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Pirate flag. Source: adimas / Adobe Stock.

The Pirate Code: Law and Order Beneath the Black Flag (Video)

In the world of pirates , where lawlessness is often the image that comes to mind, a surprising system of governance existed beneath the black flag . Pirates may have lacked a singular written code,...
Pressing execution. Source: YouTube Screenshot / Weird History.

Pressing: One of History's Most Painful Deaths (Video)

Throughout history Europeans have come up with some of the most excruciating and slowest methods of torture . Of them all pressing to death might just be the worst. Dating back to the 13th century in...
Punishment in ancient Japan was brutal. Source: YouTube Screenshot / Crazy Histories.

Shocking Punishments in Ancient Japan! (Video)

Medieval Japan , often romanticized for its samurai culture, had a dark side characterized by brutal punishment and oppression. Peasants faced a grim fate in a society dominated by samurai overlords...
Medieval soldier eating junk food. Source: master1305 / Adobe Stock.

What Medieval Junk Food Was Like (Video)

Medieval Europe's fast food, born out of necessity, offers a glimpse into a different culinary era . Cook shops along London's bustling Thames provided hot meals for travelers and the impoverished ...
Medieval stocks. Source: Arkady Chubykin / Adobe Stock.

What It Was Like to Be in the Stocks? (Video)

During Medieval times stocks and pillories were employed as forms of punishment , the experience for those confined in them was far from pleasant. Stocks, restraining the feet, and pillories, which...
Medieval thief. Source: nyothep / Adobe Stock.

Thieves’ Cant: The Secret Language Used by History’s Criminals (Video)

For centuries, an enigmatic underworld thrived, its inhabitants conversing in a secret tongue that veiled their intentions. This clandestine dialect, known as thieves’ cant , existed from the 16th to...
Samurai warrior. Source: DZMITRY / Adobe Stock.

Blood, Swords, and Samurai: Punishment in Feudal Japan (Video)

Medieval Japan may be known for its honor, duty, and bravery, but there was also a darker side to the Samurai clans who ruled the era. Punishments for crimes were brutal and oppressive, with extreme...
Guillotine. Source: zef art / Adobe Stock.

Blood and Blades: The Gruesome Reality of Witnessing the Guillotine (Video)

The guillotine - a so-called "humane" killing machine - was used to execute countless individuals during the French Revolution . Its swift, efficient method of death sparked a shift in public...
Female assassin. Source: mehaniq41 / Adobe Stock. Video Button Play Image by Dehweh / Adobe Stock.

Deadly Moments in History: Ancient Serial Killers (Video)

Throughout history, there have been many gruesome and horrific acts committed by serial killers . These murderers were often able to evade capture due to the limited technology and forensic...
A man prepares for his execution. Source: jahorimine / Adobe Stock

Stories from the Gallows: Executions Exhibition Reveals Tragic Tales of Death

The Museum of London Docklands is hosting Executions , a major exhibition exploring the capital’s history of public punishment, from the first recorded public execution in 1196 to the last in 1868...
The monster of London going to take his afternoons luncheon, in an etching by James Gillray. Source: Public domain

Sadistic Serial Slasher Inspired a Trend in Bottom Guards

While the infamous Jack the Ripper and his legendary killing spree in the 19th century is the stuff of legends, few have heard of another forgotten assailant who terrorized the streets of London just...
Man hanging from an execution rope, a very technical method of execution. 	Source: zef art / Adobe Stock

The Gruesome History of Botched Executions

Capital punishment (death by execution) has been a part of human society since time immemorial. Even though it is a practice as old as human civilization, perhaps the most surprising thing about...
The history of true crime consumption can be traced all the way back to the early 1500s. Source:  Sved Oliver/ Adobe Stock

Morbid Fascination: The Birth of the True Crime Genre

For many true crime junkies, podcasts are the way to go to get your next fix. But before podcasts and streaming documentaries, what did people do to get their true crime docs? When did true crime...
Darwin’s notebooks, stolen in 2000-2001, on top of their original box, with the box from “X” at the top. 	Source: Cambridge University Library

Darwin’s Notebooks, Stolen in 2000-2001, Returned in Pink Gift Bag!

Two of Charles Darwin’s notebooks mysteriously vanished from Cambridge University 22 years ago. They have reappeared, in a pink gift bag, but nobody on campus or in the police force has a clue where...
The coffin of the high-status elite Roman Britain clan leader, who may have also been a major maker of illegal silver that the Romans couldn’t tax.		Source: Pre Construct Archaeology

Massive Illegal Roman-era Silver Site Discovered In Britain

Archaeologists in England have discovered a monumental ancient building. Not only was this the burial site of a powerful female clan leader, but it represents the largest illegal silver production or...
Declaration of Christmas Peace in 2014 in Porvoo, Finland.	Source: CC BY-SA 3.0

Christmas Peace: Finnish Criminals, You’ve Been Warned For Over 600 Years

An ancient Finnish law promising harsher sentences for Christmas criminals was read out to an empty town square. Christmas is nearly upon us, and if you haven’t already outright cancelled family...
18th Century Post-Mortem Punishment: Gibbets ‘Hanging In Chains’ In England

18th Century Post-Mortem Punishment: Gibbets ‘Hanging In Chains’ In England

The curious English have a predilection for heaping abuse upon the corpses of the unfortunate dead, including a cruel and unusual punishment the bodies of executed murderers were subject to in the...
 ‘An Arab Caravan outside a Fortified Town, Egypt.

Inside Rhinocolura, The City Of Noseless Criminals

Near the city of Gaza, 3,000 years ago, laid a city unlike any other in the world. The Greeks called it Rhinocolura, named for strange faces of the people who lived there – because every person there...
Roman executions at the Colosseum were a gruesome affair, as depicted in The Christian Marturs' Last Prayer by Jean-Léon Gérôme. Source: Public domain

Roman Executions in the Colosseum: The Stories of Laureolus and Androcles

Public order in ancient Rome was a priority for the elite, who contrived a range of gruesome punishments for purportedly serious crimes deserving the death penalty. As a result, a day of fun and...
Vandals Deface ‘Birthing Rock,’ 1000-Year-Old Rock Art in Utah

Vandals Deface ‘Birthing Rock,’ 1000-Year-Old Rock Art in Utah

Utah has become a modern center of vandalism, where the socially untethered who live outside the confines of the law that most of us adhere to commit crimes against both new and old creations. Now, a...
Views of the cleaned Anglo-Saxon woman’s skull.      Source: G. Cole / Antiquity Publications Ltd

Anglo-Saxon Woman’s Lips, Nose and Scalp Sliced Off – But Why?

A team of archaeologists in England have forensically analyzed the mutilated skull of a young Anglo-Saxon woman revealing that her nose, lips and possibly her scalp had all been sliced off while she...
Barbara Erni was a famous con artist in the 1700s whose treacherous trunk trick earned her a reputation, and ultimately an untimely end. Source: Thicha & Andrey Kiselev / Adobe Stock

The Brazen Cons of Barbara Erni and Gregor MacGregor

Throughout our relatively modern history, con artists, thieves, and scammers have been a dime a dozen. In dire times of poverty and lawlessness, shrewd and mischievous people resorted to the world of...
A collection of fake artifacts (figurines) seized by customs at Heathrow.         Source: Trustees of the British Museum

Trunks of Fake Artifacts from the Middle East Seized at Heathrow

Sent from the underworld of the Kingdom of Bahrain , the sovereign state in the Persian Gulf, to a private address in the U.K., the stash of apparently ancient, but in reality, fake artifacts,...
Left: Before the damage was completed to the medieval village site in Withybrook, Warwickshire, in 2014. Right: After the damage more recently. The substantial work completed can be seen, e.g. creation of large track.	Source: 	Historic England

English Family Fined for ‘Cynical’ Destruction of Medieval Village

Historic England have announced the remains of Withybrook medieval village in Warwickshire have been irreparably damaged by a family, who wanted to graze horses. John Mac, 58, his wife Elizabeth and...

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