Justice & Punishment

There’s nothing unusual about prison escapes. You could lodge some inmates at Caesar’s Palace and they’d be climbing down the drainpipe the second your back was turned. But, while escapes …
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True crime podcasts such as Serial, Criminal and, of course, Sword and Scale are currently amongst the most popular downloads on iTunes. Every day millions of fans flock to download …
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For those who believe that being a murderer is a personal choice, Mary Bell gave a lesson to experts on how disturbed minds work. Mary Bell was not a natural …
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Stillou Christofi was born in a poor Cypriot village in 1900 and after her marriage, she had her only son, Stavros. Being a bossy woman, she could not tolerate her mother-in-law …
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People are not always born happy. Their parents do not make them feel special, their older relatives do not spoil them, their lives are not meant to treat them good, …
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In July of 2003, ten women were found dead in the suburbs of Moscow and two more female bodies were discovered by the end of September. Everyone believed that a …
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Rainey Bethea probably isn’t an instantly familiar name, but he holds as unique a status in American crime as names like William Kemmler (the first man to be electrocuted) or …
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In your right palm I see a prison, in the left one a criminal asylum.” That’s what a Roman furtune teller predicted when she read Leonarda’s future. Her forecast would …
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As regular readers are aware, I cover true crime here a fair bit and the death penalty is a regular feature. So, today, it’s with some small satisfaction that we’re …
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August 6, 1890 saw the dawn of a new age for criminal history. At Auburn Prison in upstate New York there was the execution of one, William Kemmler, condemned for …
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