5 March

Palatine György Thurzó orders the notary Mózes Cziráky to collect witness testimony.

Elizabeth Báthory Disputed verdict

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?

Her trial for murder opens at the Durham Assizes.

Mary Ann Cotton Executed

A County Durham nurse buried husbands, children and a lover to 'gastric fever'. A seven-year-old stepson's death finally brought arsenic to light.

Guiteau arrives in Washington, the day after Garfield's inauguration, to seek a consulship.

Garfield Assassination Executed

A disappointed office-seeker shoots President Garfield in a Washington railway station in 1881. The doctors' probing may have done the rest.