Sacco & Vanzetti were Executed (August 23, 1927)

August 22 2016, Michael Thomas Barry
  By Michael Thomas Barry This week (August 22-28) in crime history – Irish revolutionary Michael Collins was assassinated (August 22, 1922); The Barker gang killed a Federal Reserve...
 

Laura Fair: The Woman Scorned

June 21 2016, Chuck Lyons
(image sfgate.com)When Laura Fair went on trial in 1871for murdering her double-crossing married lover, a morality play was acted out in a San Francisco courtroom that made headlines across the...
 

The Many Lives of Irish Con-woman Julia Holmes

June 13 2016, Siobhan Patricia Mulcahy
(Photo RTE)For over 40 years, Julia Holmes was one of the most accomplished con-artists on both sides of the Atlantic. In Texas, she sold over $500,000 of non-existent land in Ireland and hobnobbed...
 

The Edinburgh Lynching

June 8 2016, Martin Baggoley
Mob lynchings have been extremely rare events in the United Kingdom. The most infamous occurred in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1736by Martin BaggoleyOn Monday April 6 1724, the Caledonian Mercury included...
 

Ten Who Escaped the Hangman in Ireland

May 23 2016, Colm Wallace
Before the Republic of Ireland abandoned the death penalty in 1990, it had a curious relationship to it, meting out the penalty but more often than not commuting or reprieving the condemned. by Colm...
 

The Train Wrecker

May 16 2016, Chuck Lyons
 Serbian-born Szilveszter Matuska pulled off four train wrecks in Hungary and Austria in the 1930s that killed 22 people and injured hundreds of people. He said God made him do it. Was he a...

Latest Posts

Laura Fair: The Woman Scorned

June 21 2016,
(image sfgate.com)When Laura Fair went on trial in 1871for murdering her double-crossing married lover, a morality play was acted out in a San Francisco courtroom that made headlines across the...

The Many Lives of Irish Con-woman Julia Holmes

June 13 2016,
(Photo RTE)For over 40 years, Julia Holmes was one of the most accomplished con-artists on both sides of the Atlantic. In Texas, she sold over $500,000 of non-existent land in Ireland and hobnobbed...

The Edinburgh Lynching

June 8 2016,
Mob lynchings have been extremely rare events in the United Kingdom. The most infamous occurred in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1736by Martin BaggoleyOn Monday April 6 1724, the Caledonian Mercury included...