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The official website for BBC History Magazine, BBC History Revealed and BBC World Histories Magazine

Crime and punishment

In 1733, as part of a plot to blow up a Protestant church, a group of Catholics claimed they were being terrorised by a poltergeist… or so the story went. (Illustration by Ben Jones for BBC History Magazine)

5 Georgian ghost hoaxes

Capone (in the plain white hat) leaves court after being found guilty in 1931. As well as receiving a prison sentence, he was also made to pay his taxes. (Image by Alamy)

Al Capone’s conviction for tax evasion: a brief guide

An illustration of the head of Louis XVI

The French Revolution through 7 severed heads

Illustration of pirate John Ward

Pirate John Ward: the real Captain Jack Sparrow

Billy Fullerton, gang chief of the Glasgow gang the Billy Boys

Who were the real Billy Boys, the Glasgow gang in Peaky Blinders?

A cartoon from 1862 shows a pair 'garroters' attacking a victim. (Photo by The Cartoon Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Gangs and knife-crime fears: how has Britain responded through history?

Tyburn, just north of Marble Arch, served as the capital's hanging spot for centuries. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

An A-Z guide to the history of executions

Hallie Rubenhold.

“The lives of Jack the Ripper’s victims were not what we have been conditioned to believe”: 5 minutes with Hallie Rubenhold

A real Peaky Blinder mug-shot

In pictures: what did the real Peaky Blinders look like?

Cillian Murphy stars in Peaky Blinders. (Photo by Alamy)

The real Peaky Blinders

People gather around the Mona Lisa painting after its return in January 1914

Mona Lisa heist: how do you steal the world’s most famous painting?

The Kray brothers

The A-Z of gangs and gangsters

A woman on a medieval ducking stool

Q&A Were ducking stools ever used as punishment for crimes other than witchcraft during the Middle Ages?

An 18th-century public execution and crowd

Q&A When did people stop attending public executions in Britain?

Criminal register photographs at Wormwood Scrubs prison, around 1890. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

Prisoner dilemmas