During the Second World War and for years afterwards, US servicemen serving abroad suffered capital punishment if they were found guilty of either rape or murder. So it was that on Thursday, April 13th, 1961, John Bennett, a black US private, was hanged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He had been found guilty of raping and
Were looking for work, the two strangers told farm manager Bill Nelson. The manager had plenty of work to be done at Waterval Farm, in the Transvaal, and the two men, Andries Van Niekerk and Edward Markus, were given a warm reception, food and accommodation. Two nights later shots were heard as the farm caught
Pawnbrokers assistant Walter Davies, 21, was cleaning out his shop cellar in Atherton, Bolton, when William Chadwick, 23, entered the shop and began stealing everything in sight. Mr. Davies raced upstairs to the shop and a fight started. Chadwick stabbed Mr. Davies in the neck, causing him to fall back down the stairs to the
When a wife walks out, theres no knowing what might happen next. Ships carpenter Vincent Walker was sure he knew what was happening when his wife left their matrimonial home in Hull. She had gone to live with her friend Mrs. Lydia White, and Walker was convinced that Mrs. White was encouraging her to sleep
It didnt please some Egyptians that their president Anwar Sadat pursued a policy of friendliness towards Israel. They shot him down in a hail of bullets at a military parade in Cairo on October 6th, 1981 10 other people were also killed and 40 injured. Several men in Egyptian military uniforms launched the attack
Who can tell how anyone will react when faced with the hangmans rope? Walter Dubuc and his accomplice in crime, Harold Carpenter, reacted in completely opposite ways when they were hanged together for murder at Walla Walla in Washington state on Friday, April 15th, 1932. Dubuc, who claimed to be 16 but was thought to
When Connecticut store owner George Goodale sold some property for around $1,000 he decided to keep the cash with him at home for the time being. That excited the curiosity and the greed of his handyman Henry Bailey. As Goodale reclined in an easy chair on July 6th, 1906, Bailey came up behind
The Nazis had a trick of finding the right people for their dirty work, and in Rudolph Hoess they found a perfect one. In 1923, when he was 23, he served four years for manslaughter. When Hitler came to power the ex-convict joined the SS and worked in several concentration camps until he was put
How exciting life was in Bury St. Edmunds in the mid-19th century! That at any rate was the view of Mrs. Catherine Foster. Although she was only 18 and had been married less than a month, she was already fed up with matrimony, and thirsting for all the wonderful things her dream town of Bury