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Murder
Murder
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336 BC |
King Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great, was murdered at a theater in Aigai in northern Greece. Links: Greece, Murder, HistoryBC 
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309 BC |
Heracles, the illegitimate teenage son of Alexander the Great, was murdered about this time during the wars of succession and buried in secret. Links: Greece, Murder, HistoryBC
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1369 |
Enrique, the illegitimate son of Alfonso XI of Castile, killed his half brother Pedro I in the Castilian civil war and became King Enrique I "the Bastard" of Castile. Links: Spain, Murder
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1536 Nov 13 |
Robert Packington (d.1536), a mercer in London and brother of Augustine Packington, was shot and killed. Packington had spoken against the covetousness and cruelty of the clergy in the Commons. Links: Britain, Murder
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1537 Jan 6 |
Alessandro de' Medici (b.1510), Italian monarch of Florence, was assassinated by his cousin Lorenzino (d.1548). This event was commemorated in the bust Brutus by Michelangelo. Cosimo I (18) came to power following the murder of Alessandro. Links: Italy, Murder, Florence
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1587 Oct 17 |
Francesco de' Medici (46) died 11 days after he fell ill and a few hours before his wife. In 2007 forensic experts reported evidence that they had died of arsenic poisoning. Francesco had ruled from 1574. By all accounts his wife had been his mistress while he was married to his first wife, who is also believed to have died of poisoning. Links: Italy, Murder
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1590 Oct 16 |
Carlo Gesualdo (~1566-1613), prince of Venosa, murdered his bride and her lover after catching them in flagrante delicto. In 1995 Werner Herzog covered this in his purported documentary “Death for Five Voices.” In 2010 Glenn Watkins authored “The Gesualdo Hex: Music, Myth, and Memory.” Links: Italy, Murder, Biography
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1672 Aug 20 |
Jan de Witt, Dutch politician and mathematician, was assassinated by a carefully organized lynch "mob" after visiting his brother Cornelis de Witt in prison. He was killed by a shot in the neck; his naked body was hanged and mutilated and the heart was carved out to be exhibited. Links: Netherlands, Murder, Assassin
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1687 Mar 19 |
French explorer Robert Cavelier (b.1643), Sieur de La Salle, the first European to navigate the length of the Mississippi River, was murdered by mutineers while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi, along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in present-day Texas. Links: USA, France, Murder, Texas
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1704 Feb 19 |
In Japan Kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro I (b.1660, the first of the Danjuro line, was murdered by a rival on stage. Links: Japan, Theater, Murder
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1781 Nov |
British Capt. Luke Collingwood, commander of the slave ship Zong, in the face of endemic dysentery that had already killed 7 crewmen and 60 of 470 slaves, ordered his crew to throw sick slaves overboard in order to claim insurance money at the end of the voyage. Over 100 slaves were cast overboard. In 2007 Marcus Rediker authored “The Slave Ship,” an account of this and the slave trade from 1700-1808. Links: Britain, Murder, Ship, Slavery
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1811 |
In England John Williams, the Highway Hacker, murdered 2 whole families in the Docklands section of London. He committed suicide while awaiting trial. A crowd stole his body and drove a stake through his heart and buried him in a lime pit off Cannon St. The murder later inspired Thomas De Quincey’s essay “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts.” Links: Britain, Murder
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1829 Jan 28 |
In Scotland William Burke was hanged for murder following a scandal in which he was found to have provided extra-fresh corpses for anatomy schools in Edinburgh. His partner William Hare had turned king’s witness. The scandal led to the 1832 Anatomy Act. Links: Scotland, Medical, Murder
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1832 Aug |
In Pennsylvania 57 Irish immigrants died of cholera after traveling there to build a railroad. In 2009 their bones were found at a woodsy site known as Duffy's Cut, named after Philip Duffy, who hired the immigrants from Donegal, Tyrone and Derry to help build the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. In 2010 evidence indicated that at least some of the men’s remains showed signs of violence. Links: USA, Microbiology, Ireland, Pennsylvania, Murder
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1846 Jun 28 |
Near San Rafael, Ca., a US military detachment was approached by 3 unarmed Mexicans, Jose de los Reyes Berryessa, Francisco de Haro and his twin brother Ramon. Captain Fremont was asked by trapper Kit Carson whether he should take the men as prisoners. Fremont responded that he had no room for prisoners and Carson shot the men dead and left their bodies to rot. Links: USA, California, Mexico, Murder
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1859 Dec 8 |
Thomas De Quincey (b.1785), English essayist, died. In 2006 his essays on murder were collected and published under the title “On Murder.” He is best know for his famous “Confessions of an Opium Eater” (1821). Links: Britain, Writer, Murder
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1861 |
Britain passed a law against soliciting for murder. Links: Britain, Murder
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1865 Apr 23 |
Dedicated Massachusetts abolitionist Silas Soule (b.1838) was shot and killed near his home in Colorado by a soldier named Charles Squires. It is thought that Squires was hired by men loyal to Col. John Chivington to kill Soule. Soule's testimony against Chivington about the 1864 massacre at Sand Creek led, in part, the United States Congress to refuse the Army's request for thousands of men for a general war against the Native Americans of the Plains States. Links: USA, Massachusetts, Black History, Colorado, Murder, Slavery
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1876 |
Lewis R. Redmond (1854-1906) of North Carolina shot and killed a revenue agent near Brevard, NC, when the agent tried to arrest him for making and transporting illegal whiskey. Links: USA, Murder, North Carolina, Liquor
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1877 Sep 5 |
The great Sioux warrior Crazy Horse, a cousin of Kicking Bear, was fatally bayoneted at age 36 by a soldier at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. In 1975 Stephen Ambrose authored "Crazy Horse and Custer." In 2002 Ambrose was accused of plagiarizing from the 1955 book "Custer" by Jay Monaghan (d.1980). In 1999 Larry McMurtry authored the biography "Crazy Horse" for the Penguin Lives series. In 2004 Joseph M. Marshall III authored “The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History.” In 2006 Kingsley M. Bray authored “Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life.” Links: USA, Murder, Nebraska, AmerIndian
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1879 Mar 2 |
Julia Martha Thomas (55), a wealthy widow, was killed by her housekeeper Kate Webster (29) very close to Park Road in well-to-do Richmond, England, but her head was never found. Webster was tried and executed, but Thomas’ head was never found until it was unearthed in October, 2010, by workmen building an extension at the home of David Attenborough, the face of BBC natural history programs for more than 50 years. In 2011 the skull was formally recognized as that of Julia Martha Thomas. Links: Britain, Mayhem, Murder
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1881 |
Dutch Henry, a miner in Oregon’s Rogue River area, went on trial for the murder of a suspiciously large number of fellow miners in “self defense,” but was not convicted. Links: USA, Murder, Oregon
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1888 Aug 6 |
Martha Turner was murdered by an unknown assailant, believed to be Jack the Ripper, in London, England. Between August and November 506 women were murdered in London’s Whitechapel district. In 1994 Philip Sugden authored “The Complete History of Jack the Ripper.” Links: Britain, Murder
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1897 Jan 23 |
In San Francisco Fong Ching (32), known as the king of Chinatown, was killed by two gunmen at the Wong Lung barbershop at 819 Washington St. Nobody was ever convicted. “Little Pete” had led the Sam Yup Tong and was rumored to have killed 50 men. Links: USA, SF, Murder
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1898 |
Joseph Silver (d.1918), a Polish-born Jew, arrived in Johannesburg fresh from a stint in Sing Sing for burglary and a stay in London a decade earlier. Shortly after arriving in Johannesburg, Silver set up a string of cafes, cigar shops and police-protected brothels. Silver was executed as a spy in Poland in 1918. In 2007 Charles van Onselen authored "The Fox and The Flies: The World of Joseph Silver,” in which he suggested that Silver was London’s “Jack the Ripper.” Links: Britain, USA, Poland, South Africa, Sex, Murder
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1900 Dec 2 |
John Hossack (b.1841), an Iowa farmer and a prosperous citizen of Warren County, was killed in his bed from two blows with an ax. His wife was accused of the murder. In 1927 Susan Gaspell (1876-1948), American novelist and playwright, authored “A Jury of Her Peers,” a short story based on his murder trial. Links: USA, Women, Murder, Iowa
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1903 Nov 25 |
In San Francisco Alexander Garnett shot and killed Major J.W. McClung at the Palace Hotel apartment of Mrs. Lillian Hitchcock Coit. Coit soon left the city and spent the next 6 years in Paris. Garnett was convicted and sentenced to 15 years at San Quentin, but only began serving time in 1909 following an appeal and restoration of records due to the 1906 fire. Links: USA, SF, Murder
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1905 Feb 17 |
Russia’s Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (b.1857), the brother of Tsar Alexander III, was assassinated by a terrorist bomb at the Kremlin. Links: Russia, Murder
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1908 |
Belle Gunness (48), reportedly died in a fire at her farm in Laporte, Indiana. Many locals believed Gunness, dubbed Lady Bluebeard, staged her death and had killed at least 25 people before the fire. Links: USA, Women, Murder, Indiana
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1909 Jan 18 |
Robert Stroud (1890-1963), who later gained fame as the Birdman of Alcatraz, killed a bartender in Alaska. Barman F. K. "Charlie" Von Dahmer had viciously raped and beat his friend, Kitty O’Brien (36), a prostitute and dance-hall entertainer. Stroud later knifed a fellow prisoner and was transferred to Leavenworth prison where he murdered a guard in the prison dining hall. Links: USA, Murder, Alaska
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1909 Nov 14 |
In San Francisco Yee Yup was shot down by Gee Gong, a former employee in the laundry of the dead man. The On Yicks have now killed 4 members of the Yee family, while the Yee family have but one death to their credit. It was feared that the murder would escalate family rivalries in Chinatown. Links: USA, SF, Murder
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1910 Apr 20 |
Eva Swan (26), a SF schoolteacher, disappeared. Doctor’s assistant Ben Gordon (18) kept the secret until after a fight with Dr. James Grant over $18 in wages. He then went to the police. Her body was found on Sep 23 buried under a basement at 320 Eureka St. and soaking in nitric acid with every joint sawed through. Grant and nurse Marie Messerschmidt were arrested on murder charges after the failed abortion went awry. Links: USA, SF, Murder
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1913 Apr 1 |
In San Francisco Lee Quon Sing, an aged rag picker, was shot and killed by two members of the Bing Kong tong, a society at war with the Suey Sing tong. Police captured Yee Lick, one of the shooters. Lee Quon Sing was the 8th victim in the war that began three weeks ago over a slave girl. Links: USA, SF, Murder
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1913 Apr 14 |
Mary Phagan (13) was found killed at an Atlanta pencil factory. She had stopped to pick up her check on her way to Peachtree Street to see a Confederate Memorial Day Parade. Leo Frank (29), a Jewish factory manager, was falsely accused of raping and murdering the young girl. Georgia Gov. John M. Slaton later commuted Frank’s sentence to life, but a vigilante crowd dragged him out of prison and lynched him on Aug 17. In 1968 Leonard Dinnerstein authored “The Leo Frank Case.” The story is covered in the 1997 novel "The Old Religion" by David Mamet. In 1998 the musical "Parade" was produced based on the Frank lynching. Links: GeorgiaUS, USA, Jews, Murder, Lynching, Rape
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1914 Jan 10 |
In Utah John Morrison, a Salt Lake City grocer and father of six, was shot dead along with his son (17) after two men entered his shop. Labor leader Joe Hill (1879-1915) was soon treated for a fresh gunshot wound and was later tried and convicted for murder. Links: USA, Labor, Utah, Murder
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1918 Jul 17 |
Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, was executed at Ekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks under orders from Lenin. His wife, son, 4 daughters, and 4 servants were also executed. The family mass grave was discovered by a former KGB agent in 1979 in the Urals and only 9 bodies were found. The bodies were dug up in 1991. A 1997 documentary film by Victoria Lewis, "Mystery of the Last Tsar," told the story. The Czar, his wife, three children and four servants were executed by a 12-man firing squad in the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. A reburial of the family was scheduled in St. Petersburg for Jul 17, 1998. Links: Russia, USSR, Murder
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1918 Jul 17 |
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna (b.1864) was murdered at a mine the village of Siniachikha. The Cheka beat Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov, Princes Ioann Konstantinovich, Konstantin Konstantinovich, Igor Konstantinovich, Vladimir Pavlovich Paley, Feodor Remez (Grand Duke Sergei's secretary), and Varvara Yakovleva, a sister from the Grand Duchess's convent, before throwing their victims into a pit, Elizabeth being the first. Hand grenades were then hurled down the shaft, but only one victim, Feodor Remez, died as a result of the grenades. Finally a large quantity of brushwood was shoved into the opening and set alight. Links: Russia, USSR, Murder
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1921 Aug 1 |
Sid Hatfield, police chief of Matewan, WV, and Ed Chambers were murdered on the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse by Baldwin-Felts detectives. Hatfield and 22 miners had been recently been acquitted of the May 19, 1920 shootings in Matewan, WV, but he was indicted for conspiracy for continuing mine violence. Hatfield had been a long-time supporter of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). This soon led to the Battle of Blair Mountain, a labor uprising also know as the Red Neck War. Links: USA, Labor, Murder, West Virginia
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1922 |
In Australia Colin Campbell Ross was hanged for raping and murdering Alma Tirtschke (12) and dumping her body in an alley in 1921. In 2008 the city of Melbourne posthumously pardoned him for the crime after new tests found crucial evidence against him was flawed. Links: Australia, Murder, Rape
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1923 |
French courtesan Maggie Meller (aka Marguerite Alibert) was acquitted in a high profile trial at London's Old Bailey despite the evidence stacked against her. She had blackmailed the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, to avoid the gallows after murdering Egyptian Prince Fahmy Bey, her playboy husband. Six years before her trial, Meller had an affair with the British prince. In 1991 Andrew Rose authored "Scandal at the Savoy." In 2013 Rose authored his follow-up "The Prince, The Princess, and The Perfect Murder." Links: Britain, France, Egypt, Murder, Books
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1924 May 21 |
Bobby Franks (14) was murdered in a "thrill killing" committed by Nathan Leopold Jr. (19) and Richard Loeb (18), two rich college kids of the University of Chicago. The meticulously planned crime might never have been solved had Leopold's unique eyeglasses not been found near Franks' body. They were defended by Clarence Darrow, who pleaded his clients guilty in order to keep the case from a jury. Richard Loeb was a cousin of Bobby Franks. The sensational two-month trial generated an outcry in favor of execution, but Judge John Caverly sentenced the two to life imprisonment. Loeb was killed in a prison fight in 1936. Leopold, with the support of Prosecutor Crowe, was released from prison in 1958 and died of a heart attack in 1971. In 1956 Meyer Levin authored “Compulsion,” an account of the case. A play dramatizing the case was written in 1995 by John Logan. In 2008 Simon Baatz authored “For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Chicago.” Links: USA, Chicago, Murder
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1926 |
In England Emma Alice Smith disappeared as she cycled between her home and a nearby railway station 83 years ago. She had worked as a servant in a large house near her home in the village of Waldron, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of London. Her disappearance remained unsolved, and her body missing, until 2007, when David Wright, the teenager's great-nephew, came forward to tell police about a confession, a long-held family secret. A confession by Emma Alice's sister, Lily, (d.1995) said a gentleman, on his deathbed sometime in 1952 to 1953, had confessed to killing her sister. Links: Britain, Murder
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1927 Apr 14 |
In California lobbyist Harry Hill (b.1880) shot and killed Marybelle Wallace, who had spurned his romantic advances. Hill, a Sacramento lobbyist, then shot and killed himself. Wallace was an employee of Sen. Lyon. Links: USA, California, Murder
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1928 Jan 12 |
Ruth Snyder (b.1895) became the first woman to die in the electric chair. She was electrocuted by “state electrician” Robert G. Elliott at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York, along with Judd Gray, her lover and co-conspirator, for the murder of her husband, Albert on March 20, 1927. This was billed in the press as “The Dumb-Bell Murder.” Links: USA, New York, Murder
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1930 Aug 6 |
In NYC state Supreme Court Judge Joseph Force Crater (b.1889) dined at a West 45th Street steakhouse with a group of friends that included a showgirl. Crater had earlier withdrawn $5,150 from a pair of bank accounts. He was last seen at 9:15 p.m., climbing into the cab. Crater had been recently appointed by Gov. Franklin Roosevelt to the NY Supreme Court. In 2004 Richard J. Tofel authored “Vanishing Point,” an account of Tammany Hall and Crater’s disappearance. The 1947 film “The Judge Steps Out,” starring Alexander Knox, was inspired by the case. Evidence in 2005 suggested that several men killed the judge and buried him under the Coney Island Boardwalk in Brooklyn. [see Sep 1] Links: New York, NYC, Murder, Film
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1930 Aug 7 |
In Marion, Indiana, a mob broke into a jail and beat to death 2 young black men and hung them from a tree in the courthouse square. Tommy Shipp and Abe Smith and a 3rd teenager had just been arrested for a botched robbery that left Claude Deeter, a white man, dead. James Cameron (16) was saved from hanging, even as a noose was on his neck. In 2006 Cynthia Carr authored “Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town and the Hidden History of White America.” Links: USA, Black History, Murder, Indiana, Mad Crowd
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1930 Dec 8 |
In San Francisco Rosetta Baker, a wealthy widow with a taste for younger men, was found strangled in her California St. apartment. Liu Fook, her butler (63) and a secret opium addict, was suspected but found innocent at trial. Links: USA, SF, Murder
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1931 Jan 7 |
The SF Police Homicide Squad reported that 27 murders in SF for 1930. Links: USA, SF, Murder
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1933 Oct 19 |
Dallas Egan, condemned slayer, was executed after California Gov. James Rolph agreed to allow him 8 ounces of good Kentucky bourbon whiskey. Links: USA, California, Murder
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1933 Nov 9 |
Brooke Hart (22) was abducted from the parking lot of the family-owned department store in San Jose, Ca. The 1943 novel “Against a Darkening Sky” by Janet Lewis was based on the lynching of his accused abductors. The abductors, who killed Hart, were later captured after police traced their calls arranging a $40,000 ransom. [see Nov 26] Links: California, Murder
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1933 Nov 26 |
In California a mob attacked the Santa Clara County Jail and dragged out John M. Holmes and Thomas H. Thurmond for the kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart (22), heir to a San Jose department store fortune. The 2 men were hung and stripped from 2 sycamores at St. James Park, one of which Pres. McKinley had stood under in 1901 to deliver a speech on American liberties and the US Constitution. Gov. Rolph said that if anyone was arrested for the lynching, he would pardon them. [see Nov 9] Links: California, Murder, Lynching
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1934 Mar |
In SF Michael R. Catalano, underworld figure, was murdered. Links: USA, SF, Murder, Mafia
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1934 Apr 1 |
Two Texas Highway Patrol officers, E.B. Wheeler (26) and H.D. Murphy (24), were killed by Henry Methvin, a gang member of Bonnie and Clyde, as they approached the gang’s car near Grapevine, Texas. Links: USA, Murder, Texas
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1934 Sep 29 |
In Vallejo, Ca., the body of Joe Soon (40), a member of the Hop Sing tong, was found dead in the Vallejo business district with a hatchet wound between the eyes and 4 bullets in his torso. The murderers were believed to be hatchetmen from San Francisco’s Chinatown. Links: USA, Murder, SF Bay Area
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1935 Sep 8 |
Sen. Huey P. Long, "The Kingfish" of Louisiana politics, was shot and mortally wounded in Baton Rouge allegedly by Dr. Carl Austin Weiss, Jr.; he died two days later ending what might have been a prominent national career. It was suspected that Dr. Weiss was acting in revenge against Long's public slandering of his father. The 1996 documentary film "Huey Long" by Ken Burns was about the Louisiana politician who wanted to redistribute wealth and make every man a king. Links: USA, Louisiana, Murder
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1937 |
In China Pamela Werner (19), the adopted daughter of Edward Theodore Chalmers Werner, was brutally murdered in Peking. The formal investigation was buried, first by the perpetrators, then by the Chinese and British authorities. In 2011 Paul French authored “Midnight in Peking,” in which he describes and solves the crime. Links: China, Murder
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1941 Jan 24 |
Josslyn Victor Hay, the 22nd Earl of Erroll, was shot to death in Kenya. He was having an affair with Diana Delves Broughton. The story was covered in a 1982 book “White Mischief” by James Fox, which was made into a 1988 movie. The BBC television drama The Happy Valley, first transmitted on 6 September 1987, told the story of Erroll's murder, as seen through the eyes of 15 year-old the Hon. Juanita Carbery, daughter of Lord Carbery, to whom John Delves Broughton confessed his guilt even before he was arrested. Alice de Janze committed suicide not long after the acquittal Broughton. In 2010 Paul Spicer authored “The Temptress: The Scandalous Life of Alice de Janze and the Mysterious Death of Lord Erroll. Links: Britain, Kenya, Murder
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1942 Jun 10 |
German Gestapo massacred 173 male residents of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, in retaliation for the killing of SS Gen Reinhard Heydrich. All together, 340 people died in the Nazi reprisal (192 men, 60 women and 88 children). The death toll resulting from the effort to avenge the death of Heydrich is estimated at 1,300. This count includes relatives of the partisans, their supporters, Czech elites suspected of disloyalty and random victims like those from Lidice. Links: Germany, Czechoslovakia, Murder
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1944 Jun 10 |
German troops of the armored SS Division "Das Reich", as they headed toward Normandy to combat D-Day invasion forces, slaughtered 642 men, women and children in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane. In 1983 a court in East Berlin convicted Heinz Barth (1921-2007), a former SS officer, and sentenced him to life in prison. In addition to involvement in the massacre, East German judges also found that Barth volunteered to participate in an execution of 92 Czech civilians in 1942. In 1997 his sentence was commuted to probation. Links: France, Germany, Murder
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1944 Jul 14 |
SS men Heinrich Boere and Jacobus Petrus Besteman shot and killed Dutch pharmacist Fritz Hubert Ernst Bicknese at his home in Breda for suspected activity in Nazi resistance. Boere was sentenced to death in absentia by a Dutch court in 1949. This was later commuted to life imprisonment. In 2009 Boere (88) was slated to stand trial for murder in Germany for the execution-style killings of three Dutch civilians during World War II. In 2010 a German court convicted Boere (88) of murdering the three Dutch civilians. He was given the maximum sentence of life in prison for the killings. Links: Germany, Netherlands, Murder, Nazi
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