Innholdsfortegnelse for Crime & Punishment i History Extra

“From pickpockets and highwaymen to smugglers and serial killers, law-breakers have been present in every society. What has changed across the centuries is the way the authorities have waged war on crime. This special edition explores how criminals have been caught, tried and punished in Britain since the medieval era – for everything from crimes of passion to cold-blooded acts of murder. We'll take a closer look at 19th-century executions, which attracted huge crowds of spectators; meet criminals such as Jack the Ripper, whose bloody crimes terrorised Victorian London; and explore the harsh and public punishments of the medieval period. We shine a spotlight on a 300-year-old case that saw an innocent Scottish sailor hanged. Tudor smuggling also steals on to these pages, along with notorious court cases. We also…

1 Cardiff Where the crown's reach was limited Smuggling here was aided by the city's remote location and the Welsh language, which helped it elude the reach of the crown. Nearby Sully Island and Swanbridge port were also involved in smuggling: court records for the latter from 1569 reveal the seizure of 28,000lb of cheese and 80 barrels of butter. visitcardiff.com 2 Isle of Man Where English laws were irrelevant Henry IV granted trade freedom for the island to Sir John Stanley in 1405, and it remained outside of crown control for over 300 years, becoming notorious as a centre for smuggling in the 18th century. An English act of parliament in 1704, which banned trade with France, did not apply to Manx vessels, so French wine and brandy were…

22 January 1654 Kidd is born in Dundee in north-eastern Scotland, the son of a sea captain who dies when William is still an infant. 16 May 1691 Kidd marries Sarah Oort, the richest widow in New York, and the couple move into a substantial town house on Wall Street. 10 April 1695 The newly built Adventure Galley sails from London, with Kidd in command. He sets a course for New York, to recruit a crew. 30 January 1698 Kidd captures the Quedagh Merchant, which carries a French-registered cargo of textiles, gold, silver and jewels, valued at £75,000 (£9m today). 12 May 1698 When Kidd orders his crew to attack the pirate ship of Robert Culliford they mutiny, and most join forces with the pirates. 6 July 1699 Kidd is…

James Aitken 1752 – 1777 1 Personality Aitken was insecure, self-absorbed, and quick to take offence (but so was everyone else in 18th-century Britain). For example: when he calls on a stagecoach to stop and is “disregarded and laughed at”, he flies into a rage and fires at the passengers. No one is hurt. 2 Significant relationships None, other than a misplaced (and unrequited) adoration of Silas Deane, the American envoy in Paris and a laughable bumpkin. There are no women in his life, aside from the occasional prostitute, but this does not distinguish him from other men in their early twenties. On at least one occasion he rapes a woman, a shepherdess in Basingstoke. 3 Politics Conservative. He wishes to rise above his class, not lift it up. Hence…

Charles Dickens was a good friend to the 'deserving poor', but if tricked or traduced the author was famously short on sympathy. In 1850, after discovering that he had made several donations to a man who was later found in good health, and far from dire circumstances, Dickens marched the begging-letter writer to his local magistrate. Aggrieved that the magistrate seemed “deeply impressed” by this literate rogue – and “quite charmed to have the agreeable duty of discharging him” – Dickens took aim at his new foe in his magazine Household Words: “He is one of the most shameless frauds and impositions of this time,” snarled Dickens, recalling the glut of pathetic appeals that had recently found their way to his home. “In his idleness, his mendacity, and the immeasurable…

John Unsworth was an ordinary office clerk who plied his trade in the City of London. In 1834, he had a run of bad luck in the financial markets. This was far from uncommon at the time, yet John was crippled by the shame of his spiralling debt. Before long, he had concluded that there was only one way to avoid the ignominy of debtor's prison: end his own life. John stole some petty household goods and pawned them, using the money to hire a room at a lodging house near Smithfield market. He then bought a phial of opium from a local apothecary, swallowed it, and hoped to die alone, from poison. Unfortunately the dose was not, at first, strong enough to kill him. His landlady and her servant…

In August 1865, details of a grisly killing appeared in the pages of many British newspapers: DREADFUL MURDER IN CHESHIRE – On Saturday night, a boatman in the employ of Shropshire Union Canal Company committed a most brutal murder on his wife at Calveley, six miles from Crewe. He severed her head with a razor, all but a ligament of skin. It was a disturbing tale, but the main problem was that it was actually a work of fiction. This was by no means an accident: 19th-century newspaper editors knew that gruesome crimes sold extra copies, and so deployed wildly exaggerated stories as weapons in the circulation wars, which were then picked up and copied by their competitors. Indeed, when the truth about the aforementioned 'murder' was revealed, the Cheshire…

1166 Improvements made to criminal law Henry II re-establishes the system by which royal justices perambulate the country hearing royal pleas and ensuring royal justice is administered. The Assize of Clarendon establishes that sheriffs and county justices have to investigate murders, robberies and thefts. District and village representatives sit on local juries to identify suspects and testify that crimes have occurred. 1194 Coroners are established The Articles of Eyre act establish coroners in England. With a jury, they inquire into sudden or unnatural deaths but could be called upon, by Royal Warrant, to become involved in broader legal practices. 1200 1215 Trial by jury emerges The church withdraws from involvement in trial by ordeal, which essentially ceases in England. Trial by jury emerges more strongly, with local men who were…

1 Join the HistoryExtra Academy Enhance your understanding of the past with our six-week online courses, taught by top historians and authors. Our most recent study programme, led by Ruth Goodman (above), will help you become an expert on Victorian life, with fascinating video lectures on everything from leisure activities to dining habits. Our next course, in which Laurence Rees will be examining the history of Nazi Germany, launches on 27 January 2025. 2 Listen to our ad-free podcasts From a gripping account of the Norman conquest to a four-part history of the loo, binge stories from history with our archive of podcast series – all available to stream completely ad-free. Plus, you can hear your favourite historians tackle listeners' questions every Sunday with our weekly Everything You Wanted to…

Who could have guessed that James Aitken, a humble house painter by trade, would one day become the most wanted man in Britain? He was a hopelessly ordinary young man, one of hundreds of thousands who wandered the English countryside looking for work and women. A former employer remembered only that he “went by the name of John”. He attracted so little attention, aroused so little interest, that no one knew “whither he went, or what road he took”. If they took the time to notice him, it was to laugh at his Scottish accent, his stammering, his shabby clothes. Born in 1752, in Edinburgh's Old Town, James Aitken was the eighth of 12 children. When he was just seven his father died. When he was nine he was admitted…

In 2005 the Human Tissue Act finally repealed the Anatomy Act of 1832, which was passed in order to help meet a shortfall in bodies for medical training by the Victorians. Today nobody can be dissected without the written consent of their living relatives or by a solicitor preparing a living will for someone who wishes to donate their body to medical science. Human cadavers cannot be used for anatomical education, transplant surgery or scientific research without a post-mortem schedule overseen by the Human Tissue Authority. This legal correction of medical ethics followed public revulsion when Sir Liam Donaldson (the chief medical officer responsible for investigating the Liverpool Alder Hey scandal) announced in February 2001 that 105,000 organs, body parts and fetuses had been retained in 210 English NHS Trusts…

Shame as a means of punishment has traditionally been seen by historians as a primitive, barbaric relic of the uncivilised pre-modern world. The classic example of a shame punishment is the pillory. It fulfilled a crude function in a society that had poorly-developed conceptions of control, discipline and policing. The heyday of the pillory in England was between the mid-17th and end of the 18th century and it represented a cost-effective method of dispensing restorative justice. It was society's opportunity to make an example of those who transgressed. The use of the pillory involved the community as audience and as participants within the punishment. This demonstrated the people's consent to the rule of authority and the restoration of order. It also made the community the adversary of the criminal, so…

VISIT Beaumaris Gaol 1 Ruthin Gaol, Denbighshire denbighshire.gov.uk There has been a prison on this site since the 17th century but the earliest part of the existing buildings dates from 1775–76. A large Pentonville wing (modelled on Pentonville prison in London), designed for the implementation of the separate system, was added in 1866 and is the most visually impressive part of this site. This large, light, open wing, with its almost religious feel, suggests the extent to which the separate system was underpinned by an emphasis on spiritual change, as well as deterrence. 2 Dartmoor Prison Museum, Devon dartmoor-prison.co.uk Housed in the old prison dairy and still owned by the prison service, this museum has a traditional, hands-on feel to it, which adds to its charm. Dartmoor is one of…

Among the many questions still remaining around the Houndsditch Murders, one stands out: Why was a rather run-down jeweller's shop chosen for the burglary? It was left shut up on that Friday night with only a few trinkets and a touristy Eiffel Tower clock in the window. To all intents and purposes it was a high-class pawn shop. There was, of course, the safe, containing, so it was said, £20,000. This would have been a huge amount in 1910. Harris's son later said there was only £7,000 deposited, still a fair sum, and perhaps far too large for such a location. The police did not check. Either way, Harris did not want people to know his business which may have been slightly less straightforward than appeared. The burglars carefully planned…

Wally Thompson was a hard-working thief who always looked to exploit a situation. During a heavy air raid in 1941, he drove a stolen lorry into a narrow street in London Bridge. An air raid precaution (ARP) member, Thompson was wearing his uniform; it allowed him to move around London freely and unsuspected. Alongside him in the lorry were the members of his gang – Batesy, Bob and 'Spider'. The gang's plan was to break into a warehouse, pick up a safe from the office and drive it away. As anti-aircraft fire raged and bombers droned, Batesy jumped out and opened the warehouse gates with a cloned key. Spider – an experienced burglar – ran forward and forced a window, before jemmying the main door open from the inside. Within…

1868 The Capital Punishment (Amendment) Act ends public hanging. 1923 Edith Thompson (left) and Freddy Bywaters are executed for the murder of Edith's husband (also pictured) amid doubts about her culpability and rumours that her hanging was botched. 1930 A report from the Select Committee on Capital Punishment recommends an experimental five-year period of abolition, but this is not debated in parliament. 1948 Capital punishment is suspended between February and November during debates on a Criminal Justice Bill. But a Criminal Justice Act passes without an abolition clause. 1949 A Royal Commission on Capital Punishment examines whether eligibility for the death penalty should be limited or modified. It doesn't report until 1953. 1953 Derek Bentley is hanged in January amid public concerns about justice in his case. John Christie is…

Standing on the banks of the river Avon near Hung Road in Shirehampton, watching the occasional pleasure boat chugging by, it is hard to imagine that what is now a tranquil stretch of water was once a bustling hub of Bristol's trade in illegal goods. But, says Evan Jones, senior lecturer in economic and social history at the University of Bristol, the city was a major focus for smuggling during the 16th century, and its profits lined the pockets of some of Bristol's best-known merchants. Bristol's location – some six miles up the river Avon from the Severn Estuary – played a key part in its thriving illicit trade. By law, goods had to be loaded on the Quay (now St Augustine's Reach) and the Back (now known as Welsh…

1829 Establishment of the Metropolitan Police. 1835 The Municipal Corporations Act authorises Watch Committees for towns that are to direct their police. 1836–39 A Royal Commission examines the idea of a Rural Constabulary. 1839 The County Police Act (which is slightly amended in 1840) permits counties to establish their own police. This depends on a vote of the county magistrates and a significant number of counties vote to keep the old system. 1842 The Parish Constables Act revises and improves the old system in the counties rejecting the 1839/40 legislation. 1850 The Superintending Constables Act establishes professional officers to supervise the parish constables in the counties that continued with the old system rather than the new police. 1856 The County and Borough Police Act requires every municipal borough and county…

1 Outcast Rippers The Whitechapel killings awoke fears of the predatory immigrant Between August and November 1888, five women were murdered and mutilated in the warren of streets that made up Whitechapel in London's East End, some with their throats cut, faces slashed and organs removed. Even from a distance of 130 years, the bare facts of the Jack the Ripper killings make for unsettling reading. But for the residents of the Victorian capital, the case was far more visceral. In their midst was a criminal, or group of criminals, capable of committing the most gruesome of crimes. The question at the front, centre and back of Londoners' minds was: who was responsible? And the answers they came up with give us an insight into popular fears at the time…

Ruby Sparks' first attempt at a smash-and-grab raid was not what might be called impressive, or even competent. Armed with a brick wrapped in brown paper, he threw it into the window of a jeweller's shop in London. It bounced back and whizzed past his ear. He tried again with the same result, while a small crowd began to grow. He was trying to elbow them aside for his third attempt when a man tapped him on the shoulder and with genuine bewilderment asked: “What's the matter, sonny?” At that point Sparks walked away, deciding that some practise was needed. On his next attempt Sparks threw his parcel, this time containing two bricks, with particular energy into the window of a jeweller in the suburbs, resulting in a crash of…

1 Killing spree In the summer of 1940, John Fulljames, a student at University College Oxford, opened fire with a rifle on fellow students, killing one. Tried for murder, Fulljames was described to the jury as having a “splitmind”, like Dr Jekyll. He was committed to Broadmoor where the authorities rejected the court's finding of insanity. 2 Future gangster Seventeen-year-old James Harvey was robbed and killed by a gang of youths in Elephant and Castle – a no-go area due to the blackout and the absence of police. The leader of the gang, 21-year-old Jimmy Essex, was initially charged with murder. But he was eventually sentenced to just three years in prison for manslaughter, leading to an outcry from furious local residents. Essex went on to become a notorious London…