MetaFilter posts tagged with murder and history

An Early Hollywood Murder Mystery

amyms — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:58:45 -0800

The bumping off of a famous person is the sort of oyster that any detective delights to open, so you can just bet the family jewels that I was pretty much elated when my Chief, the late Thomas Lee Woolwine, District Attorney of Los Angeles County, called me into his private office on the morning of February 3rd, 1922, and assigned me to represent his office in the investigation of this greatest of all murder mysteries. -- Excerpted from an article archived at Taylorology, a site exploring the life and death of William Desmond Taylor, a silent movie actor and director whose unsolved murder was among the earliest Hollywood true crime scandals. Researcher Bruce Long first published his accumulated information about the case as a small fanzine which evolved into a monthly electronic newsletter and is now a vast archive of articles and interviews, official documents, photos, and more. Although the Taylor case is the main focus, there's also a wealth of supplemental information about the silent film industry and its stars. The Taylorology electronic newsletter is also archived at Silent-Movies.Com

Account of the cruel and barbarous murder...

thomas j wise — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:20:27 -0800

Dying Speeches & Bloody Murders digitizes over five hundred broadsides owned by the Harvard Law Library, all of them devoted to "last dying speeches"--that is, sensational accounts of crime, punishment, and (fictional) confession, intended to be sold at public executions. The New York State Historical Association has an online exhibition devoted to nineteenth-century American murder pamphlets. You can find a couple of seventeenth-century examples at the Early Modern Web and the Folger Library. Old Bailey Online briefly puts this literature into context. (Main link via C18-L.)

History Archives: Online.

flibbertigibbet — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:34:59 -0800

Want to study some history and have hundreds of hours on your hands? Don't worry now. We already exhaustive know about the Valley of the Shadow project. But what about Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History, a bilingual English-French archive? If neither of these (vast) subjects tickle your pickle, don't worry... Would a Raid on Deerfield capture your fancy? Stories of midwifery? Matthew Brady's Civil War Photographs? General American (and Missourian?) history? The papers of the Adams family? Exploration of the North American continent? The Quakers? California in the latter half of the 1800s? I really suggest starting with Valley of the Shadow and Canadian Mysteries (also available in French!)--specifically, Klatsassin or William Robinson. Both have been designed to guide people into the beginnings of exploration (notably, look at the Valley's suggested lesson plans. They will also steal your soul if you are not careful.

Mass murdering restauranteurs, the Benders

sleepy pete — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:43:42 -0800

The Benders were a family of German immigrants who opened a store and restaurant in the newly formed state of Kansas in the late 19th century. Led by the spiritualist Kate, they also were some of the United States first serial killers. Here's another site on the Benders, from the hotel that houses what's left of the Bender museum in Cherryvale, just watch out for the red background. As an added bonus, you can use this very cool historic newspaper search from the Library of Congress (as posted by cog_nate) to read news stories about what happened to the Benders. Here's a hint: several people were wrongfully arrested, but the Benders were never captured. Also, most believe they weren't even a family. They were liars and murderers!

TRANSIT - an art deco murder mystery

jonson — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 14:35:53 -0800

T.R.A.N.S.I.T. is, by a wide margin, my favorite animated short ever produced. Set in the art deco Europe of the 1920's and (and released in 1997) it tells the story of a journey throughout several major vacation destinations of a wealthy tycoon, his young wife with wandering eyes, and a murderous turn of events. The story is told in reverse, from the final stage of the "vacation" back through each prior stop, and the artwork for each segment is painted in the style of the luggage travel sticker for that stop.

"We could make this great land of ours a greater place to live"

matteo — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 08:56:06 -0800

"Approximately 250,000 persons viewed and passed by the bier of little Emmett Till. All were shocked, some horrified and appalled. Many prayed, scores fainted and practically all, men, women and children wept". Chicago Defender, September 1, 1955.
Federal officials this morning erected a white tent over the grave of Emmett Till in Alsip, Ill., in preparation to exhume the body to shed light on the Chicago teenager's death 50 years ago. Till, 14 years old at the time, was killed in a hate crime in Money, Miss., that sparked the Civil Rights movement. (previous Emmett Till MeFi threads here and here)

I Hear A New World

LinusMines — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 11:31:52 -0800

Meeksville centers around Joe Meek, Britain's first independent record producer, whose DIY engineering wizardry would transform record-making during the Sixties. Five years after an international #1 hit in the Tornadoes' space-age Telstar (Windows Media or RealPlayer), he would self-destruct, in an end not without tragedy or speculation. His works--along with his trademarked name--live on.

Crimes of the century

tcp — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 02:58:59 -0800

Homicide in Chicago: 1870-1930
July 25, 1899 Murphy, James, 28 years old, shot dead, saloon 1210 Wabash Av., by Lorezo Sodini, proprietor. Murphy refused to pay for drinks and ran out of saloon and threw stone through window. Sodini ran out and fired at him, killing him instantly. Harrison St. Station. Held by Coroner's Jury, July 29. Acquitted Dec. 9, 1899, by jury in Judge Baker's court. Case number: 1498

Look Magazine

stupidsexyFlanders — Fri, 14 May 2004 11:56:05 -0800

Emmett Till's murder case has been reopened, nearly fifty years after the killers' acquittal. Don't I mean alleged killers? No, the cretins happily confessed all to a national newsweekly after their trial. A thousand details here, and a couple more in the subsequent letters to the editor, that will forever kill any nostalgia you might have for the "old days."