Category: History
Brilliant Orbs Light the Sky in Maryland 1918
Source: Evening Capital and Maryland Gazette. August 21, 1918, page 1. Strange Lights Seen Last Night in the Heavens Puzzle the Populace Various Theories Made…
How the Condemned Were Prepared for the Guillotine
With over a million and a half views on my previous video about the guillotine in the early 1900s, I decided to take a more…
Firsthand Accounts of the Empress of Ireland Tragedy
The RMS Empress of Ireland was an ocean liner that sank near the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River after the Norwegian collier SS Storstad…
Popular Early 20th Century Tattoos
Tattoos have been around for well over five thousand years, but today I want to take a quick look at popular tattoos from the early…
8 Questions About Joan of Arc Answered
Born in 1412 in Domrémy, Bar, France, Joan of Arc was possibly a peasant girl or, as some historians believe, a daughter of noble birth,…
The Drunken Hangman – Bartholomew Binns
The role of hangman isn’t for everyone, and Binns is a good example of someone who should never have applied for the job. You see,…
Hangman William Marwood
Like hangman Calcraft, Marwood’s first trade was shoemaker, but in 1872, when he was 54 years old, he asked the governor of Lincoln Castle Gaol…
The Hangman Who Loved His Job – William Calcraft
William Calcraft, a 19th century English hangman, was in the hanging trade for 45 years. Originally a cobbler, it is believed that he carried out…
Barrel Flogging – US Prison Punishment
Being put over a barrel was a popular prison punishment in the United States. While many different methods are described in the newspaper archives, it…
The Treadmill was a Form of Punishment
People spend good money to buy a decent treadmill, but little do they know that the treadmill has a dark history in the prisons of…
