Additional information  for this article was provided by John Johnson. Anton Wood, 11 year-old psychopath almost hanged for murder, age in photo 12. In November of 1892, young Joseph Smith was hunting with Anton Woode, 11, on the Woode family ranch near Denver when he was shot in the back and killed by Woode. When […]

  This story was the inspiration for several movies, and there is a book about this tragedy called The Wreck of the William Brown. There are links to further reading at the end of the story. Story by Thomas Duke, 1910 “Celebrated Criminal Cases of America” Part III: Cases East of The Pacific Coast On […]

  There is a great link to an 1896 article from The San Francisco Call about the case at the end of the article. San Francisco, 1896 Joseph Blanther was born in Rankerburg Steirmart, Austria, in 1859. When nineteen years of age he was made a Lieutenant in the Austrian army, and a few months […]

This is what happens to people who have poor impulse control. John Wolker is a German, fifty-two years of age, and a carpenter by occupation. He is of medium height and rather lean in form. By his first wife he had two children, whom he boarded out in care of a sister prior to his […]

  On May 1, Mrs. Luetgert suddenly disappeared, but her husband was apparently unconcerned regarding her absence and advanced the theory that she had committed suicide because of his failure in business. On May 4, Deidrich Bicknesse, Mrs. Luetgert’s brother, called to see her, and Luetgert informed him that she had been missing for three […]

The following case has been a “repeater” for many years and is now in the penitentiary. She is sixty-eight years of age and has served sentences in the penitentiaries of Blackwell’s Island, Sing Sing, Jolie t, and probably elsewhere. This is her third term in Joliet. She has also served several sentences in the Cook […]

Matt Rollinger is a Luxemberger, thirty-four years of age, married, three children, and a cabinet-maker by occupation. Boarding at his house was a man whose intimacy with Mrs. Rollinger gave rise to rumors which reached his ears, and finally he became convinced of their truth. One morning after witnessing more than he could withstand, he […]

This psychological profile was written in 1897 and I do not vouch for its accuracy. Source: Crime and Criminals, John Sanderson Christison, Chicago Medical Book Co. 1898.   “The first case [George Perry] considered is that of an epileptic, and arson is the crime charged. Epilepsy has many causes and many forms. Some persons have […]

With this post, we introduce a new segment on HCD called “Mug Shot Monday,” which features a mug shot or photograph and a short bio. Today’s mug shot is a 20 year-old shoplifter circa late 1890s with an interesting bio. “Case 15 is a young woman, single, 20 years of age, and a native of […]

  On December 22, 1871, the little son of Mrs. Paine, of Chelsea, a suburb of Boston, was inveigled by an unknown boy, evidently about twelve years of age, to Powder Horn Hill, near Boston, where he was stripped naked, tied to a beam and beaten with a rope until he become unconscious. The larger […]