Forty-nine-year-old Henry Weston Smith was born in Ellington, Tolland County, Connecticut. His early years were marked by personal tragedy and spiritual awakening. In 1847, at age twenty, he married Ruth Yeomans, but both his wife and their infant child died the following year. This loss may have deepened his faith; by age twenty-three, Smith had … More Henry Weston Smith

Martin DeFoor, born on September 17th, 1805, and Susan Tabor, born on December 2nd, 1798, were early settlers in Atlanta. Originally from Franklin County, Georgia, they moved to the Bolton neighborhood in 1853, where Martin took over the operation of Montgomery’s Ferry, renaming it DeFoor’s Ferry. The couple resided in the Montgomery family’s home, one … More Martin and Susan DeFoor

No. 4 Euston Square was a well-appointed boarding house in the elegant Bloomsbury terrace, leased by Severin Bastendorff, a bamboo furniture maker. The house, standing four stories tall, was home to a mix of lodgers and servants, projecting an air of respectability typical of Victorian London. Among its residents in 1877 or 1878 was Matilda … More Matilda Hacker: The Euston Square Murder

On the cold morning of March 26th, 1887 in Rahway, New Jersey, four brothers—Alfred, Frank, Thomas, and Irving Worth—made a gruesome discovery while walking to work at the felt mills near Bloodgood’s Pond in Clark. Just off Central Avenue, near Jefferson Avenue and several hundred feet from the Central Avenue Bridge over the Rahway River, … More The Rahway Murder

In the autumn of 1888, London was gripped by fear and fascination as a series of brutal murders unfolded in the city’s East End. While the infamous Jack the Ripper terrorized Whitechapel, another chilling case emerged in the heart of the city—the Whitehall Mystery. This unsolved murder, part of the so-called Thames Torso Murders, left … More The Whitehall Mystery

During the late 19th century, the American West was a battleground for competing economic interests, particularly between cattle ranchers and sheepherders. Cattlemen, who dominated the open ranges, viewed sheepherders as threats to their grazing lands, as sheep cropped grass closely, potentially ruining pastures for cattle. These tensions often escalated into violent confrontations known as sheep … More The Deep Creek Murders

Twenty-two-year-old Albert Enstrom, twenty-year-old Andrew Johnson, and seventeen-year-old Alfred Nelson were cousins working as ranch hands at a livestock operation near Pelican Point, a remote area on the western shore of Utah Lake, just south of modern-day Saratoga Springs, Utah. On February 16th, 1895, the trio attended a legal hearing in Lehi concerning a property … More The Pelican Point Murders

The infamous area of Whitechapel in London, England is today almost synonymous with the gruesome and unsolved crimes of Jack the Ripper. In the late 1880s, Whitechapel was a district plagued by poverty, overcrowding, and crime. The Ripper murders of 1888, which claimed the lives of at least five women, had left an indelible mark … More Alice McKenzie

Martha Tabram, born Martha White on May 10th, 1849, in Southwark, London, was the youngest of five children. Her life was fraught with difficulties from an early age. At sixteen, her parents separated, and her father died shortly after. By 1869, she married Henry Samuel Tabram, a furniture packer, and they had two sons, Frederick … More Martha Tabram

Seventy-three-year-old Sarah Squire was a twice-widowed woman who had taken over her late husband’s wholesale picture and print business in the quiet neighborhood of Hoxton, in London’s East End. Described as eccentric and penurious by neighbors, she lived frugally despite reportedly having independent means and owning the leasehold property where the murders occurred. Thirty-six-year-old Christiana, … More Sarah and Christiana Squire: The Hoxton Horror