Okay, this isn’t crime related, but it is mysterious. And weird. A short news story published in 1890 about a captured mermaid–with a well-developed bosom, apparently. I find all kinds of weird stories when digging around in old newspapers and this is just one example. — JLM —###—

A sad, stupid, senseless crime.  Horrible. Child is Slain by her Grandfather: Singing Kept him Awake August 25, 1955, TEXAS CITY , United Press— A preliminary hearing was scheduled Thursday for Robert J. Wallace, 78, who is charged with beating his blonde, nine-year-old granddaughter to death with a ball-peen hammer because her singing kept him […]

Warning: Gallery contains very graphic photos. The New York City Department of Records has a great collection of photographs related to all things early 20th Century New York City. Among their different categories are photographs related to crime, criminals, criminal identification, and most interesting of all, Murder—as in dead bodies. During the early 20th Century, […]

Categorized by year, all links open in a new window.   Workplace Violence in 1901: SOMERVILLE. MASS. July 5, 1901. With a maniacal shriek, John Murphy turned from pig-sticking to man killing in the North Packing and Provision Company’s slaughter-house today, and, driving more than a hundred of his fellow-workmen before him, slew five of […]

While conducting research for a story about a double-homicide in 1898, I came across an account of all known lynchings for that year. The statistics were interesting and confirmed what you might suspect, but also revealed some surprising information. Out of 127 lynchings in 1898, five of them were women. As expected, African-Americans represent the […]

Rich Owens was the executioner for the state of Oklahoma from 1915 to 1947. In addition to being a guard, his took the position as executioner because the state paid him $100-150 for every man he executed. During his life, he killed a total of 75 men: sixty-six of those were by execution, and the […]

Like everyone here, I’ve read many good crime stories over the years but this one, by James Vlahos for The Atlantic, is one of the best. Two gruesome murders from 1978 and 1984 are seemingly related and lead police to three good suspects who all go on to commit suicide. There are about five or […]

The 1977 murders of three girl scouts at Camp Scott near Locust Grove, Oklahoma, is, in my opinion, one of the most horrific and fear inducing unsolved cases in American history. There have been three books written about that summer night in 1977, a documentary has been made, and there is even a website just […]

While searching my newspaper archive sources for specific stories, or just on fishing expeditions for new ones, I often come across stories about a lynch mob serving up vigilante justice to an unconvicted murderer. In most cases, the lynch mob would storm the jail where the prisoner was held and grab him while others held […]

Summary: Student with poor grades murders one woman, injures two others including his English Tutor. Story 1: “Tucson Youth Goes Wild, Kills Woman,” by Dominic Crolla, Tucson Daily Citizen, May 16, 1964 pages 1 and 6. A bitter argument over his poor marks in English triggered a wild rampage early today by an enraged 16-year-old […]