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Wethersfield State Prison
Wethersfield State Prison was the second state prison in the state of Connecticut. Used between 1827 and 1963, it was later demolished and the site turned into a park on the banks of the Connecticut River. History Connecticut opened the Wethersfield State Prison in September 1827 as a replacement for the decrepit Old Newgate Prison, which had begun as a copper mine. Although the prisoners had no longer been housed in the former mine galleries by that point, the above-ground facilities were inadequate for the state's need. 127 inmates were shackled together and marched the 20 miles from East Granby to Wethersfield.Marlene Clark"A Prison Where 73 Inmates Were Executed" ''The Hartford Courant'' (Hartford, CT) 13 February 2008, accessed on 27 October 2013 The new prison was intended to be state of the art and was modeled after the Auburn State Prison in New York.Connecticut State Library, ''Wethersfield Prison Records'', Connecticut State Library, 1999, http://www.cslib.org/wethers. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wethersfield, Connecticut
Wethersfield is a town located in Hartford County, Connecticut. It is located immediately south of Hartford along the Connecticut River. Its population was 27,298 at the time of the 2020 census. Many records from colonial times spell the name "Weathersfield" and "Wythersfield," while Native Americans called it ''Pyquag''. "Watertown" is a variant name. The neighborhood known as Old Wethersfield is the state's largest historic district, spanning and containing 1,100 buildings, dating to the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The town is primarily served by Interstate 91. History Founded in 1634 by a Puritan settlement party of "10 Men," including John Oldham, Robert Seeley, Thomas Topping, and Nathaniel Foote, Wethersfield is arguably the oldest town in Connecticut, depending on the interpretation of when a remote settlement qualifies as a "town". Along with Windsor and Hartford, Wethersfield is represented by one of the three grapevines on the Flag of Connecticut, signifying ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Upright Jerker
The upright jerker was an execution method and device intermittently used in the United States during the 19th and early 20th century. Intended to replace hangings, the upright jerker did not see widespread use and was withdrawn from use by the 1930s. As in a hanging, a cord would be wrapped around the neck of the condemned. However, rather than dropping down through a trapdoor, the condemned would be violently jerked into the air by means of a system of weights and pulleys. The objective of this execution method was to provide a swift death by breaking the condemned's neck. The warden of the Connecticut State Prison at Wethersfield obtained , issued on June 18, 1895, for one such "automatic gallows". Executions of this type took place in several U.S. states, notably Connecticut, where among others murderer and gang member Gerald Chapman Gerald Chapman (August, 1887 – April 6, 1926), known as "The Count of Gramercy Park", "The Gentleman Bandit", and "Gentleman Gerald", was an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spree Killer
A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more murders or homicides in a short time, in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders". Definition According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the general definition of "spree killer" is a person (or more than one person) who commits two or more murders without a cooling-off period; the lack of a cooling-off period marks the difference between a spree killer and a serial killer. The category has, however, been found to be of no real value to law enforcement, because of definitional problems relating to the concept of a "cooling-off period". Serial killers commit clearly separate murders, happening at different times. Mass murderers are defined by one incident, with no distinctive time period between the murders. How to distinguish a spree killer from a mass murderer, o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky
Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky (March 23, 1924 – May 17, 1960) was a serial killer who was sentenced to death after a string of robberies and murders in Connecticut during the 1950s. Six people were killed during these events, which became known as the "Mad Dog Killings." A number of others were shot, beaten, or pistol-whipped but survived. Taborsky earned his nickname due to the savagery of the killings that condemned him to death. In 1957, Connecticut package store hours were modified to close from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. due in part as a response to the crimes of Taborsky and his partner Arthur "Meatball" Culombe. He was executed by electric chair at the age of 36. His execution in 1960 was the last in Connecticut (and in New England) until that of Michael Bruce Ross in 2005. Taborsky donated his body to Yale School of Medicine, and his ashes were later buried in the garden of Christ Church Cathedral. First time on death row Taborsky is an anomaly in Connecticut dea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serial Killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three murders, others extend it to four or lessen it to two. Psychological gratification is the usual motive for serial killing, and many serial murders involve sexual contact with the victim. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) states that the motives of serial killers can include anger, thrill-seeking, financial gain, and attention seeking, and killings may be executed as such. The victims may have something in common; for example, demographic profile, appearance, gender or race. Often the FBI will focus on a particular pattern serial killers follow. Based on this pattern, this will give key clues into finding the killer along with their motives. Although a serial killer is a distinct classification that differs from that of a mass mur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lydia Sherman
Lydia Sherman (December 24, 1824 – May 16, 1878), née Danbury, also known as The Derby Poisoner, was an American serial killer. She poisoned eight children in her care (six of which were her own) and her three husbands and was convicted of Murder (United States law)#Degrees, second-degree murder in 1872. Five years into her sentence, she escaped under the pretext of being sick and got a job as housekeeper to a rich widower in Providence. She was caught and imprisoned again before dying in Wethersfield State Prison on May 16, 1878 from cancer. Life and crimes Lydia Danbury was orphaned as a child and raised by her uncle, the farmer John Claygay. At age 16, she worked as a tailor and met her first husband, Edward Struck, at age 17 through the Methodism, Methodist church. They moved to New York City. After her husband became depressed after losing work, Lydia Struck poisoned him with arsenic in 1864. Six weeks later, she poisoned three of her young children in the same manner an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and resources that support much larger and more complex criminal transactions than an individual criminal could achieve. Gangsters have been active for many years in countries around the world. Gangsters are the subject of many novels, films, television series and video games. Usage In modern usage, the term "gang" is generally used for a criminal organization and the term "gangster" invariably describes a criminal. Much has been written on the subject of gangs, although there is no clear consensus about what constitutes a gang or what situations lead to gang formation and evolution. There is agreement that the members of a gang have a sense of common identity and belonging and this is typically reinforced through shared activities and thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. The word is also used to refer to a period of time during which such bans are enforced. History Some kind of limitation on the trade in alcohol can be seen in the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1772 BCE) specifically banning the selling of beer for money. It could only be bartered for barley: "If a beer seller do not receive barley as the price for beer, but if she receive money or make the beer a measure smaller than the barley measure received, they shall throw her into the water." In the early twentieth century, much of the impetus for the prohibition movement in the Nordic countries and North America came from moralistic convictions of pietistic Protestants. Prohibition movements in the West coincided with the advent of women's su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerald Chapman
Gerald Chapman (August, 1887 – April 6, 1926), known as "The Count of Gramercy Park", "The Gentleman Bandit", and "Gentleman Gerald", was an American criminal who helped lead an early Prohibition-era gang from 1919 until the mid-1920s. His nicknames came from his ability to pose as a member of the wealthy elite, which allowed him to fool potential victims and avoid scrutiny from investigators. Chapman was the first criminal to be dubbed "Public Enemy Number One" by the press. Crimes and escapes Gerald Chapman was born George Chartres in August 1887 to parents of Irish heritage. Arrested for the first time in 1902 at age fourteen, Chapman was incarcerated for most of his early adult life. While serving time for bank robbery, he was transferred from Sing Sing to Auburn State Prison, and became acquainted with highly educated Danish-born con man George "Dutch" Anderson in 1908. With Anderson as his mentor, Chapman became a voracious reader and a self-styled gentleman, often affect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arsenic And Old Lace (play)
''Arsenic and Old Lace'' is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the 1944 film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra. The play was produced by Lindsay and Crouse and directed by Bretaigne Windust, and opened on Broadway at the Fulton Theatre on January 10, 1941. On September 25, 1943, the play moved to the Hudson Theatre, closing there on June 17, 1944, having played 1,444 performances. The West End production - directed by Marcel Varnel and produced at London's Strand Theatre - enjoyed a similarly long run. Opening on December 23, 1942 and closing on March 2, 1946, it totalled 1,337 performances. Of the 12 plays written by Kesselring, ''Arsenic and Old Lace'' was by far the most successful. According to the opening night review in ''The New York Times'', the play was "so funny that none of us will ever forget it." Plot The play is a farcical black comedy revolving around the Brewster fami ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amy Archer-Gilligan
Amy Duggan "Sister" Archer-Gilligan (October 31, 1873 – April 23, 1962) was a nursing home proprietor and serial killer from Windsor, Connecticut. She murdered at least five people by poisoning them. One of her victims was her second husband, Michael Gilligan; the others were residents of her nursing home. It is possible that Archer-Gilligan was involved in more deaths. The authorities counted 48 deaths in her nursing home, the "Archer Home for the Elderly and Infirm." The case attracted wide publicity at the time and has been cited as an inspiration for the play '' Arsenic and Old Lace'' and for Frank Capra's later film of the same name. Childhood and marriages Amy E. Duggan was born on October 31, 1873 to James Duggan and Mary Kennedy in Milton, Connecticut, the eighth of ten children.''1870 US Census of Litchfield, Connecticut, p. 73''; ''1880 US Census of Litchfield, Connecticut''; ''1900 US Census of Litchfield, Connecticut'', sheet 18B''; ''1900 US Census of Litchfie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Connecticut State Library
The Connecticut State Library is the state library for the U.S. state of Connecticut and is also an executive branch agency of the state. It is located in Hartford, Connecticut directly across the street from the Connecticut State Capitol. The State Library provides a variety of library, information, archival, public records, museum, and administrative services to the citizens of Connecticut, as well as the employees and officials of all three branches of state government. Students, researchers, public libraries and town governments throughout the state are also served by the State Library. In addition, the State Library directs a program of statewide library development and administers the Library Services Technology Act state grant. "The mission of the Connecticut State Library is to preserve and make accessible Connecticut's history and heritage and to advance the development of library services statewide." History The Connecticut State Library was established by an act of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
