25 February

Pennsylvania passes a law making kidnapping a child for ransom a felony punishable by up to twenty-five years.

Charley Ross Unsolved

In 1874 two men lured a four-year-old into a buggy in Germantown and demanded $20,000. Charley Ross was never found, and America learned to fear strangers.

Peace is hanged at Armley Gaol, Leeds, by William Marwood, having confessed to the Cock killing.

Charles Peace Executed

A limping Sheffield burglar shot two men, let an innocent one take the blame, and lived as a respectable gentleman in Peckham until a Blackheath break-in.

Landru is guillotined at dawn outside the prison in Versailles.

Henri Désiré Landru Executed

A fugitive swindler answered wartime France's lonely-hearts columns. Eleven people who went with him to rented villas outside Paris were never seen again.