16 May

Kidd marries Sarah Oort in New York.

Captain Kidd Executed

Sent by powerful backers to hunt pirates, William Kidd came home accused of being one, and was hanged twice at Execution Dock in 1701.

Herman Webster Mudgett, later H. H. Holmes, is born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire.

H. H. Holmes Executed

Swindler, bigamist and killer of at least nine people, hanged in 1896. The '200 victims' and the murder castle of legend are another matter.

The Court of Criminal Appeal dismisses his appeal.

Herbert Rowse Armstrong Executed

'Excuse fingers': a Hay-on-Wye solicitor handed his rival a buttered scone, and the arsenic trail led back to his wife's grave.

In United States v. Sullivan the Supreme Court rules that income from illegal business is taxable.

Al Capone tax evasion trial Convicted

Chicago could never convict Al Capone of murder. In 1931 the Treasury got him with a lawyer's letter, a bookkeeper's ledger and his own grocery bills.