Crime leaves paperwork. Parish registers, coroners’ inquests, trial transcripts and newspaper reports are often the most detailed accounts we have of ordinary lives — because something terrible happened to them.
Every story in Murder & crime
- Beechworth · 1867Beechworth Asylum: The Real History of Mayday HillsFor 128 years the asylum on the hill took in Victoria's unwanted. Most of the ones who died there were buried in graves nobody marked.
- Bermondsey, London · 1849The Murder Dickens Turned Into FictionA cold, calculated murder buried a body in a Bermondsey kitchen, and became fodder for the country's most famous novelist.
- Thirsk Museum, Thirsk, North Yorkshire · 1702The Chair No One Is Allowed To Sit InA Yorkshire museum keeps an ordinary wooden armchair hung out of reach, because of a curse no record supports and a chain of deaths no one can document.
- Brighton · 1871The Poisoner Who Weaponised A Town's Sweet ShopsShe poisoned an entire town's confectionery to disguise the murder of a woman she hated, killing a child she never met.
Paris · 1386The Rape Trial That Ended In Trial By CombatA woman's accusation of rape led to France's last judicial duel, with her own life staked on the outcome.- Saugues · 1764The Parish Registers Of The Beast's VictimsBetween 1764 and 1767 something killed roughly a hundred people, recorded in the registers as 'devoured by the beast.'
- Place de Grève, Paris · 1680The Poisoner Of The Sun King's CourtBehind Versailles' glittering court, a fortune-teller ran a thriving trade selling poison to desperate noblewomen.
- Kassel · 1812The Blood And Blindness In The Original CinderellaThere is no fairy godmother in the Grimms' first Cinderella, only a grave, mutilation, and eyes pecked out by birds.
- York · 1739The Horse-Thief Turned Into A Folk HeroA violent burglar and horse-thief understood one thing perfectly: how to command an audience at his own execution.
- Kassel · 1812The Original Snow White's Own MotherIn the Grimms' first edition, it isn't a stepmother who wants Snow White dead, it's her own mother.
- Cato Street, London · 1820The Plot To Murder The Entire British CabinetA hayloft of desperate radicals plotted to assassinate the whole Cabinet in a single stroke, and very nearly tried.
Durham · 1873Britain's First Serial Killer's Domestic MethodShe quietly killed her way across Victorian County Durham, poisoning as many as twenty-one people including her own children.- Richmond, London · 1879The Skull That Took 131 Years To FindA grisly Victorian murder's missing piece turned up in a celebrity's garden more than a century later.
Amityville, New York · 1974The Hoax And The Real Horror Of AmityvilleBehind the famous haunting hoax lies a real, devastating mass murder that has never stopped haunting the house.
London · 1767The Midwife Who Tortured Her ApprenticesA respectable London midwife tortured the orphan girls in her care in a case that horrified all of Georgian England.
New Orleans · 1834The Socialite Who Hid A House Of HorrorsA glamorous New Orleans socialite's mansion concealed one of the antebellum South's most horrifying secrets.
Los Angeles · 1922Hollywood's Most Scandalous Unsolved MurderA silent-film director's 1922 murder was never solved, until a dying woman's whispered confession forty-two years later.- Aberdeen, South Dakota · 1900The Dark Secrets Behind The Wizard Of OzBehind the beloved fairy tale lies a coded political meaning and a shocking documented act by its gentle author.
Naples · 1634The Disturbing Original Sleeping BeautyLong before Disney's kiss, the sleeping princess was the victim of assault, not the recipient of romance.
Correggio · 1940The Soap-Maker Who Murdered For LoveAn Italian woman murdered three neighbours and turned their bodies into soap and teacakes, believing she was saving her son.
The Hague · 1672The Brothers Torn Apart By Their Own CountrymenThe leaders of a wealthy, sophisticated republic were torn apart and cannibalised by their own citizens in broad daylight.
Lake George · 1757The Massacre Behind The Last Of The MohicansA famous novel turned it into a simple tale of savagery — the truth is a tangled web of broken promises and desperate people.
Katyn · 1940The Massacre Covered Up For Fifty YearsTwenty-two thousand men were murdered in a forest — and the lie about who did it was maintained by a superpower for half a century.
Żagań · 1944The Murder Behind The Great EscapeThe film ends in a rousing adventure — the real mass breakout ended in the cold-blooded murder of fifty recaptured men on Hitler's direct orders.- Collodi · 1881The Original Pinocchio Was MurderedThe wooden puppet everyone knows was gentle and whimsical — the first version of the story ended with him hanged from a tree.
Philadelphia · 1896The Confession That Was A LieAmerica's most famous supposed serial killer sold a confession full of murders he never committed — and even his own execution went wrong.- Nîmes · 1807The Real Revenge Behind The Count Of Monte CristoA shoemaker betrayed on the eve of his wedding became the true story behind one of literature's greatest tales of vengeance.
Donner Pass, California · 1847The Shortcut That Cost Thirty-Nine LivesA shortcut promised to save hundreds of miles — instead it trapped two families in the snow with nothing left to eat but each other.
Plainfield · 1957The Farmhouse That Inspired Modern HorrorA quiet Wisconsin handyman's crimes were so grotesque they invented Norman Bates, Leatherface and Buffalo Bill.
Formia · 43 BCThe Orator Who Told His Killers To Do It ProperlyRome's greatest orator opposed every dictator who threatened the Republic, until a proscription list finally caught up with him.
Klingenberg am Main · 1976The Exorcism That Killed HerA young woman's epilepsy was treated with 67 exorcism rites instead of medicine, until her body finally gave out.
Delft · 1584The First Assassination By GunA young lawyer became the first man in history to assassinate a head of state with a firearm, then endured an execution meant to terrify a nation.
London · 1726The Last Woman Burned Alive In EnglandHer murder became the stuff of ballads and nightmares — and her execution went so wrong it stands as a black mark on English justice.
London · 1381The Archbishop's Head That Still SurvivesA raging mob hacked the Archbishop of Canterbury to death, and his mummified head still sits in a Suffolk church today.
Melbourne · 1880The Outlaw Who Went To The Gallows In Iron ArmourAustralia's most famous bushranger made his last stand in homemade armour, then met the gallows with two immortal words.- Wangen, Bavaria · 1922The Footprints That Led To The Farm And Never LeftA whole family was wiped out on their farm, and their killer stayed in the house for days afterward.
- Nantes · 1440The Knight Who Became BluebeardA war hero who rode beside Joan of Arc went home to his castles and became something monstrous.
- Polstead · 1827The Murder Solved By A Stepmother's DreamA young woman was shot and buried under a barn floor, found only because her stepmother kept dreaming of the spot.
- Exeter · 1885The Man The Gallows Refused To KillHe stood on the trapdoor three times in one morning, and three times the gallows failed to hang him.
Weymouth · 1002The Skulls Stacked In A Roman Quarry PitFifty-four beheaded skeletons in a Dorset pit trace back to a king's order to kill every Dane in England.- Henley-on-Thames · 1752The Daughter Who Poisoned Her Father's TeaShe swore to her death that the powder in her father's food was a love potion, not poison.
Manchester · 1819The Law Behind Reading The Riot ActA phrase for a stern telling-off was once the legal warning before cavalry charged a crowd with sabres drawn.- Santo Domingo · 1500The Governor Shipped Home In ChainsThe Spanish crown that funded his voyages had Columbus arrested and shipped home to answer for his own cruelty.
- Lubyanka Prison, Moscow · 1952The Night Stalin Silenced His Own PoetsThirteen of the Soviet Union's greatest Jewish writers were led into a basement and shot in a single night.
Edinburgh · 1828The Body Snatchers Behind A Grim PhraseThe phrase is older than the crimes it is blamed on, and the men blamed for it never robbed a grave. They murdered sixteen people instead.
Dearborn, Michigan · 1920The Carmaker Who Spread A Forged ConspiracyThe man who put America on wheels used his newspaper empire to spread a fabricated antisemitic conspiracy to millions.
Vatican City · 1492The Pope Who Ran The Church Like A Crime FamilyRodrigo Borgia allegedly bought the papacy, then turned the Vatican into a den of poison and scandal.
New York City · 1836The Showman Who Sold Tickets To A DissectionP.T. Barnum built his fortune exhibiting an enslaved woman alive, then sold tickets to watch her autopsy.
Edinburgh · 1819The Bloody Scottish Law Behind Red-HandedA phrase now used for stolen biscuits once meant a killer caught with blood still on his hands.
Geneva · 1898The Empress Who Walked Away From Her Own MurderStabbed through the heart by an assassin who wanted someone else, she got up, brushed herself off, and kept walking.
Pelusium · 48 BCThe General Murdered In A Rowing BoatRome's celebrated commander stepped into a small boat expecting refuge and was struck down as his wife watched.
Berkeley Castle, Berkeley · 1327The King Who May Have Escaped His MurderThe red-hot poker story may be propaganda; a mysterious letter claims the deposed king actually escaped his own killing.
Tower of London, London · 1483The Princes Who Vanished From The TowerTwo boy princes disappeared inside the Tower of London, and after five centuries no one can prove what happened to them.
Baiae · 59Strike The Womb That Bore NeroSent assassins by her own son, she bared her stomach and dared them to strike the womb that had borne an emperor.
London · 1782The Wife-Beating Law That Never ExistedA viral fact about a wife-beating law is fake, but the real legal history it hides is far darker than the myth.
New Forest, Hampshire · 1100The King Killed By An Arrow And The Brother Who ProfitedA king died in a forest with an arrow through his chest, and his brother was crowned just three days later.
Fall River, Massachusetts · 1892The Axe Murders Behind The Nursery RhymeA wealthy man and his wife were hacked to death in broad daylight, and the rhyme everyone knows gets nearly everything wrong.
Ferrara · 1519The Poisoner Legend That Was Almost Entirely FalseHistory remembers her as a scheming poisoner, but she was really a pawn sold and blamed by the men who used her.
Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury · 1170The Archbishop Murdered At His Own AltarKilled inside his own cathedral by men acting on a king's wish, his blood-soaked murder shocked all of Christendom.
Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome · 1599The Noblewoman Rome Wept For And Executed AnywayDriven to a desperate act by a monstrous father, she was executed while an entire city gathered to weep and beg for her life.
Rome · 222The Boy Emperor Rome Tried To EraseRome hated him so completely that after killing him, they tried to stuff his body down a sewer to deny him even a grave.
Sparta · 424 BCSparta's Secret Death Squad Of Teenage KillersSparta's elite trained teenage boys to murder enslaved Helots in the dark as a rite of passage into manhood.
Berkeley Castle, Berkeley · 1327The She-Wolf Who Overthrew Her Own KingA humiliated queen raised an army against her own husband and brought down a King of England.
Rome · 1497The Borgia Pope's Unsolved Family MurderThe pope's own favourite son was murdered and dumped in the Tiber, with suspicion pointing straight at his own brother.
Paris · 1793The Assassin Whose Severed Head BlushedShe murdered a revolutionary leader in his bath to save France, and witnesses swore her severed head reddened afterward.
Paris · 1792The Queen's Friend Whose Head Was Paraded on a PikeShe could have fled the Revolution safely, but chose loyalty to Marie Antoinette, and it destroyed her horrifically.
Paris · 1610The Assassin Who Expected To Be A HeroA man stabbed France's most beloved king believing God had sent him, then waited calmly to be captured and celebrated.
Edo · 1602The Samurai Who Tested Swords On StrangersJapanese swordsmen once tested new blades by cutting down unsuspecting passersby at night, until the shogunate finally banned it.
Baltimore, County Cork · 1631The Village Sold To Barbary SlaversA captured fisherman guided Barbary corsairs into an Irish village at night, betraying his neighbours into slavery to save his own life.
Alexandria · 30 BCCleopatra's Children, Rome's PrizeWithin weeks of Cleopatra's death, Rome hunted down all four of her children, starting with the teenage son of Julius Caesar.
Nantes · 1343The Widow Who Became A Pirate For RevengeAfter the King of France beheaded her husband, a noblewoman sold everything, took to the sea, and hunted French ships for years.
Deir el-Medina · 1150 BCThe Tomb Robber's Charge SheetA 3,200-year-old papyrus names the women a powerful Egyptian craftsman was accused of assaulting, and his own tomb still stands as evidence.
Boston, Massachusetts · 1789America's First Woman Hanged For PiracyA farm girl drawn to the docks confessed to almost every crime imaginable the day before she was hanged in Boston.
Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh · 1567The Husband Blown Up And Strangled In A NightgownMary, Queen of Scots' hated husband was found dead in a garden after his lodging exploded — but he hadn't died in the blast.- Thebes · 1155 BCThe Pharaoh Murdered By His Own HaremA CT scan finally revealed the hidden throat wound that ended the reign of Egypt's last great pharaoh.
Thebes (Luxor) · 1550 BCThe Pharaoh Who Refused To Kneel To The HyksosEgypt had lived under foreign occupation for a century until one pharaoh rode out to war and was butchered for it.
Syracuse · 212 BCKilled Over A Drawing In The SandRome's soldiers finally broke into Syracuse, and its greatest mind died mid-calculation, refusing to abandon his diagram.
Alexandria · 415The Philosopher Torn Apart By A MobOne of antiquity's greatest mathematicians was dragged from her chariot and killed by a mob whose bishop was never punished.
Alexandrov · 1581The Staff That Killed A Tsar's Own HeirA row over his pregnant daughter-in-law's clothing ended with Ivan striking his own son with an iron-tipped staff.
Paris · 1572The Wedding That Turned Into A MassacreSix days after a wedding meant to bring peace, Paris turned on the Protestant guests who had come to celebrate it.
Rome · 1650The Poison Sold As A Woman's Cosmetic OilDisguised as beauty oil, a tasteless poison gave abused wives in Rome a way to outlive their husbands.
Houtman Abrolhos, Western Australia · 1629The Shipwreck That Descended Into MassacreMarooned on a waterless island after a shipwreck, a self-appointed leader turned survival into a campaign of murder.
Rome · 192The Emperor Who Fought As A Gladiator For FunGladiator showed him as a scheming villain — the real emperor clubbed amputees to death and billed the treasury for it.
Ipatiev House, Yekaterinburg · 1918The Family Told They Were Only Being MovedWoken at 2am and led to a basement for what they believed was a transfer to safety, the last imperial family brought pillows and their dog.
Porto Ercole · 1610The Painter Who Fled Rome With A Sword At His SideA killer, a fugitive and a genius who dragged saints out of pitch-black shadow using the faces of Rome's beggars and sex workers.
Pydna · 316 BCThe Queen Mother Who Walked Out To Face Her KillersThe mother of Alexander the Great terrified the soldiers sent to execute her so badly they refused.
Iskorosten (Korosten) · 945The Widow Who Burned A City With BirdsShe buried ambassadors alive, then burned more, then torched an entire city with sparrows carrying fire.
Prinsenhof, Delft · 1584The Bullet Holes Behind The Murder Hall GlassA fanatic waited behind a pillar for a prince to finish lunch, then fired the shots that made him the first head of state shot dead.
Glencoe, Argyll · 1692The Guests Who Murdered Their Hosts At GlencoeFor twelve days the soldiers lived on MacDonald hospitality in the glen. Then the written order came: put all to the sword under seventy.
Skibbereen · 1845The Famine That Emptied A NationA potato blight kills over a million people while ships keep leaving Irish ports loaded with food.
Sarajevo · 1914The Assassination That Started A World WarA bungled bomb attack fails to kill him, and then his car takes a wrong turn straight past a gunman who had already given up.
Tower of London, London · 1696The Scientist Who Hunted CounterfeitersThe man who rewrote physics takes what was supposed to be an easy government job and turns it into a personal war on fraud.
Largo di Torre Argentina, Rome · 44 BCThe Assassination Of Rome's Most Powerful ManWarned by his wife's nightmare and a soothsayer's omen, Caesar walks into the Senate anyway, straight toward twenty-three daggers.
Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh · 1440The Dinner That Ended With A BeheadingScotland's most powerful teenager accepts a dinner invitation to the royal castle, unaware it was designed to destroy his family.- Moika Palace, St Petersburg · 1916The Man Who Wouldn't Die (Until He Did)Poison, gunshots and a beating supposedly fail to stop Russia's most hated mystic, but the real killing was far less legendary.
New York City · 1911The Fire That Changed Workplace SafetyHundreds of young immigrant women are locked inside a garment factory when a scrap bin catches fire near closing time.
Deptford, London · 1593The Playwright Killed Over A Dinner BillEngland's most celebrated playwright spends a day eating and talking at a Deptford lodging house, then dies over an argument about who pays.
Pudding Lane, London · 1666The Baker Blamed For Burning LondonA fire that destroys 13,000 houses needs someone to blame, and a simple-minded Frenchman gives London exactly what it wants.- Edinburgh · 1828The Landlord Who Turned To Murder For ProfitA simple scheme to sell a dead lodger's body to an anatomy school turns into a ten-month killing spree in Edinburgh.
Alexandria · 415The Philosopher Torn Apart By A MobAlexandria's most respected scholar becomes too dangerous a symbol to survive a city tearing itself apart over religion.
Bennane Head · 1500The Cave Clan That Ate The Coast RoadLegend says a family of 48 lived hidden in a Scottish sea cave for 25 years, ambushing travellers on the road above.
Čachtice Castle, Čachtice · 1610The Countess Bricked Into Her Own CastleOne of Europe's wealthiest women was sealed inside stone walls for the rest of her life over the deaths of her servants.- off Puerto Rico · 1797The Captain Who Flogged Dead MenWhen three sailors fell to their deaths obeying his order, he had their corpses whipped anyway — his crew never forgave him.
London · 60The Queen Rome Flogged Into A RebellionRome seized her kingdom, flogged her, and let her daughters be assaulted — she answered by burning three cities to the ground.
Rome · 211The Emperor Erased From Every PortraitHe murdered his co-emperor brother in their mother's arms — then had every trace of his face chiselled out of Rome.
Bab-el-Mandeb Strait · 1695The Pirate King Who Vanished With The TreasureHe mutinied over unpaid wages, hunted down the richest treasure fleet afloat, and then simply disappeared forever.
Rome · 1612The Painter Tortured To Prove She Told The TruthRaped by her tutor at seventeen, she was thumbscrewed during his trial to test if her testimony was true.
Béziers · 1209Kill Them All, Let God Sort Them OutA city refused to hand over its heretic neighbours — so a crusader army was ordered to kill everyone inside.- Smithfield, London · 1381The Boy King Who Faced Down A RebellionA fourteen-year-old king rode out to negotiate with the rebel leader who had beheaded his archbishop — the meeting turned to blood.
- Delft · 1584The Assassin Paid In His Victim's Own CoinA stranger too poor to attend church was given money for clothes — he used it to buy the pistols that killed his benefactor.
Negril · 1720The Last Two Pirates Standing Were WomenWhen pirate hunters boarded the ship, the drunken crew hid below — only two fighters remained on deck, both women.
Tisenjoch, Ötztal Alps · 3300 BCThe 5,000-Year-Old Murder VictimTwo hikers found a body frozen in the Alps — he turned out to be Europe's oldest unsolved murder, 5,000 years cold.
Paris · 1794The Incorruptible Who Lost His JawThe architect of the Terror who sent thousands to the guillotine met it himself with a shattered face.
Arguin Bank, off Mauritania · 1816The Raft That Inspired A Masterpiece147 people were abandoned on a raft in the Atlantic — starvation, madness and cannibalism followed before rescue.
Lindow Moss, Wilmslow · 60The Bog Body With Three Ways To DieA 2,000-year-old body pulled from a Cheshire bog bore a smashed skull, a garrotte, and a slit throat.
Coimbra · 1355The Lovers Portugal Crowned After DeathA king's mistress was murdered in front of her children — and her lover later crowned her corpse queen.
Nantes · 1793The Drownings of NantesOverflowing prisons and a revolutionary need for speed turned the Loire River into a mass execution site for priests.
Smithfield, London · 1532Boiled Alive for Poisoning a Bishop's PorridgeA prank with purgatives killed two people and earned the cook a punishment so brutal England abolished it soon after.
Villisca, Iowa · 1912Eight Went to Sleep, None Woke UpEvery mirror in the house was covered the night an axe murderer moved silently through eight sleeping victims.
Webster County, Kentucky · 1799America's First Serial KillersShot down mid-chase, one killer's severed head was mounted on a pole — and locals swear you can still hear him laughing.
Tower of London, London · 1613Poisoned in the Tower Over a MarriageImprisoned on a diplomatic post designed to fail, he died slowly of a poison that took months to finish the job.
Bethnal Green, London · 1831The Body Snatchers of Nova Scotia GardensA veteran grave robber stopped digging and started killing when he realized freshly murdered bodies paid better.- Tyburn, London · 1540Betrayed by a Farmer's GrudgeThe man who helped condemn Anne Boleyn was destroyed years later by a tenant's accusation and a single well-placed word.
Lahore · 1849The Diamond Taken From a Ten-Year-Old KingA legal trap stripped a child king of his mother, his throne, and the most famous diamond in the world.
Covent Garden, London · 1670The Highwayman Who Danced With His VictimsA charming French robber turned holdups into theatre — until wine and a tavern brawl finally caught up with him.
Cumnor, Oxfordshire · 1560The Fall That Kept Elizabeth UnmarriedA noblewoman was found dead at the foot of a staircase, and the mystery cost her husband his chance to marry a queen.
Bienville Parish, Louisiana · 1934The Ambush That Ended Bonnie and ClydeTexas Ranger Frank Hamer set a trap on a quiet Louisiana road that ended America's most notorious outlaw run in seconds.
Port Royal, Virginia · 1865The Barn Where Lincoln's Killer FellCornered in a burning tobacco barn, America's most wanted fugitive met a violent end after a twelve-day manhunt.- Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome · 1517The Cardinal's Poisoned Bandage PlotA furious cardinal bribed the Pope's own surgeon to dress his wounds in slow-acting poison.
- Florence · 1478The Assassination Plot Inside a CathedralRival bankers struck during Sunday Mass, but one Medici brother fought his way out alive.
- Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh · 1566The Musician Slaughtered at the Queen's TableA queen's trusted secretary was dragged from her private dinner and stabbed to death by her own jealous husband's men.
- Lollards' Tower, London · 1514The Corpse Hanged to Complete a SentenceA merchant was found dead in his cell with a broken neck, and the church still had his corpse hanged to cover it up.
- London · 1562The Poisoned Coat Meant for the Queen's ManAssassins bypassed his food and laced his riding coat with poison meant to seep in through his sweat.
- London · 1563The Poisoned Pages of a Martyr's BookConspirators laced the corners of his manuscript pages with arsenic to silence the writer who exposed Bloody Mary.
- Rome · 48The Empress Who Lived a Double LifeRome's most powerful woman slipped out at night in a wig to chase thrills the palace could never contain.
- Tower of London, London · 1483The Boy King Who Vanished Inside The TowerSent to the Tower for his own coronation, he and his brother were seen less and less until they were gone.
- London · 1517The Riot That Turned Cannons On London ItselfA thousand citizens rampaged against foreign workers until the Tower fired its own artillery on the city.
- Tyre · 1192The King Of Jerusalem Killed Days After His CrownTwo men without cloaks approached him in the street and drove knives into him as they ran past.
- Mactan Island · 1521The Explorer Who Died On A Foreign BeachHe'd already crossed a continent no one believed existed — then was abandoned by his own men.
- Florence · 1478The Assassination Attempt During High MassIn front of ten thousand worshippers, the Pazzi conspirators drove their knives into a Medici at the altar.
- Charleston · 1820The Innkeeper Who Poisoned Her Guests at TeaGuests checked into her hotel and didn't check out; she drugged them with oleander before her husband finished the job.
- London · 1611The Cross-Dressing Criminal Who Died in Her BedA pickpocket and forger who smoked a pipe on stage in men's clothes, she outlived every man who tried to stop her.
- Tyburn, London · 1763The Woman Who Hanged Herself Before the Executioner CouldShe fought off her executioner, stripped to deny him his fee, and threw herself from the cart on her own terms.
- York · 1809The Poisoner Whose Skin Was Sold as CharmsAfter she was hanged for poisoning a client, her skin was tanned into good-luck charms and sold to the public.
- Alexandrov · 1581The Father Who Killed His Own HeirA single blow in a fit of rage killed his son and heir, and the moment was later painted so disturbing a man attacked it with a knife.
- Dallas · 1963The President's Brain That VanishedHis brain was preserved for the National Archives after his assassination, then it disappeared and has never been found.
- Sing Sing Prison, Ossining · 1936The Letter That Caught a Child KillerTen years after murdering a child, he mailed her mother a letter describing it in detail, and it caught him within days.