1714: Maria Mouton and her slave Titus, lovers
On this date in 1714, a slave and his mistress — “mistress” in both senses of the word — were put to death in the Dutch Cape Colony for murdering her husband. Marie or Maria Mouton had arrived in South...
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1790: Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras
On this date in 1790, Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras, became a penal milestone: the first French noble executed without class distinction from commoners. At least he made history. The scion of an...
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1789: Skitch, amidst the tears of thousands
London Times, April 14, 1789: Exeter, April 8. Friday last were executed at Heavitree-gallows, William Snow, alias Skitch, for breaking the house of Richard Adams, in the parish of Romansleigh, and...
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2007: Christopher Newton
After Christopher Newton’s death in Lucasville, Ohio by lethal injection on this day in 2007, his attorney read a prepared last statement that apologized for the murder of a fellow inmate: “If I could...
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1955: Barbara Graham, of “I Want to Live” fame
On this date in 1955, Barbara Graham was gassed at California’s San Quentin Prison, along with two confederates in the brutal murder of an elderly widow. Following the classic sob-story vector from...
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1814: John Ashton, Lord Wellington, at Horace Cotton’s first hanging
This isn’t exactly the most historically important execution, but as the Newgate Calendar says, “The circumstance which attended the execution of this unfortunate man alone entitles him to a place in...
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1946: Neville Heath, torture-killer
(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1946, 29-year-old torture-murderer Neville George Clevely Heath was hanged at Pentonville Prison for the murder...
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1679: John King and John Kid, Covenanters
At Edinburgh’s Tolbooth on this date in 1679, two Covenanter ministers hanged as rebels. The widely recorded gallows-humor bon mot of Kid to his fellow-sufferer — “I have often heard and read of a kid...
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1546: Etienne Dolet, no longer anything at all
On this date in 1546, which was his 37th birthday, the French linguist and translator Etienne Dolet was burned at the stake in Paris over a few little words. Dolet (English Wikipedia entry | French)...
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1730: Sally Bassett, Bermuda slave
(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) Perhaps on this day in 1730,* an elderly mulatto slave named Sarah or Sally Bassett was burned at the stake for attempted murder...
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1966: James French, fried
On this date in 1966, James French went to the Oklahoma electric chair, clinching his spot in perpetuity on last-words listicles by cracking to the press pool, “Hey, fellas. How about this for a...
View Article1525: Jakob Wehe, rebel priest
On this date in 1525 the radical priest Hans Jakob Wehe was beheaded. Wehe led a muster of 3,000 Bavarian peasants which briefly seized the town of Lepheim, during Germany’s bloody Peasants War, ere it...
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1661: Archibald Campbell
On this date in 1661, Presbyterian lord Archibald Campbell, the first Marquess of Argyll, lost his head at Edinburgh. Once a privy councilor to King Charles I, “Red Argyll” had been in the 1640s a...
View Article1802: Robert Snooks, “They can’t start the fun until I get there!”
James Snook(s), who is remembered as Robert Snooks — a possible corruption of “Robber Snook” — was a career robber with a record. He hanged on this date in 1802 for mugging the Tring Mail postboy, an...
View Article1907: Joseph Jones, no workhouse
Another great hang-day post today from the Facebook page of our friends at Capital Punishment UK, in which we discover one Joseph Jones, teetering on the edge of destitution, hanged at Stafford on the...
View Article889: Qin Zongquan, late Tang warlord
Tang Dynasty warlord Qin Zongquan was beheaded on this date in 889. A military governor under Emperor Xizong, Qin made common cause with the rebel/usurper Huang Chao, who briefly established himself in...
View Article1931: Charles Simpson, “make it snappy”
(Thanks to Robert Elder of Last Words of the Executed — the blog, and the book — for the guest post. This post originally appeared on the Last Words blog. Fans of this here site are highly likely to...
View Article1661: Jin Shengtan, literary scholar
On this date in 1661, scholar Jin Shengtan — the “father of vernacular Chinese literature” — was Jin Shengtan (English Wikipedia entry | Chinese) had the misfortune of reaching his intellectual...
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