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Heligoland: Germany’s Pirate Hideout
Dodgerton Skillhause, morguefile free photos Pirate hideouts always entice with the lure of buried treasure. Last week’s announcement that an American explorer might have found Captain Kidd’s treasure...
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The 1864 Gold Hoax and its Impact on Union Troops
Morguefile free photos Might one crime have influenced the course of the Civil War? Yes, according to one researcher. The 1864 Gold Hoax blew a cannon ball through Lincoln’s efforts to build up the...
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Ravens as Partners for Cadaver Dogs?
Raven in Yellowstone National Park by Christopher May; shutterstock_283227410 Germany shocked the law enforcement world in 2010 with an ingenious idea: Why not use turkey vultures to search for dead...
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Last Walk of Bavaria’s King Ludwig II
The path King Ludwig II walked only minutes before his death, taken at the same time he walked it on the anniversary of his death. If trees could talk, what stories they could tell! This stately giant...
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Pirate Flags: Ten Things You Probably Didn’t Know
Jolly Roger, (c) Lizard, shutterstock_100276868, with permission Pull away, me lads o’ the Cardiff Rose And hoist the Jolly Roger Roger McGuinn’s song was the pirate song I grew up with. And the Jolly...
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New Discoveries about the Lincoln Assassination: Interview with Author...
Author Michael W. Kauffman (Owings) has written a book about John Wilks Booth and the Lincoln Assasination titled “American Brutus”. Photo by: J. Henson, courtesy of Michael Kauffman. No, John Wilkes...
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Bertha Benz: How the World’s First Car Theft Jump Started the Auto Industry
Bertha Benz, public domain. She left a note for her husband on the table. It was early in the morning of August 5, 1888, and her husband was still sleeping. She purposely didn’t mention her means of...
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Hoots, Crows, and Whistles: Criminals Using Animals Calls as Secret Signals
European criminals liked to imitate the Little Owl. Little Owl from Pixbay, public domain. A Little Owl’s cry pierced the night. It rebounded through the neighborhood, and from the other side of the...
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My Top Historical True Crime Books
Morguefile photos As a subgenre of true crime, historical true crime is gaining popularity. Last week we looked at some of the reasons why. This week we’ll look at some of my favorite historical true...
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No-Body Murder Cases: Proof Bristling with Pitfalls
Blood is a common piece of forensic evidence in a no-body murder case. Photo from Pixabay. Anatomy of a No-Body Murder Case This was a prosecutor’s nightmare. Jessica O’Grady’s made her last cell phone...
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A Year and a Half in Review: My Top Ten Historical Crime Posts
The top ten: After one and a half years of blogging about historical crime cases, the New Year offers a great opportunity to look back at crimes that fascinated my readers the most. These were the most...
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Jack the Strangler: Guest Post by Author Brian Forschner
Investigation of the Jack the Strangler cases started with a clue in a coffin. (c) Kzenon, via Shutterstock, with permission. Not long after Jack the Ripper terrorized Whitechapel, another serial...
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The Real Victorian Detective vs. Sherlock Holmes
Victorian detective Jerome Caminada. Courtesy of the Greater Manchester Police Museum and Archives. While Sherlock Holmes honed his forensic skills in Arthur Conan Doyle’s books, real Victorian...
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Charms that Excused Perjury: A 19th Century Detective’s List
A witness testifying under oath. By bikeriderlondon, Shutterstock, with permission. Is the witness lying? It’s an important question for a detective – a train switch that can change the course of the...
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To Catch a Medieval Thief: The Hue and Cry
Digitially reconstructed image of people responding to the hue and cry on a medieval street; (c) Algol, shutterstock.com, with permission. Stop! Thief! Cries pierce the night air and echo down the...
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London Monster: Interview with Karen Lee Street
.”The Monster Cutting a Lady” by Isaac Cruikshanks, 1 May 1790 published by S.W. Fores; public domain. London, 1788. A fiend terrorized the city with his series of crimes. The “London Monster,” as the...
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Saved by Her Corset: Feminine Fashion Foils the Fiend
How a corseted Bavarian girl of the 1830s might have appeared. “Portait of a Girl” by Bavarian painter Bernhard Peter von Rausch (1793-1865) [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsA monster… roaming the...
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Francis Thompson as a Ripper Suspect? Interview with Richard Patterson
Poet Francis Thompson in 1877: By Published by Herder, MO, USA, Public Domain. The thing that scares me most about the Jack the Ripper case is not the murders. Oh, no. It’s the number of suspects! The...
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Vincent van Gogh’s Death: Suicide or Homicide?
An Interview with Ron Franscell, Coauthor of the New Book, “Morgue: A Life in Death” Vincent van Gogh, Self Portrait, 1889. © Everett Art, with permission (via Shutterstock). Vincent van Gogh’s death...
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The Five Greatest Criminal Trials of History
Law changes history. There are plenty examples of that: The Magna Carta, the Napoleonic Code, the United States Constitution. So do criminal trials. In 1985, Fritjof Haft, criminal law professor at the...
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