1924 In Britain Patrick Mahon is hanged for killing and dismembering his lover Emily Kaye. In the USA Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb are sentenced to life for murdering 14 year-old Bobby Franks. The gas chamber is first used as a method of execution. In Germany serial killer Fritz Haarmann is beheaded.

1925 Norman Thorne is hanged for killing his lover Elsie Cameron

1927 In Britain the body of Minnie Bonati is found in a trunk at Charing Cross Station. John Robinson is hanged for the crime. In the USA Ruth Snyder and Henry Judd Gray go to the electric chair for the murder of Ruth's husband. In Winnipeg, Canada Earle Nelson is hanged

1928 Frederick Browne and William Kennedy are hanged for shooting PC Gutteridge

1929 In Chicago the St Valentines Day Massacre takes place. In Britain Sidney Fox strangles his mother in a hotel room then sets the room on fire to make it look like an accident. The ruse fails and Fox is hanged for the crime in 1930.

1930 Alfred Rouse gives a drifter a life. He knocks the man out and sets fire to his car. Rouse hopes the police will mistake the dead man for him so he can begin a new life with a new identity. The ruse fails and Rouse is hanged in 1931. In the USA serial killer Carl Panzram is hanged.

1931 German serial killer Peter Kurten known as the Vampire or Monster of Dusseldorf goes to the guillotine. In Britain Julia Wallace is murdered. Her husband William Wallace is convicted of the crime but the conviction is quashed by the Court of Appeal. In the USA Al Capone is convicted of tax evasion.

1934 John Dillinger is shot. Bonnie and Clyde, robbers and murderers are shot.

1935 In Lancaster Dr Buck Ruxton kills his wife and cleaning lady and dismembers the bodies

1936 Charlotte Bryant is hanged for poisoning her husband. In the USA Albert Fish child killer and cannibal goes to the electric chair

1939 Al Capone is released from prison

1942 In London Gordon Cummins known as the Blackout Ripper kills 3 women. In Melbourne, Australia US soldier Edward Leonski is hanged for killing 3 women.

1943 John Reginald Christie kills his first victim Austrian Ruth Fuerst. Canadian soldier August Sangret is hanged for murdering Joan Peal Wolfe.

1942-44 Dr Marcel Petiot murders 27 people in Paris

1944 John George Haigh murders his first victim Donald McSwan and dissolves the body in acid. Christie kills his second victim Muriel Eady. Australian serial killer Ivan Milat is born.

1945 Haigh murders Mr and Mrs Swan (the parents of Donald) and disposes of their bodies in acid

1946 Neville Heath murders 2 women and is hanged

1947 Elizabeth Short the Black Dahlia is murdered. Al Capone dies.

1948 Haigh murders Dr Archibald Henderson and his wife. Both bodies are dissolved in acid.

1949 John George Haigh murders Mrs Durand-Deacon and dissolves the body in acid. Haigh is caught and hanged. Christie murders Beryl Evans and her baby daughter.

Late 20th Century Crime

1951 Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez the 'Lonely Hearts killers' go to the electric chair

1952 Christie murders his wife Ethel

1953 John Reginald Christie murders 3 more women. He is caught and hanged

1954 In Britain Styllou Christofi is hanged for the murder of her daughter-in-law. In the USA Dr Samuel Shappard is convicted of murdering his wife. (He was cleared of the charge in 1966).

1955 Ruth Ellis is the last woman in Britain to be hanged

1958 In Scotland serial killer Peter Manuel is hanged for 7 murders. In the USA Wayne Williams is born.

1959 In Britain Guenther Podola is hanged for murdering a policeman. In the USA Charles Starkweather goes to the electric chair. Serial killer Harvey Glatman is also executed.

1962 James Hanratty is hanged for the A6 murder

1962-64 The Boston strangler murders women. Albert De Salvo later confesses to the crimes but is never charged. Albert De Salvo is stabbed in prison in 1973.

1963 In Britain the Great Train Robbery takes place. In the USA John F Kennedy is shot.

1964 Australian serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke is hanged

1966 Child killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are sentenced to life. In the USA Richard Speck kills 8 nurses.

1968 Martin Luther King is shot. Robert Kennedy is shot

1969 Ronald and Reginald Kray are sentenced to life. In the USA Charles Manson and members of his 'family' murder several people. In Britain the death penalty is abolished.

1971 In California Juan Corona is convicted of 25 murders

1972 The poisoner Graham Young is sentenced to life imprisonment. He dies in 1990.

1973 In Texas serial killer Dean Corll is shot

1976 Donald Neilson the 'Black Panther' is sentenced to life

1977 The guillotine is last used in France. (The French abolish the death sentence in 1981). In the USA Gary Gilmore is shot by a firing squad.

1978 Serial killer David Berkowitz the 'Son of Sam' is sentenced to 365 years in prison. In Britain Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov is murdered with ricin.

1979-1981 In the USA the Atlanta Child Murders take place

1980 Serial killer John Wayne Gacy is sentenced to death. He is executed in 1994.

1981 Serial killer Peter Sutcliffe the 'Yorkshire Ripper' is sentenced to life

1982 Wayne Williams is convicted of 2 murders in Atlanta

1983 Serial killer Dennis Nilsen is sentenced to life

1986 In Britain Jeremy Bamber is convicted of 5 murders. In Perth, Australia David and Catherine Birnie murder 4 women.

1987 Robert Healey is sentenced to life for the murders of his wife Greeba and his 13 year-old stepdaughter Marie

1988 Colin Pitchfork is the first murderer to be caught by DNA evidence. Martin Duffy known as the Railway Rapist is sentenced to life.

1989 In the USA Serial killer Ted Bundy goes to the electric chair. Serial killer Richard Ramirez is sentenced to death.

1991 Richard Speck dies aged 49

1992 Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is sentenced to life

1994 In Britain Child killer Robert Black is sentenced to life. Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo is shot.

1995 Rosemary West is sentenced to life for the murders of 10 young women

1996 Australian serial killer Ivan Milat is sentenced to life imprisonment

21st Century Crime

2002 Serial killer Aileen Wuornos is executed

2003 Child killer Ian Huntley is sentenced to life

2005 Australian murderer David Birnie commits suicide

2008 Steve Wright is convicted of the murders of 5 women in Ipswich

To read more about the dark side of history click here

Families Fighting For Justice (An organisation fighting for victims rights and offering support to victims families).

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