Crime and punishment

Sir Walter Raleigh bids goodbye to his wife, Elizabeth Throckmorton

Q&A Why was Sir Walter Ralegh executed?

Aidan Turner as Ross Poldark. The BBC television drama is putting Cornwall’s coastline at risk of "over-tourism” as visitors flock to the area to visit the show's scenic filming locations, tourism chiefs have warned. (Photo by BBC/Mammoth Screen/Mike Hogan)

Poldark, Peaky Blinders and 6 other historical TV shows that have tourists flocking to Britain

Ruth Ellis and her friend Desmond Cussen, who supplied the gun with which she shot David Blakely. (Photo by Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo)

Ruth Ellis and the hanging that rocked a nation

Charles I. (Photo by World History Archive/Alamy)

King killers in America

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

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

Through MK ULtra's experiments, often performed on unwitting test subjects, the CIA hoped to make 'brainwashing' real. (Image by RF CREATIVE/Getty Images)

MK Ultra: the secrets of the CIA’s mind-control programme

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)

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

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