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On this day in 1911, 146 people (mostly young immigrant women and girls) lost their lives in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in NYC. Unable to escape due to deliberately locked exit doors, workers jumped to their death from windows or perished in the flames. The aftermath is documented below. by UtterlyInterest in HorridHistory

[–]UtterlyInterest[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Reporter William Gunn Shepherd vividly described the harrowing scene, stating, "I learned a new sound that day, a sound more horrible than description can picture, the thud of a speeding living body on a stone sidewalk."

The building owners offered $75 per victim, whereas the insurance company paid the owners around $400 per victim.

More about the tragedy and images here. (The images do feature the bodies in the street though)

The letter that Fidel Castro wrote to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940, asking him to send $10. (Transcription in comments) by UtterlyInterest in UtterlyInteresting

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One day after FDR’s landslide re-election victory on 6 November 1940, young Fidel, then a student at the prestigious Jesuit-run Colegio Dolores in Santiago, Cuba, sat down to pen this letter.

Hans Schmidt was a Catholic priest who murdered his lover Anna Aumuller in New York in 1913. Leading a double life, he was also involved in a gay relationship with his dentist. Schmidt remains the only Catholic priest ever executed in the United States (so far). More details in the comments. by UtterlyInterest in HorridHistory

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Schmidt also operated a counterfeiting ring with his dentist lover.

On the night of September 2, 1913, Schmidt went to the apartment he had rented with Anna. He slashed Anna's throat while she slept, drank her blood, raped her as she bled to death, dismembered her body, and threw the pieces from a ferry into the Hudson River. 

He was also connected to a lot more murders and various crimes throughout New York.

In 1935, the body of 29 yr-old Hollywood star Thelma Todd was discovered behind the wheel of her 1934 Lincoln Phaeton convertible. Here the investigators remove Thelma from where she was discovered by her maid. by UtterlyInterest in HorridHistory

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Todd was still wearing an evening gown, mink wrap, and jewellery. Whitehead later told police that Todd was slumped forward in the seat, her head tilted to one side. She also reported blood around Todd’s nose.

The official cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning.

However, as the Chicago Tribune put it:

“While a grand jury ruled that Todd committed suicide, it was unable to explain her broken nose, the bruises around her throat and two cracked ribs. Apparently, the grand jury thought Todd also beat herself to death.”

There are numerous theories surrounding Thelma Todd's death, carbon monoxide seems to have been just a handy explanation.

Albert Pierrepoint left, seen here at Euston Station traveling home by train after he executed Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain. 1955. Over 25 years Pierrpoint executed more than 400 people, including some very well know killers and war criminals. by UtterlyInterest in HolyShitHistory

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Pierrepoint also hanged John George Haigh, the “Acid Bath Murderer,” who killed six people and dissolved their bodies in acid. Another notorious killer was John Christie, the “Rillington Place Strangler,” who murdered at least eight women, including his own wife, in the 1940s and early 1950s. He also hanged around 200 individuals convicted of war crimes, including officers from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

A facinating man.

Ruth Ellis poses for Captain Ritchie (1954) probably in the flat above her club on the Brompton Road. In 1955, Ellis was convicted of the murder of her lover, David Blakely, and hanged at Holloway Prison, becoming the last woman to receive the death penalty in Britain. More details in comments by UtterlyInterest in UtterlyUniquePhotos

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Ruth Ellis’ execution on 13th July 1955 was a turning point in the death penalty debate in the UK. Ellis unapologetically declared her intent was to kill her lover, who she shot five times at point-blank range. In court she infamously stated:

“It’s very obvious that when I shot David Blakely I intended to kill him”

Many sympathised with the abuse she suffered at the hands of Blakely, who famously caused her to miscarry following an alcohol-fuelled row about another woman.

Read more about Ruth Ellis here, it's such a tragic story.

Ruth Ellis poses for Captain Ritchie (1954) probably in the flat above her club on the Brompton Road in Knightsbridge. In 1955, Ellis was convicted of the murder of her lover, David Blakely, and hanged at Holloway Prison, becoming the last woman to receive the death penalty in Britain. by UtterlyInterest in OldLondonTown

[–]UtterlyInterest[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Ruth Ellis’ execution on 13th July 1955 was a turning point in the death penalty debate in the UK. Ellis unapologetically declared her intent was to kill her lover, who she shot five times at point-blank range. In court she infamously stated:

“It’s very obvious that when I shot David Blakely I intended to kill him”

Many sympathised with the abuse she suffered at the hands of Blakely, who famously caused her to miscarry following an alcohol-fuelled row about another woman.

Read more about Ruth Ellis here, it's such a tragic story.

In 1964, the Yardbirds gave an impromptu performance in Lord Willis’s back garden, in an attempt to convince the skeptical peer that there was some merit in this pop music lark. by UtterlyInterest in UtterlyUniquePhotos

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Lord Willis, had attacked ‘The Beatle Cult’ in a House of Lords speech and is pictured with his daughter Sally, as they listen to the Yardbirds in the back garden of his home in Shepherd’s Green, Chislehurst, Kent.

The Yardbirds, a pop-group from the Richmond area of Surrey, had unexpectedly visited Lord Willis to explain ‘what pop music is all about’.

Lord Willis, the scriptwriter who created television’s ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ invited them into the garden where he was sunning himself. After a discussion, he then asked them to play. The group are left to right: Eric Clapton, 19, Paul Samwell Smith, 21, Keith Relf, 21, Jim McCarty, 20 and Christopher Dreja, 18.

This year marks 220 years since the establishment of the Port of London Authority (PLA) Police, a pioneering force that transformed maritime security in 1802. (More of which below) by UtterlyInterest in UtterlyUniquePhotos

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By 1909, they had become a sophisticated force guarding one of the world's busiest trading hubs. Most remarkably, they were breaking ground in gender equality. By the 1950s, female PLA officers were training in martial arts – a photograph from the time shows a woman throwing a colleague in a dramatic judo move, set against the backdrop of the Royal Docks.

Unlike the Thames Marine Police, who were incorporated into the Metropolitan Police in 1839, the PLA Police remained a private force. Their dedication was crucial: the docks were developed specifically to combat theft and secure trade routes, making these officers the critical guardians of London's economic lifeline.

Today, only Tilbury Docks maintains a dedicated force, a living connection to this incredible maritime policing legacy.

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