On the morning of June 7, 1866, Henry Leffmann, a first-year medical student at Jefferson Medical College, arrived at Philadelphia’s […]
Justice and Agency: Why Women Love True Crime
When I was young, I was obsessed with Unsolved Mysteries. While not typically a “go-to” show for an eight-year-old, my […]
Militaristic Homophobia: Attitudes toward Homosexuality in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia
“Sin doesn’t lie in the act itself, but in its relation to other things.”1 Mikhail Kuzmin wrote these words in […]
Challenging Myth and Misogyny in the Ripper Murders: An Interview with Hallie Rubenhold
In her new book The Five: The Untold Stories of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, social historian Hallie […]
Shame and Shearing: The Politics of Women’s Hair in Independence-Era Ireland
The mother pleaded with them and asked them if they had daughters or sisters of their own. Without answering they […]
Dinner with Death: Kate Bender, Murder, and Mayhem on the Kansas Prairie
With the close of the American Civil War, western states like Kansas teemed with travelers and refugees seeking opportunity and […]
Disappointed Love and Dangerous Temptations: Textile Factories and True Crime
Mary Bean enjoyed “unlawful relations” in the summer of 1849; by the fall she was pregnant. In November she entered […]
“Ample Justification for the Deed”: Public Interest in the “Sickles Tragedy” as Gender Performance
Congressman Daniel Sickles murdered Philip Barton Key on February 27, 1859, just steps from the White House. The day before, […]
“Charlie Says” and the Santa Cruz Prison Project
Joan Didion, Again “Many people I know in Los Angeles believe that the Sixties ended abruptly on August 9, 1969.” […]
Blinded by the White: Race and the Exceptionalizing of Ted Bundy
Take care of yourself, young man. And I — I say that to you sincerely. Take care of yourself. It’s […]
