Never caught
1170–1174 · United Kingdom
Thomas Becket
Four of Henry II's knights cut down the Archbishop of Canterbury in his own cathedral in 1170. Within three years he was a saint and the king did penance.
Era
Medieval and early modern (Before 1700)
10 cases from Before 1700.
10 cases8 solved1 unsolved1170–1701
Never caught
Executed
1432–1440 · France
Gilles de Rais
A Marshal of France who fought beside Joan of Arc was hanged at Nantes in 1440 for murdering children. Can his confession be trusted?
Unsolved
1483 · United Kingdom
Princes in the Tower
In 1483 a twelve-year-old king and his brother vanished inside the Tower of London and their uncle took the crown. What became of them is still debated.
Executed
1556–1560 · France
Martin Guerre
In 1556 a man walked into a Pyrenean village claiming to be its missing husband. His wife accepted him for three years, until the real one came home.
Disputed verdict
1602–1614 · Hungary
Elizabeth Báthory
Hundreds of witnesses accused a Hungarian countess of killing young women. She was walled up without trial in 1610. Was it justice or a political purge?
Executed
1605–1606 · United Kingdom
Gunpowder Plot
Thirty-six barrels of powder under the House of Lords, an anonymous letter, and a man called 'John Johnson' with a lantern: the plot behind Bonfire Night.
Convicted
1671 · United Kingdom
Colonel Blood
In 1671 Thomas Blood flattened King Charles II's crown with a mallet and ran for the Tower gate. He was caught, then pardoned and given an Irish estate.
Executed
1677–1682 · France
Affair of the Poisons
Fortune tellers selling 'inheritance powders' to the Paris elite, a secret court lit by torches, and testimony that reached the king's own mistress.
Never caught
1694–1696 · India
Henry Every
In 1695 Henry Every's pirates plundered the Mughal emperor's greatest ship. A worldwide manhunt followed. Six of his men hanged; Every vanished.
Executed
1696–1701 · United Kingdom
Captain Kidd
Sent by powerful backers to hunt pirates, William Kidd came home accused of being one, and was hanged twice at Execution Dock in 1701.