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Jonathan Wild, the Thief Taker General
There’s a story in The Newgate Calendar about Jonathan Wild. A merchant came to him with one of his porters and told him of how the man had been set upon by a gang of thieves. At the time, London had no professional police force but…
25 Years On: The Fall of the Berlin Wall
The 9th of November is a significant date in German history for several reasons. In 1848 it was the official end of the March Revolution, which laid the groundwork for the former Holy Roman Empire to become the German Empire in 1871. It…
Charles Bowles, AKA “Black Bart”, the Outlaw Poet
The urge to reinvent yourself is often a strong one. The idea of a “mid-life crisis” is more of a cliché than an actuality, but people do often find themselves stopping to take stock and re-assessing themselves. Sometimes we all take a look…
The Hellfire Clubs – decadence, with a whiff of brimstone
No organisation quite captures the air of genteel decay that pervaded English society in the Georgian era quite like the Hellfire Club. The 18th and early 19th century was a hard time for England. A succession of wastrel princes became…
CREEPY MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS – DEATH, DEMONS, AND DECAPITATION
Those looking for an enjoyable scare for the Halloween season are unlikely to seek one out in a European medieval manuscript. Those things are stuffy and deeply religious, right? It would just be silly to look for anything creepy…
Henry Howard Holmes, the Death Doctor of Murder Castle
Nowadays, most people aren’t afraid of monsters. We know that our neighbours are not secretly werewolves, that the dead will not rise as vampires to steal our lives away, that witches will not cast malicious curses to blight our lives. And…
Irish Stars on the Walk of Fame
Of the many stars on the Hollywood walk of fame, 13 belong to Irish people.
Roscommon man George Brent has two stars on Vine street, one for his television work and another for cinema. Born in 1899, Brent was an IRA courier for Michael…
Delphine LaLaurie; The Socialite Slave-killer
Slavery is one of the most abhorrent human practices. In order to enslave another human being, you must be prepared to deny them their individuality. This basic attitude of ignoring the reality of another person’s experience lies at the…
George Robert Fitzgerald – “The Fighting Fitzgerald”
Duels occupied a strange position in 18th century Britain. They were not legal, nor were they illegal. Killing another person was naturally a crime, but one that carried a lesser penalty than cold-blooded murder. Those who killed their…
Julie “La Maupin” d’Aubigny, swashbuckling opera singer
Mark Twain once wrote “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.” Few things illustrate that quite like the life and career of Julie"La Maupin" d’Aubigny, the 18th…