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Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 30 general entries.
Special Topics
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Crime and Punishment
1580s. Witches were mostly innocent women. People believed that the devil gave them special powers, and that they could harm people just by looking at them.
Noblemen. Beheading was considered less degrading than hanging, and it usually killed more quickly. When Elizabeth I died in 1603, few could have imagined that within a mere half century a future king, Charles I, would be publicly beheaded as a 'traitor'.
They were whipped and sent back to their place of birth. Vagrants were forbidden by law from wandering from one place to another in search of charity as this often involved them becoming a burden on places that had no legal responsibility to maintain them.
74. Many other people were hanged elsewhere around the country. (Until the 1820s the English law relied very heavily on the death penalty and, later, on forced labour in the colonies. Very little use was made of long terms of imprisonment).
In the market place. People could be hanged for a wide range of crimes, such as forging coins, and theft above five shillings in value.
All of these (There were more deaths, There was a rise in the crime rate, There was a rise in unemployment). Many people were out of work, and were forced out of their villages. The rise in population exceeded increased output from agriculture for most of the 16th century.
They were put in the stocks. When put in the stocks, local people pelted them with rubbish and rotten eggs!
Beadles. They were the law keepers, alongside the justices and watchmen.
700. Justices of the Peace (local magistrates), or JPs, were the Tudor policemen and judges rolled into one. They tried in local courts, but also calmed down rioters, and settled disputes between servants and masters and other minor civil disputes. Other duties included setting the price of bread.
Mark David Chapman. All of life's important lessons can be learned by listening to the Beatles:
All You Need is Love
We Can Work It Out
Living is easy with eyes closed
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
Turn off your mind relax and float downstream
Take a sad song and make it better
The word is 'love'
Chapman claimed to have been a Beatles' fan. Clearly, he didn't listen closely enough.
| On March 30, 1908, Chester Gillette was electrocuted for the 1906 murder of his pregnant girlfriend, Grace Brown. Author Theodore Dreiser researched the case extensively to write a novel about the case. What was the title of this literary classic? | Crime and Punishment in the 20th Century
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An American Tragedy. Dreiser's novel was filmed twice, most memorably in 1951 as 'A Place in the Sun' with Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and, as the victim, Shelly Winters. It's interesting to note that murderers achieved celebrity back in 1906 as well as today. Young girls would send Gillette love notes and ask for autographed photos. Chester was more than happy to oblige.
| The play and film "The Laramie Project" tell the story of the brutal beating of a young homosexual man. His attackers tied him to a fence and beat him unmercifully. The young man died several days later in the hospital and his attackers are now serving life sentences. What was this young victim's name? | Crime and Punishment in the 20th Century
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Matthew Shepard. At a press conference to announce that Matthew had died after several days in a coma, the doctor who had treated Matthew broke down; his heartfelt emotional display was broadcast worldwide. The doctor soon received hate mail; one letter read, "Do you cry like that for all of your patients or just the faggots?" Hatred brings out the worst in all of us.
Steven Weed. Weed wrote a book on the kidnapping, "My Search for Patty Hearst." He then promptly disappeared from the public eye, his 15 minutes clearly having run out.
Richard Hickock and Perry Smith. Hickcock and Smith were hanged in 1965 for the senseless massacre of the Clutters. The youngest family member, Kenyon, was only 15 years old at the time of his death. This murder, of course, was the basis for Truman Capote's masterful non-fiction novel, "In Cold Blood". See the superb film "Capote" for a compelling account of both the crime and the creation of this literary breakthrough.
| According to the true crime classic "Blood and Money", Dr. John Hill of Houston, TX was murdered as revenge for his suspected murder of someone else. Whom did he supposedly murder? | Crime and Punishment in the 20th Century
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Joan Robinson Hill, his first wife. According to the book, "Blood and Money", Ash Robinson, Joan Robinson Hill's rich, powerful and doting father, hired someone to murder his son in law. Hill had been tried for Joan's murder, whose mysterious death was thought by many to be by poison. The trial ended in a mistrial when Ann Kurth, Hill's second wife, made unfounded and overly-prejudicial statements in her testimony against her ex-husband. As it became clear that the prosecution was in no hurry to put Hill on trial a second time, Robinson took action and, allegedly, had his ex-son in law murdered. Incidentally, "Racehorse" Haynes was Hill's attorney in the first trial. And he never had an affair with Joan Robinson Hill. I just made that up. Don't sue me.
For burglarizing the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. The other 3 burglars were Bernard L. Barker, James W. McCord and Frank A. Sturgis. Indicted along with them were G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt Jr.
Frank Wills, the security guard who stumbled upon the burglars, played himself in the film "All the President's Men".
Caril Ann Fugate. The three alternate names in this question--Betty Jean Bartlett, Lillian Fencl and Clara Ward--were all victims of Starkweather's killing spree, which left a total of 11 people dead. Charlie was executed in June of 1959; Caril Ann was paroled in 1976 but has always claimed that she was not a willing participant in the crime spree. It is rumored that she has changed her name, married, and lives a normal life in Michigan. But it's only a rumor. No one knows for sure where she is or if she's still alive.
The California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in 1972.. Manson was 32 at the time of the killings and had already spent half his life in jail. In a television interview, Patricia Krenwinkle, one of Manson's disciples who participated in the bloodshed, stated with tears in her eyes that she was now "Older than Rosemary LaBianca was when I killed her." It was a chilling moment--but also heartbreaking. Two lives snuffed out--the murderer's and the victim's--in one act of madness.
Bruno Richard Hauptmann. A lot of people believe Hauptmann to be innocent. I disagree with them but you should look into the case and decide for yourself. I recommend starting with either "The Lindbergh Case" by Jim Fisher or "The Airman and the Carpenter" by Ludovic Kennedy. The case remains fascinating today.
Banishment. The parties to the adultery were banished to different islands. In some cases the killing of the adulterous woman was condoned. Augustus himself had to enforce this law against both his daughter and grandchild, both named Julia. Hope you enjoyed this quiz!
The privilege of a legal process.. You still had to be tried and convicted of treason first. Surprisingly, the punishment for treason was usually beheading and the state confiscating all your property. This is surprising because the Romans seemed incredibly able to develop new and interesting forms of capital punishment.
His fellow soldiers.. The soldiers in a cohort selected for this punishment were divided into groups of ten each. These men would then draw lots to select who was to die. The other nine would then stone or club to death the soldier who drew the 'short straw'. Interestingly, this form of punishment could befall a soldier of any rank in the cohort.
An ape. Yes,an ape! It seems to have been a later addition. This punishment was for the murder of a parent or grandparent. If this doesn't sound sufficiently harsh it might be because I omitted to say that first one would be whipped till one bled and afterward be thrown into the sea or exposed to wild animals.
His creditors cut pieces from him relative to the size of the debt.. According to Table III he had to be bound and displayed in the market with minimal food. This served to embarass him. On the third market day his creditors would each cut a piece from him relative to his share. In this way they could encourage the debtor's family members to pay the debt as they would 'buy' back the body parts for burial.
Clubbing the convict to death.. It would seem that this kind of thing happened often? Table VIII prescribes this punishment for a lyrical law-breaker. Most countries today would treat this, at worst, as a civil matter.
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