21 July

Louis XIV dissolves the commission; remaining witnesses are imprisoned for life by lettre de cachet.

Affair of the Poisons Executed

Fortune tellers selling 'inheritance powders' to the Paris elite, a secret court lit by torches, and testimony that reached the king's own mistress.

Sam Bass is born near Mitchell, Indiana.

Sam Bass Killed before trial

Sam Bass took $60,000 in new gold coins from a Union Pacific train in 1877. A year later an informer led him into a Ranger trap at Round Rock, Texas.

She pleads guilty at Salisbury and is sentenced to death; the sentence is commuted to life.

Constance Kent Convicted

A three-year-old taken from his cot in a Wiltshire country house in 1860. Five years later his half-sister walked into Bow Street and confessed.

The gang derails and robs a Rock Island train near Adair, Iowa, its first train robbery.

Jesse James Killed before trial

Northfield's townspeople broke the James-Younger gang in seven minutes in 1876. Six years later a new recruit shot Jesse James in his own parlour.

Sam Bass dies at Round Rock on his 27th birthday.

Sam Bass Killed before trial

Sam Bass took $60,000 in new gold coins from a Union Pacific train in 1877. A year later an informer led him into a Ranger trap at Round Rock, Texas.

He passes the Texas bar examination.

John Wesley Hardin Convicted

A preacher's son who killed a deputy on his 21st birthday served sixteen years, came out a lawyer, and was shot from behind in an El Paso saloon in 1895.

On Clarence Darrow's advice, both plead guilty to murder and kidnapping.

Leopold and Loeb Convicted

Two rich Chicago students killed Bobby Franks, 14, in 1924 to prove they could commit a perfect crime. A pair of glasses gave them away.