer in history, seems to have found pleasure in inflicting pain and misery on her servants, serfs, and anyone who crossed her. Over the years these tales of torture grew so monstrous that she was thought to have bathed in the blood of virgins, a pastime that granted her eternal youth. Like the fictional character Dracula, with whom she is often compared, she is seen…

By the late 19th century, cartographers had mapped much of the world, and the globe, almost as we know it today, was a wellestablished fact. To the east, the Victorian Empire had peaked despite being ousted from its interests in the New World colonies a century earlier, and the decades that followed Independence Day had seen a fledgling United States simmer with civil war and lawlessness. In the wake of the British, the new American government had made vast territorial gains, picking up the entire Louisiana region – a huge swathe of grasslands over a million square kilometres – from France’s Napoleon Bonaparte for a snip, at just $15 million. Border disputes and infighting followed, but that did not halt the USA’s progress from the Great Plains to the coastline…

Robert Stahl Robert is a historian, professor emeritus at Arizona State University and member of the Billy The Kid Outlaw Gang (BTKOG) – a non-profit organisation with the aim of preserving the truth and promoting education in the history of Billy the Kid. Several theories counter the reports of the Kid’s death with tales of his survival. Why do you think these tales persist today? Number one is that a great many people who accept the ‘survival’ tale have not read the histories of the Kid’s death by serious historians, so they are susceptible to entertaining stories about the Kid not being killed. Number two is the fact that many people cannot accept that it was mere coincidence that Garrett and the Kid were in Pete Maxwell’s bedroom at the…

In a time when Christianity reached into almost every facet of people’s lives many feared eternal damnation more than death. One step toward damnation was excommunication from the Church. Widely misunderstood today, excommunication doesn’t automatically cast souls into Hell and it can be revoked. If excommunicated a Catholic is still required to observe Mass, but is barred from receiving any of the Holy Sacraments except the Sacrament of Repentance. They’re also barred from being employed in any capacity within the Catholic Church itself and, perhaps most frightening for a committed Catholic, are denied a Catholic burial. Excommunication is reserved for the most serious offences within Catholicism such as apostasy (renouncing the Catholic faith), heresy and physically assaulting a Pope. If the excommunicated person sincerely repents their sin, however, the excommunication…

Andrew Helgelien, aged 50, is believed to have been Belle’s final adult victim. He had seen one of her lonely heart adverts, and after initially contacting her in December 1907, the duo had been exchanging letters. It was the following month that Belle wrote to him with the prophetic words: ‘Come prepared to stay forever’. Andrew was persuaded by this to go to La Porte and visit Belle in person – taking with him his savings of nearly $3,000. Like so many before him, he then vanished, never to return home. However, his brother, Asle, became increasingly suspicious when Andrew failed to return to Aberdeen, South Dakota, and knowing that his brother had been in contact with a wealthy widow in La Porte, he travelled there to look for his…

01 Mob ‘housekeeping’ The Havana conference of December 1946 brought the old world Cosa Nostra and US Mafia leaders together to discuss business, mob rules and settle any beef. Bugsy wasn’t invited – partly because he had his hands full with the opening of the Flamingo. But there was another reason, some think: Luciano and company wanted to discuss what to do with the increasingly cocky Siegel and the money pit he had built in the desert. 02 Pre-emptive strike Bee Sedway, the wife of Siegel’s lieutenant and partner in the Flamingo Moe Sedway, revealed in a recent interview that Siegel had threatened the life of her husband. He said, “I’ll have Moe, chop his body up and feed it to the Flamingo Hotel’s kitchen garbage disposal,” after discovering that…

10 PERCENT OF ESCOBAR’S EARNINGS WERE WRITTEN OFF BECAUSE RATS WOULD EAT IT IN STORAGE OR IT WOULD BE LOST OR DAMAGED BY WATER HE BEGAN HIS CRIMINAL CAREER BY STEALING TOMBSTONES, GRINDING THEM FLAT AND RESELLING THEM AS NEW FORBES MAGAZINE RANKED ESCOBAR NUMBER 62 ON THE 1991 LIST OF WORLD’S RICHEST PEOPLE THE US CONTEMPLATED ENT OMOLOGICAL WARFARE IN 1990, BUT SCRAPPED THE IDEA TO DROP COCA LEAF EATING CATERPILLARS CALLED MULUMBIA ONTO SOUTH AMERICAN SOIL ESCOBAR HAD A PRIVATE ZOO OF OVER 200 EXOTIC ANIMALS, INCLUDING A SOCCE RPLAYING KANGAROO WHILE SERVING TIME IN 1991, ESCOBAR TRANSFORMED HIS CELL INTO A LUXURY APARTMENT, COMPLETE WITH SAUNA, WALL-TOWALL CARPETING AND TUXEDO-CLAD WAITERS ESCOBAR WAS CONSIDERED A SUSPECT FOLLOWING THE 1993 WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMBING BEFORE ESCOBAR’S MEDELLíN CARTEL…

Ronnie Kray’s sadistic lust for violence had long suggested some kind of mental imbalance, even before he began suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. As young children the twins had fallen ill with measles and diphtheria and though both recovered, their mother recognised that Ronnie was never the same afterwards. He became slower and shyer than Reggie, and was prone to more violent mood swings. It was while serving his three-year sentence in 1956 for GBH, however, that Ronnie was first diagnosed with mental illness. He was transferred from Wandsworth to Camp Hill on the Isle of Wight, a more relaxed prison environment, though here Ronnie felt cut off from his family visits and the ring of contacts he had built up during the early part of his incarceration. His mental health…

Defining moment Turpin’s cover is blown The handwriting in a letter written by Turpin was recognised by a former teacher leading to his capture and eventual execution. February 1739 History has painted Dick Turpin as a hero of romance – a ‘dandy highwayman’ handsome enough to make ladies swoon. But, when it comes to this notorious criminal, history has been kind. Turpin had been scarred by smallpox and had a distinctly ordinary face, he did not ride from London to York on a horse called Black Bess, and to describe him as a ‘highwayman’ is not strictly accurate – he did not take to stopping coaches until later in his ‘career’. Dick Turpin was a cattle thief, robber and murderer who would not shy away from assaulting women if he…

* Every man will be given his fair share of the booty. However, if they steal from the company they will be marooned. If they steal from another pirate their ears and nose will be cut, then they will be set ashore in a place where he is sure to encounter hardships. * No gambling on board, this includes playing cards or dice for money. * All lights out by 8pm, if anyone wants to drink after this time, they must do so on the open deck without a light. * No child or woman allowed on board. If any man smuggles a woman on board he will be put to death. * No fighting on board. Quarrels will be ended on shore. The men will face back to back,…

Around 240 kilometres northeast of the city of Melbourne, Victoria, is the township of Greta. It’s tree-lined, pastoral and, without closely inspecting a photo of the country surrounding Eleven Mile Creek, you could convince someone that it was the ancestral Irish homelands of some of its 250-odd population. Beyond the road leading through Greta there’s a faded “Keep Out!” sign above a sturdy barbed-wire fence and, beyond that, nothing to speak of save more rolling pasture on a wooded backdrop, what looks like the rusted hubs of an ancient cart wheel and a solitary red brick chimney. This is Kelly country. Despite looking like a fresh breeze would topple it into the dirt, this vestige of a homestead is actually a palace, its original owner — Edward ‘Ned’ Kelly —…

Brad Webb Brad Webb is a writer and webmaster of ironoutlaw.com, a dedicated Ned Kelly website that has been around in various forms since the dawn of the Internet. Attracting over 350,000 visitors a year, it has become a valuable resource for anyone wanting to find out information about the Ned Kelly gang. Do you think Ned Kelly’s name has been maligned over the years? Ned made a number of enemies during his short 25 years. Land barons, police, and judiciary were keen to hold Ned and his type at bay. Even after he was convicted of murder, the presiding judge, Sir Redmond Barry, refused Ned’s barrister’s plea for an appeal to the Full Court, an outrageous travesty of natural justice. It is the Royal Commission which is possibly Ned…

The modern-day version of the legend of Katherine Ferrers owes a huge debt to Magdalen King-Hall’s 1944 novel, Life And Death Of The Wicked Lady Skelton. The book became a minor cause célèbre when it was adapted into the hugely successful 1945 film, The Wicked Lady, starring Margaret Lockwood as a steely, glamorous highwaywoman, alongside James Mason – then at the height of his box-office powers – as her roguish lover. Lockwood’s performance as the murderous Barbara Worth caused a scandal thanks to the low-cut gowns her character wore, and extensive re-shoots were required before the censors agreed to pass the film for general release. The book was adapted again by Michael Winner nearly 40 years later, though of course in Winner’s notorious hands the legend of the Wicked Lady…

Exhausted, hungry and in some cases sick, the ragtag gang of guerrillas led by Che are in a steep, jungle-clad ravine near a small village, La Higuera. They encounter a peasant woman herding goats. They ask if she has seen soldiers but get no clear answer. They give her some money, hoping she won’t reveal their position. A company of Bolivian army rangers receive information that there are guerrillas nearby. They sweep into the area, taking up positions on both sides of the ravine. The rangers are spotted. Che divides his men into three, the likelihood being that they’ll have to shoot their way out. They hold their fire and positions for several tense hours. Just after 1pm some guerrillas are detected. A fierce firefight begins. Che’s M-2 carbine rifle…

Francis Tumblety Profession: Herbalist, con man Was he the Ripper?: An American quack doctor, Tumblety supposedly owned sets of reproductive organs in jars and was thought to be flamboyant – and thus homosexual. While such scant evidence was sufficient for Ripper accusations in the 19th century, Tumblety’s extreme misogyny and criminal behaviour led to one investigating officer naming him as his favoured suspect, while a forensic analyst deemed his handwriting bore a similarity to the Ripper letters. Sir William Gull Profession: Doctor, Queen’s physician Was he the Ripper?: Alan Moore’s seminal graphic novel From Hell suggests that Gull was the Ripper, wiping out a group of women who learned of an illegitimate Catholic heir to the throne fathered by Prince Albert Victor. The Queen’s surgeon, most famously played by Ian…

Elizabeth Báthory’s fame does not come just from her family name, riches or power, but rather from the dark and twisted tales that have attached themselves to her over the years. Bathing in the blood of virgins is a tall tale, but is it really true? As it stands there is no contemporary evidence that Báthory bathed in blood or that its power gave her eternal youth. During her lifetime she was usually referred to as ‘the Infamous lady’ and it would not be until around 200 years later, when the origin of the vampire was starting to take shape in Eastern Europe, that the story would be attributed to her. Youth and vitality were connected to blood, and it wasn’t a big leap to think that new blood would…

On both sides of the Hundred Years’ War, more people died of diseases like dysentery, typhus and plague than in battle Before 1791 France executed criminals according to social class and crime. Different crimes and social class defined the method of execution in each case. Hanging was the most common method in pre-Revolutionary France. Heretics and arsonists were publicly burned. Also convicted of heresy, Gilles’ body was burned but the hangman showed ‘mercy’ by strangling Gilles before the fire reached him. Brigands and murderers were broken on the wheel. Tied to a large wheel, their bones were shattered with a metal bar. Deathblows to the neck or heart finished the job. Depending on their crime’s severity the executioner could, if he wished, strangle them first. High treason, parricide and regicide…

For the first time in my life I saw a man leaving Death Row, if not dancing, at least showing perfect calm.” – Dr Albert Paul, prosecution witness and witness to Marcel Petiot’s execution in 1946. Marcel Petiot, also known as ‘Doctor Satan’ and the ‘Butcher of Paris, certainly ranks as one of France’s worst mass murderers. His crimes were unusual, mercifully so in fact, and were dependent upon a very particular set of social and historical circumstances converging. Petiot possessed all the usual traits of a serial killer. He was greedy, ruthless, manipulative, pathologically dishonest, amoral and his ends always justified his means. His ends? Wealth and possibly sadism. His means? Embezzlement, fraud, theft, burglary, drug-dealing, illegal abortions and mass murder. Petiot was a classic psychopath. Possibly up to…

It was a crime that scandalised late Victorian society, gave newspaper reporters and court officials much work, and led to a raft of legislation aimed at stopping it. Yet the fact that it occurred, and occurred so often, said much about the state of Victorian society itself. That crime was baby farming. A baby farmer, usually a woman, was someone who procured a child for money. Their target customers were women who had given birth to illegitimate children, for 19th-century society denounced women who engaged in sex outside of marriage. Both the social stigma of giving birth to an illegitimate child, and in the case of servants, in particular, who faced the prospect of having their employment terminated if their status as an unmarried mother was discovered, with resulting financial…

STEP 1 GIVING THE NOD Mobster and boxer ‘Machine Gun’ Jack McGurn, a survivor of an attack by the rival North Side Gang, approaches Al Capone in his Miami winter home with a plan to take out the North Side leader, George Clarence ‘Bugs’ Moran and his lieutenants. STEP 2 THE SET-UP On 13 February 1929, McGurn has a booze hijacker approach Moran about selling him some top-end whisky for the bargain price of $57 a case, they arrange to meet in the morning. He adds the whisky is stolen from Detroit’s Purple Gang – suppliers to Capone’s mob. STEP 3 THE LOOK-OUTS McGurn stations lookouts – the brothers Harry and Phil Keywell, both members of the allied Purple Gang – in an apartment opposite Moran’s headquarters, a nondescript garage…

When Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel landed in Las Vegas in 1945, bringing with him a whirlwind of under-the-table deals, the feds were paying attention. It’s not as if Vegas, which by the 1930s and 1940s had grown from an abandoned Mormon fort into a desert waterhole frequented by fly-boys from the local United States Air Force base, was operating under the radar of the authorities. Since gambling was legalised in Nevada in 1931, there had been a low hum of criminal activity in what would become the jewel in the state’s crown. Al Capone and his brother Ralph had even made plans to run their own casino there in the early days and some think they had a hand in the Pair-O-Dice Club – Vegas’s very first casino on the famous…

Colombians called them ‘los mágicos’ (the magicians). It was a nickname for smugglers who suddenly owned large tracts of land, lived it large in opulent mansions, owned garages full of vintage sports cars, and enjoyed all the accoutrements of stylish living. They’d conjured this formidable wealth like a magician pulls a rabbit out of a top hat. It wasn’t the kind of riches gained from typical blackmarket products, or even the nascent kidnapping industry. Nobody could rake in such vast amounts from counterfeit cigarettes, booze, hostage-taking or car-theft rackets. This was something different. This was something new. This was tapping into and exploiting a whole different market. Who were these guys who dressed like peasants but lived like kings? The narcotraficantes unleashed hell upon their homeland with the native coca…

Robin Hood; maybe you’ve heard of him? Medieval lovable rogue-type chap with green tights, good with arrows (and women), lives in a hideout in Sherwood Forest with a band of jolly outlaws where they fleece greedy travelling rich folk of their cash under the threat of violence, before sending them packing. His generosity to the downtrodden is renowned and he’s loved by the common folk, hated by the wealthy and powerful and he’s a devil with the ladies, if you know what we mean – especially high-born damsels trapped in their metaphorical towers (or actual towers, depending on the story). He doesn’t see eye-to-eye with corrupt authority figures either but don’t think that Robin Hood is anything but a loyal and patriotic Englishman: everything he does, he does for his…

Tom King Nicknamed the ‘Gentleman Highwayman’, King’s first encounter with Turpin happened when Turpin tried to rob him. When his attempts failed, the two joined forces as a crime duo, and it was because of King’s influence that Turpin turned away from petty crime and began his career as a highwayman. Samuel Gregory A blacksmith by trade, Gregory was also leader of a gang of deerstealers, known as the Essex gang. They were renowned for their deadly raids on farmhouses and poaching deer in the Forest of Waltham. The gang needed a way to dispose of the deer, and Turpin, then a young butcher, was the perfect candidate.…

What evidence do we have that Blackbeard wasn’t as bad as history makes him out? Most of what we know about Blackbeard comes from the point of view of his victims, and yet in the entire historical record there is no evidence of him killing anyone prior to his final, fatal battle with the Royal Navy at Ocracoke Island. He did his best to cultivate a terrifying image and reputation, which encouraged his foes to surrender without a fight, reducing the risks to his crew, their potential booty, and the crewmen of the other vessel, who were a potential source of recruits. How did Blackbeard’s actions compare to other pirates of the era? Many of the pirates of this particular gang – those who operated in the Caribbean and the…

Martin Cash Cash was sent from Ireland (County Cork) for shooting at someone in a jealous rage. He arrived in Australia in 1828, embarked on a crime spree and then, unbelievably, reformed. He became a police constable in 1859. “Wild Colonial Boy” 50 years before Ned Kelly’s capture, Jack Donohoe was setting the mold for Australia’s bushrangers. His gang of English and Irish convicts robbed from the rich and sold to the poor. He became a legend in Kelly’s time and songs were sung about him by the Kelly Gang before their final showdown with the police. Black Douglas In 1851, Australia experienced its own gold rush with hundreds of prospectors descending on Victoria. A crime wave ensued and a tracker known as Black Douglas made a brisk trade of…

Jesse James was a celebrity in his lifetime, and he remains an icon of the Wild West and a hero of the Confederate South. Born in Clay County, Missouri, in 1847, James was the middle of three children. His mother Zerelda had attended Catholic school in Kentucky, and his father, Robert, was a prosperous, slave-holding farmer and evangelical preacher. When Jesse was three, his father, having gone West to save souls in the Gold Rush, died. Zerelda married twice in the next five years, giving Jesse four half-siblings. Through the 1850s, the USA slid towards civil war. Missouri was on the border between the North and the South, and the front line cut across its society. Clay County, with more slaveholders and more slaves than average, was known as ‘Little…

The early 1930s brought chaos and crisis to America. 1929’s Wall Street Crash created the Depression. Prohibition was intended to inaugurate a new, clean-living era. Instead it handed America’s alcohol business entirely to gangsters. Racketeers made millions while thousands died from toxic home-made booze. Gangsters and citizens alike died in droves as rival crime-lords battled for supremacy. The Roaring Twenties also created a different breed of gangster. Racketeers like Al Capone concentrated on gambling, bootlegging, extortion, drugs and prostitution. The ‘yeggs’ or ‘yeggmen’ ripped through State after State robbing, kidnapping and killing almost at will. An Indiana bank one morning, an Illinois kidnapping that afternoon. The authorities seemed powerless to stop them. Some, like Bonnie and Clyde, were responding to poverty and desperation. For John Dillinger it was a profession.…

The mystery Much of the suspicion surrounding the plot has involved, in some part, the role of the Earl of Salisbury. It was Salisbury who Monteagle alerted upon receiving the letter, and his peculiar actions have prompted many to ponder if he had more knowledge of the plot than he let on. First of all, he failed to immediately inform the king of the plot, who was out hunting and did not return for several days. Salisbury’s involvement in the plot actually began before the letter even arrived, as he was aware that something was being planned. When the king did learn of the letter, Salisbury denied this knowledge completely, and allowed the king to take full credit. This may have been a clever political play, but perhaps it hints…

What was your mission in Tora Bora? “Close the distance, find, fix and kill Bin Laden”. What was the quality of the locally recruited Afghan militia the CIA had recruited to fight alongside you? “They completely sucked, (they) were ineffective and lacked the will to fight but that was our option at the time. We had to make do with what we had”. “It took us ten guys in ten days to do what the Russians couldn’t do in ten years” Do you think the restrictions placed upon your unit by the Pentagon actively stymied your chances at killing Bin Laden? “I don’t think what Rumsfeld and Bush had in mind to kill OBL was an acceptable risk to the Pentagon. The Pentagon generals were extremely risk averse and lacked…