When it comes to crime, some people stand by their innocence, while others accept their fate. In this article, you will learn about crime facts and trivia that includes the case of one man that left an unforgettable mark to remind people that he did not commit the crime he was accused of.
Last Pirate in America
Not that he planned on going down in history as this, but Nathaniel Gordon has the honor of being the last American pirate hung in the country. On March 8th, 1862, he died in what was nicknamed the ‘Tombs’ in New York City. Before he was charged with piracy and found guilty, he was the captain of a ship called Erie, which was captured by the American ship called Mohican. Upon inspecting the ship, it was revealed that he had 967 blacks aboard who were slated for being sold into slavery. The conditions on the vessel were so poor that 300 people had already died by then.
Oldest Death Sentence
The oldest death sentence on record was found in the Amherst papyri, which was a list of state trials dating back to ancient Egyptian days ”“ around 1500 BC. A male teenager was convicted of ‘magic’ and was handed a sentence of either killing himself with poison or by a knife.
Murder Case Rate
It is estimated that about one in three murder cases are never solved.
The Mysterious Case of the Australian Physicist
Was this a crime? The case of Dr. Gilbert Stanley Bogle, and Margaret Chandler has stumped investigators in Australia. In 1963, the bodies of the highly rated physicist and his girlfriend were found New Year’s Day morning in a suburb of Sidney, Australia, near Fuller’s Bridge ”“ on the Lane Cove River ”“ a place known as a ‘lover’s lane’ for couples. The local police, Interpol, and the FBI pooled their manpower and resources into trying to figure out who killed them, how they died, and why they were killed. There was evidence that the two died from some sort of poisoning. Interestingly, a filmmaker in 2006 found evidence to suggest that the couple may have died from inhaling the noxious fumes of hydrogen sulphide gas that may have erupted from the polluted river bed.
Learn Conflict Resolution
It is estimated that about 40% of murders take place during an argument.
The Mark of an Innocent Man
During a time where violence and labor unrest spread across the United States, three men were found guilty of the murder of a foreman while working at the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in 1877. Two of the workers accepted their sentence of death by hanging while the third man named Alexander Campbell tried in vain to plead his innocence. While he was being dragged from his cell to the gallows to be hung, Campbell rubbed one of his hands in the dusty floor and pressed his palm against the plaster wall. Then he exclaimed that his handprint would remain here for all time as proof of his innocence. It is said that even after Campbell’s death, the handprint remained. In 1931, Carbon County Sheriff Robert L. Bowman was in charge of the renovation of the cell ”“ even taking away the section of plaster wall where the handprint was found. Although it was replaced with a fresh section of plaster, it is reported that the handprint still returned and can be seen to this day.