Crime and punishment

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)

Who was Al Capone and how was he convicted of tax evasion?

John Wilkes Booth leans forward to shoot President Abraham Lincoln as he watches a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C, in 1865.

Q&A What play was Abraham Lincoln watching when he was shot?

A copper engraving of Margaret Pole's execution

General Early Modern

Are these the worst botched executions in history?

The Cato Street conspiracy

Georgian terrorists: the Cato Street Conspiracy

Cat burglars scaled walls and climbed through lofty windows. (Illustration by Rachel Dickens for BBC History Magazine)

The rise of the cat burglar

James Hamilton's 1880s painting 'The Massacre of Glencoe'.

Hell at Glencoe: what led to the massacre in the Scottish Highlands?

A Burglar Looks In, Picture Post 1950. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Burglary: a modern history

Picture depicting the Cato Street conspirators

To kill the cabinet: the Cato Street Conspiracy

Charles Manson stares out from fabric on sale in San Francisco

The afterlife of Charles Manson

The execution of Charles I in 1649.

To kill a king: 350 years of regicide

Portrait of John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (Lord Lucan), who disappeared in 1974 following a bloody homicide

The curious case of Lord Lucan + 10 other mysterious disappearances from history

Policemen from Scotland Yard patrolling at night

Real-life Sherlocks: the detectives of Scotland Yard and their curious cases

Thomas Blood stealing the Crown Jewels

The day Thomas Blood stole the Crown Jewels

Hungarian Jews arrive at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1944

The liberation of Auschwitz, 75 years on: what happened and how do we remember the Holocaust?

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie in profile: facts about her life