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Yes, that is a noose, and that is the River Thames. And yes, the gallows’ crossbeam is indeed aimed at the financial centre, Canary Wharf. The gallows is part of the Prospect of Whitby, one [...]

At a quarter to ten on the morning of May 19, 1811, bells began to sound throughout the neighbourhood of New York around Chatham Street and the City Hall. It being a Sunday, not many people paid [...]

When the Revolutionary War ended in 1783 and the King’s soldiers departed for England, the King’s laws went with them. Good riddance, most people said. British rule had been oppressive, [...]

“As far as I can tell, the first murder in New England was committed in 1630 with a gun.” Thomas McDade, The Annals of Murder. John Billington was probably not the first man to commit [...]

On a summer’s day in 1799, a group of men were driving cattle from Kentucky to Virginia, along a road known as Boone’s Trace, when the cows suddenly quit the road and rushed into the woods. Once [...]

I have spent the last week or so trying to understand how email marketing campaigns – also known as newsletters – work. Sales and marketing experts say that the humble newsletter is [...]

I reviewed New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe’s book Say Nothing, A True Story of Murder and Memory In Northern Ireland, for NPR. Say Nothing is the story of the abduction and murder of [...]

I’m writing historical novels, so I use old maps a lot in my research. Over the last few years, more and more map owners have put their maps on the web, so it’s become increasingly [...]

I don’t often read true crime, but Kate Summerscale might have turned me into a devotee. At the very least I’ve become a devotee of her work. Her re-creation of the case of a [...]