31/08/2024
Weird Crimes
Seabury Quinn presents in a series of articles within the pages of Weird Tales magazine various macabre and strange crimes perpetrated throughout history. – summary by Ben Tucker [chương_files]
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31/08/2024
History of Burke and Hare, And of the Resurrectionist Times
From the preface: “…..of all the criminal events that have occurred in Scotland, few have excited so deep, widespread, and lasting an interest as those which took place during what have been called the Resurrectionist Times, and notably, the dreadful series of murders perpetrated in the name of anatomical science by Burke and Hare. In the preparation of this work the Author has had a double purpose before him. He has sought not only to record faithfully the lives and crimes of Burke and Hare, and their two female associates, but also to present a general view of the Resurrectionist movement from its earliest inception until the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832, when the violation of the sepulchres of the dead for scientific purposes was rendered unnecessary, and absolutely inexcusable.” [chương_files]
31/08/2024
Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 8: Part 1: The Marquise de Brinvilliers
The crimes of the Marquise of Brinvilliers, a French aristocrat during the reign of Louis XIV, included some of the most famous murders, scandals (Affair of the Poisons) and mysteries (the Man in the Iron Mask) in French history. This story recounts her major crimes, torture, conviction and execution. – Summary by jvanstan [chương_files]
31/08/2024
True Stories of Celebrated Crimes
Excerpt: “Raw truth often possesses greater human interest than the most polished fiction. Crime, in itself, is painful and sometimes repulsive, but a study of the methods of criminal investigation by which difficult problems are solved and the guilty brought to justice, is entertaining …With this thought in mind, the reader is invited to a consideration of a few of the famous cases that are to be found in the history of the world’s greatest detectives.” Fifteen cases are presented, each story is complete in itself. (Summary by Laurie Banza) [chương_files]
31/08/2024
Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 7: Part 2: Countess de Saint-Geran
This story details the crimes and trial surrounding the unexpected pregnancy and subsequent childbirth of the Countess de Saint-Geran in 1640s France. Familial jealousies harbored by her sister-in-law, the Marchioness de Bouille, intertwine with the greedy schemes of a fugitive relative, the Marquis de Saint-Maixent, to produce a scandalous series of events. – Summary by jvanstan [chương_files]
31/08/2024
Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 7: Part 3: Murat
Amidst the political winds from Napoleon’s downfall, this tale turns our attention to the flight of a former French marshal and King of Naples, Joachim Murat. Murat, unhappy with the deal he made to obtain pardon from the Austrian Emperor, takes a life-ending resolution to retake his crown rather than live in peaceful obscurity. – Summary by jvanstan [chương_files]
31/08/2024
Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 5: Derues, La Constantin
Dumas, with the assistance of several friends, compiled Celebrated Crimes, an eight-volume collection of essays on famous criminals and crimes from European history. Includes Vaninka and The Marquise De Ganges. – Summary by Michele Eaton [chương_files]
31/08/2024
Fall River Tragedy
The story of how Lizzie Borden supposedly murdered her parents has passed into American folklore, partly thanks to the albeit inaccurate playground rhyme, “Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.” Here we have the ‘true’ story, as reported by the local police reporter who attended the trial and lived only streets away from the Borden home with his young wife. After the trial, Porter ‘disappeared’ and it was widely speculated he had either been murdered or bribed to disappear in order to suppress the book. His reappearance some time later put paid to the first theory. After his death at age 39 from tuberculosis, a new theory emerged, that he had been away for treatment while keeping his illness secret. Meanwhile, the trial itself was noteworthy for several reasons: it was one of the first to be followed by nationwide press, providing a template for today’s tabloid and cable coverage of major trials; it also had some distinguished personnel: one of the prosecutors, Frank Moody, later became the attorney general of the United States and was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Theodore Roosevelt; and Borden’s defense attorney, George Robinson, was the former governor of Massachusetts. The appearance of Professor Wood of Harvard University was an early use of an expert witness at trial. [chương_files]
31/08/2024
Stratagems and Conspiracies to Defraud Life Insurance Companies: An Authentic Record of Remarkable Cases
A thorough treatise on different ways people have tried to defraud life insurance companies, with many entertaining examples. The present . . . volume is . . . commended as a trustworthy record to those for whose use and reference it is primarily intended—life insurance companies and agents, medical examiners, insurance lawyers, and medico-legal experts. . . . [It] is not confined to the exposure of the cunning contrivances and artifices of this class of schemers and plotters; it includes picturesque views of detection and punishment; of the determined efforts of the companies, at whatever cost, to run them down; of the machinery of courts of justice; of the gloom of the prison cell; of the dark outlines of the scaffold. The cases in this book are for the most part more suggestive or instructive to detective agencies than to conspirators. . . . These narratives also show that no community has a monopoly of the piratical adventurers who thus prey upon beneficent institutions. They are of all nationalities as well as of both sexes, and everywhere alike “to no code or creed confined.” – Summary by TriciaG and from the Preface [chương_files]
31/08/2024
Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 8: Part 3: The Marquise de Ganges
The assassination of Diane de Joannis de Chateaublanc (the Marquise de Ganges) is a fitting tale to conclude Dumas’ celebrated crimes series. This event was as gruesome as it was brazen and, before the final dagger strokes, both the assassins and the assassinated had become embroiled in high-profile intrigues. As a result, it sent reverberations through common and court societies across Europe for decades. – Summary by jvanstan [chương_files]