Tag: murder
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Blood Tests In Criminal Cases No Longer Uncertain
Those fluent in biochemistry may enjoy the details, but the gist of the article is summed up in the second paragraph: It has often happened in murder trials that the guilt or innocence of the prisoner depended entirely on the ability of expert witnesses to determine whether or not certain stains were caused by human…
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Shall The Plea Of Insanity Be Abolished?
In 1906, architect Stanford White was murdered by Harry Kendall Thaw, who was later found not guilty by reason of insanity. In another more recent case, a jury found a man sane, despite testimony by several psychologists who all agreed that he was insane. These high profile cases lead the Times Magazine to ponder the…
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From His Cell Jesse Pomeroy Pleads For Clemency
In 1874, a 14 year old boy named Jesse Pomeroy was arrested for murder, denied counsel at trial, convicted, and sentenced to death by hanging. But Massachusetts Governor William Gaston refused to sign the death warrant, and eventually the sentence was commuted to life in prison in solitary confinement. At nearly 52 years old, Pomeroy…
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Hackensack Meadows A Hiding Place For Fugitives
The Meadowlands District of Northeastern New Jersey is known today as the home of the Meadowlands Sports Complex. But in 1910, the area’s swampy marshes were a great hiding place for fugitives: The murderer, escaped convict, or thief who once starts from the shore line into the great stretch of marsh land can count on…
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Sherlock Holmes Would Be Baffled By This Mystery
It’s bad enough to be murdered. But Thomas Anderson, a London actor who went by the stage name Thomas Weldon Atherston, had the bad luck to be murdered in the shadow of an even more sensational murder. At this time in 1910, the murder case du jour was that of Cora Crippen. Her husband Hawley…
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A Transatlantic Chase Without The Wireless Or Cable
This article was written after British detectives solved a murder that would become one of Britain’s most famous criminal cases. The murder was solved with the help of the latest technology: radio communication. This prompted the New York Times Sunday Magazine to look back at a case in the 1860s that was solved without any…
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“Enchantress” Bewitches All At Murder Trial
Countess Marie Tarnovsky was a woman accused of being an accomplice to murder. The prosecution claimed that she used her charms to convince a man named Nikolas Naumoff, who was in love with her, to kill her husband. This article describes the enchanting affect the Countess had on everyone in the courtroom. But another article…
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