Historic courts, punishments and institutions that seem strange today, told from the records: what the law said, who it was used against, and why it changed.
Each episode is a Short of about a minute on our YouTube channel @MacabreChronicle. Its companion article on this site holds what a minute cannot: the sources, a timeline and a “Documented / Disputed” box.
What this series covers
- Trials and sentences from the historical record
- Punishments, and the myths that grew around some of them
- Prisons, asylums and other institutions
- Laws that changed because of a scandal
Episodes and articles
Oldest first. This list updates automatically as new episodes and articles are published. You can also browse the Strange Justice archive, newest first.
Case pages
Case pages collect everything we have on one event or person: key facts, every related episode and article, and further reading.
- Burke and Hare, Edinburgh 1828: Sixteen murders to supply an anatomy school, and the law that followed.
All case pages: Case pages index.
How we work
Every claim in this series is tied to a cited source. Read our Editorial Standards, and see the Corrections page for anything we have fixed.
More series in Dark History, Documented: Dark Medicine · Death Customs · Disaster Minute · Desperate Measures.
