1851: Too Many Escapes: Maitland Gaoler Dismissed, Replaced by a Darlinghurst Turnkey
Just three years after Maitland Gaol had officially opened its gates in 1848, its first gaoler, James Cox, was sacked. Read more →
1897: The World’s First Drink-Driving Conviction, London 1897
Just before one in the morning on September 10, 1897, a taxi driver named George Smith lost control of his cab on New Bond Street, swerving across the road and crashing, smashing a water pipe and a front window. Read more →
1931: Stabbed Like His Hero Julius Caesar: the Assassination of a Mafia Boss
Salvatore Maranzano, nicknamed Little Caesar for his fascination with Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire, had built a criminal empire in Brooklyn behind the front of a real estate brokerage, running bootlegging, prostitution and narcotics rackets. Read more →
1935: The Sydney Shark Arm Murder Case Collapses on Judge Orders
The case began in the most macabre way imaginable: on April 25, 1935, a captured shark on display at an Aquarium in Sydney vomited up a human arm. Read more →
1977: The Last Blade Falls: the Final Guillotine Execution in France
Hamida Djandoubi went to the guillotine in France on this day in 1977, the last person ever executed by the device and the last person executed in France at all. Read more →
1996: The Menendez Brothers Split Up: Sent to Separate Maximum-Security Prisons
After their conviction for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in the family’s Beverly Hills home, the California Department of Corrections classified Lyle and Erik as maximum-security inmates and separated them, ending years of the brothers being held together. Read more →
