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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...