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

A police officer uses his baton on a protester in Glasgow, 1919

The Library 1919: Britain’s red summer

Mary Fulbrook and Richard J Evans. (Photo by Fran Monks)

Second World War

“Many of the Holocaust’s perpetrators got away with it”: why Nazi crimes went unpunished

One of the earliest and most famous examples of extremism comes from ancient Rome. Starting in 264 BC and continuing for more than a century, Rome engaged in a series of wars with neighbouring Carthage. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of extremism – from ancient Rome to al Qaeda

In 1937, Amelia Earhart, one of the world’s most famous aviators, apparently disappeared without a trace during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

From Jack the Ripper to Amelia Earhart: 17 unsolved historical mysteries

Funeral of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme

Who killed Olof Palme?

A 1954 illustration of a woman wearing nylons. Lightweight, easy to conceal and fiercely sought after, stockings were a favourite with smugglers. (Photo by Bridgeman)

The Library Nylon pirates: the postwar craze for cut-price stockings

John Bellingham Who Shot the Hon. Spencer Percival Print

The assassination of prime minister Spencer Perceval: a popular murder?

Jesse James is one of America’s most notorious outlaw heroes. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

How historically accurate are film portrayals of Jesse James?

Hallie Rubenhold. (Photo by Fran Monks)

The women killed by Jack the Ripper

Hallie Rubenhold photographed in London. "In the 19th century, being both poor and a woman was a terrible combination. The cards were stacked against them," she says. (Photography by Fran Monks)

Hallie Rubenhold: “To most people, the women killed by the Ripper are just corpses. I want to tell a different story”

A portrait of Sir Walter Ralegh, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, c1588. (Photo by ACTIVE MUSEUM / Alamy Stock Photo)

“The rankest traitor in all England?” Walter Ralegh on trial

"For those of noble birth who were condemned to die, execution by beheading (which was considered the least brutal method of execution) was used until the 18th century," says criminologist and historian Lizzie Seal. This illustration depicts the execution of Charles I in January 1649. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of capital punishment in Britain

Jack Sheppard and his accomplice Blueskin rob a home without waking the owner, circa 1720. (Photo by Alamy)

Victorian murder scandal