This special issue examines law and disorder over the centuries, and re-examines some infamous crimes, from dandy highwaymen to Jack the Ripper. From the medieval period to the 20 the century, the British justice system changed in line with society and its values. Expert historians examine its effect on the lives of ordinary people. Inside you will find: • An account of Britain's first terrorist • What it was like to be sent to the stocks • Why we are fascinated with murder • A glimpse into smuggling's heyday
WELCOME
Justice through the ages • As society and its values changed, so too did Britain’s criminal justice system. Alyson Brown charts important milestones in crime and punishment over the centuries
MEDIEVAL JUSTICE • In the Middle Ages, law was deeply embedded in local communities, says Hannah Skoda. Punishments were harsh, public and guaranteed to strip the criminal of their reputation and dignity
THE REAL ROBIN HOODS • The legend of Robin Hood may have been inspired by real life outlaws. Hugh Doherty looks at the judicial process of outlawry in medieval England and at what it meant to be declared beyond the protection of the law
The outlawry of Fulk fitz Warin • An early 13th-century document records the verdict on a baron and his followers
Smuggling’s heyday
SMUGGLING: FIVE MORE PLACES TO EXPLORE
THE HUNT FOR THE TUDOR HITMAN • In 1536, a London merchant was gunned down with a lethal new weapon in a killing that bore all the hallmarks of a professional ‘hit’. But who pulled the trigger, and why? Derek Wilson investigates
The assassin’s weapon of choice • The pistol that killed Robert Packington made Europe’s rulers decidedly jumpy
Did the clergy have form? • Those who held churchmen responsible for Packington’s death were quick to call attention to a similar killing in 1514
THE SACRIFICE OF CAPTAIN KIDD • Angus Konstam argues that the infamous ‘pirate’ was thrown to the wolves by shadowy aristocrats for crimes he did not commit
A LIFE AT SEA: CAPTAIN KIDD
BRITAIN’S FIRST TERRORIST • In the 1770s, as Britain’s American colonies headed towards revolution, George III faced an additional challenge at home. Jessica Warner explains how a disaffected Scot terrorised Britain’s dockyards and caused panic throughout the country
A superpower and the young men who hated it • Aitken wanted to make his mark in the world and allied himself to the American cause that attracted idle adventurers as well as future US statesmen
Profile of a terrorist • James Aitken 1752 – 1777
STAND AND DELIVER
A DEADLY OBSESSION IN VICTORIAN LONDON • When 40,000 Londoners watched a man hang for slitting an aristocrat’s throat in May 1840, opponents of the death penalty railed at the barbarity of the punishment. So why, asks Dr Clare Walker Gore, were they also beguiled by the ghastly spectacle?
The great Victorian letter swindle • Royals, politicians and famous authors were all duped by begging-letter writers in the 19th century. Antonio Melechi probes a precursor of today’s email scams
The male damsel in distress is exposed
American fraudster preys on the dead
POLICING THE NATION • To what extent does the modern police force – national, professional, consensual, accountable – owe its roots to developments of the 18th and 19th centuries? Clive Emsley leads the investigation
TIMELINE • On the road to a nationwide police force
THE VICTORIAN TRADE IN DEAD BODIES • If you died young in a 19th-century slum, there was a good chance that your body would be sold for medical research. The trade in corpses was a shadowy one but, asks Elizabeth T Hurren, where would modern medicine be without it?
Dealing with the dead today
THE RIPPER OF OUR...