1 February

The gang robs the widow Shelley at Loughton, threatening her with the fire.

Dick Turpin Executed

No night ride to York, no Black Bess: the real Dick Turpin was an Essex gang robber and killer, hanged at York in 1739 for stealing horses.

Burke's body is publicly dissected by Professor Alexander Monro at the university.

Burke and Hare Executed

Two Irish labourers killed sixteen people in Edinburgh in 1828 and sold the bodies to an anatomy lecturer. Only one of them hanged.

At the second trial Thaw is found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to Matteawan.

Stanford White Acquitted

In 1906 Harry Thaw shot the architect Stanford White before a theater crowd at Madison Square Garden. Two trials later, a jury called Thaw insane.

Inspector Arthur Neil detains Smith outside a solicitor's office.

George Joseph Smith Executed

Three newly married women drowned in small baths in three towns. A grieving father's newspaper cutting exposed the bigamist behind all of them.

Mabel Normand leaves Taylor's bungalow at about 7:45 p.m.; he is shot soon afterward.

William Desmond Taylor Unsolved

A leading Hollywood director was shot in his bungalow in 1922. The suspects included two film stars and a stage mother, and the case files later vanished.