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1940: Leon Trotsky Assassinated by Soviet Agent in Mexico

Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary and founder of the Red Army, was attacked at his fortified home in Coyoacan, Mexico City, on 20 August 1940. The attacker, Ramon Mercader, was an undercover agent of the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, who had spent months gaining the trust of those in Trotsky’s inner circle.

Mercader struck Trotsky with an ice axe, inflicting a fatal wound to the skull. Trotsky died the following day, aged 60. Mercader was arrested at the scene, convicted of murder, and served 20 years in a Mexican prison. He was later awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal by Stalin.

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Assassination Espionage Europe Mexico Political Crime Russia

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1692: Five Hanged at Salem in a Single Day for Witchcraft

On 19 August 1692, five people were executed by hanging at Salem, Massachusetts, after being convicted of witchcraft: Martha Carrier, George Jacobs Sr., George Burroughs, John Willard, and John Proctor. The executions were among the most notorious of the Salem witch trials, a period of mass hysteria that gripped colonial New England.

Fourteen more people would be executed before the year was out, and 150 others were imprisoned. The Salem trials remain one of the darkest episodes in early American legal history.

Painting of two alleged witches being tried in Salem, Massachusetts as part of the infamous witchhunts.

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Execution Historical Atrocity Massachusetts New England Political Crime Salem Trial USA

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1612: The Pendle Witch Trials Begin: Eleven Accused in One of England’s Most Documented Witchcraft Cases

In August 1612, eleven people stood trial at Lancaster Castle accused of witchcraft in one of the most thoroughly documented witch trials in English history. Six of the accused came from two rival poverty-stricken families: the Demdikes, led by Elizabeth Southerns known as Old Demdike, and the Chattoxes, led by Anne Whittle known as Mother Chattox. The trials unfolded against a backdrop of religious unrest in Lancashire, a region long regarded as resistant to Protestant authority and sympathetic to Catholicism.

Ten of the eleven were found guilty and executed. The proceedings were recorded in an official publication, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, by court clerk Thomas Potts, ensuring the case survived as legend. In a country where fewer than 500 people were executed for witchcraft over three centuries, this single summer of trials in Pendle accounts for roughly 2% of that total.

Sculpture of Alice Nutter famous English witch. Sculpture of Alice Nutter captured on the way to Pendle hill, famous witch trail and the history of the English witch craft. | ID 113675970 © Milosz Kubiak | Dreamstime.com — ID 113675970 © Milosz Kubiak | Dreamstime.com

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England Execution Historical Lancashire Lancaster Political Crime Trial UK Witchcraft

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1786: Britain Decides to Dump Its Criminal Class on the Far Side of the World

In 1786, Britain faced a crisis of its own making. Decades of the so-called bloody code had swollen the criminal class with petty offenders, American independence had slammed shut the old dumping ground of the colonial plantations, and the gaols were bursting. The solution settled upon was audacious: ship Britain’s unwanted more than 15,000 miles to New South Wales, a coastline only recently mapped by Captain Cook, who had praised the land around Botany Bay.

Over the next 80 years, more than 160,000 men and women were transported to Australia and Van Diemen’s Land. Transportation meant total erasure: the loss of home, family, and identity, followed by a brutal sea crossing and survival in an utterly foreign land. Yet for many, the far side of the world offered something the old country never would: a second chance.

First Fleet ships entering Sydney Harbour 1788 illustration

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Australia Colonial History England NSW Organised Crime Political Crime Prison Transportation UK

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