Category: Murder
7 Axe Murderers of Children
People find StrangeAgo in a variety of ways, including odd and gruesome search strings. Recently, someone found their way here searching for axe murderers of…
6 Old Cases of Decomposed Bodies
Finding decomposed bodies was a regular occurrence in the past. In fact, if you would do a search on “decomposed body” in the newspaper archives,…
The Disappearance of the Hangman’s Tree
As a child, I remember large, ancient trees being called “hangman’s trees.” It was unlikely that anyone was actually hung on these particular trees, but…
5 People Who Lived After Being Hanged
People did not survive a quick drop of the blade under the guillotine, but plenty of people did survive their hanging. This was mostly because…
The Hanging of Mary Rogers and Elroy Kent
Before the electric chair gained preference in the United States, hanging was the most common way to get rid of society’s undesirables. Newspapers were full…
4 Cruel Facts About the Garrote as Capital Punishment
The garrote was used in Spain, Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines during the 1800s and early 1900s. It was a slow, torturous way to…
1909 First Hand Account of the Guillotine and Execution of Danvers
This original report, made by a reporter who witnessed the guillotine execution of Danvers, is the first mention I have found on the bloodiness and…
Four Men Guillotined in Eight Minutes
There is no denying that the guillotine made fast work of executions and that Deibler and his assistants made the executions run smoothly, with little…
Guillotine Parties and Celebrations
Parties and celebrations often began before the execution of a criminal in France, but sometimes, especially when the criminal was a murderer, the parties went…
Anatole Deibler Tells Us If It Hurts To Be Beheaded
Anatole Deibler, France’s former high executioner who oversaw the use of the guillotine on hundreds of condemned criminals, was asked whether or not it hurt…
