On the evening of 27 July 1827, 23-year-old Susannah Poole left her sister’s house at 3 Caroline Street near Commercial Road at about quarter to ten. Susannah had been living with her sister, Ann Elizabeth Parker, for about five months, ever since leaving the service of her last employer in Hackney. That night, Susannah had […]

The O’Hare family lived in Waterford City, a town built on the bank of the Suir River, in the south-east of Ireland. Michael and Mary O’Hare had four known children. Cornelius was the oldest, born in about 1847 and was said to have a murderous temper although he stood only 5 feet 5-1/2 inches tall. […]

On the afternoon of Sunday, November 24, 1895, in a jealous rage, William Royce shot his former lover, Nellie Patton, killing her with two shots. Nellie, a divorcee who had recently left Royce for a bartender by the name of Walsh, was living in a house of assignation in Sioux City run by Billy Nead. […]

Journey back only a short time in history, when esteemed judges and assembled juries had only the testimony of witnesses and sometimes the coerced confessions of the accused to rely on, and there can be little doubt that every now and then innocent parties were executed, and the guilty went free. These were the days […]

William Spratt, alias Constable, alias Spratty Watts, died on 11 June 1848 after being ill for some days. His half-sister, Mary May, was convicted of murdering him for the burial club money and hanged at the Essex County Gaol on Monday, 14 August 1848. The May Family In 1848, the May household in Wix, Essex consisted of Robert May, […]

Notorious robber Huffey White, alias Hufton White, alias Huffham White, alias Houghton White, alias William Evans, escaped from the hulks near Woolwich no less than three times before his luck finally ran out. This is his story. Hufton White Born in about 1778, White was a long-time criminal and was associated with a gang of robbers, housebreakers, pick-pockets, mail-robbers, […]

In the darkest hours of Saturday morning on 28 February 1885 near Weatheroak Hill near Kings Norton, James Davies of the Worcestershire constabulary lost his life. James Davies, a 33-year-old father of three and five year veteran of the police force, had left his home in Beoley at about ten o’clock the previous night to begin […]

The charred and headless body of David Scollie was found in the ruins of a fire that took place on 23 February 1894 on a dark and stormy night. His head was never found. Was it murder or accident? In February of 1894, Scollie was living a solitary life in the township of Otonabee, six miles […]

Oyster Trade By the mid 1860’s, the ever-growing oyster market in New York City was assessed at close to five million dollars annually and in hundreds of shallow bays, inlets and coves along the shores of Staten Island, Long Island and New Jersey, oysters were harvested to supply the ever-growing demands. Along the Jersey shore where […]

Until 9 September 2015 when she was surpassed by her great-great-granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Victoria held the record as the longest Britain’s longest reigning monarch at 63 years and 216 days. However, Queen Victoria’s reign was almost cut short at least seven times when the following would-be assassins tried to take her life. On 10 June 1840, […]