Gratton Dalton (1861 - 1892)

It wasn’t long, however, before Gratton Dalton began looking for an easier way to make a living. He lost his job as a Deputy Marshal in 1890, being suspected for cattle rustling, and formed his gang. Its first members were his brother Bob Dalton, Charley Pierce, George “Bittercreek” Newcomb, Charlie “Blackface” Bryant, and Richard L. […]

Emmett Dalton (1871 - 1937)

Dalton was born to Lewis (16 Feb 1826–16 Jul 1890) and Adeline Dalton (15 Sep 1835–24 Jan 1925) and was the youngest of the Dalton brothers. The Dalton Gang’s criminal enterprise was ended on October 5, 1892 when they attempted to rob two banks at once in Coffeyville, Kansas. Four of the gang were killed in […]

Bob Dalton (1869 - 1892)

In July 1890, Bob Dalton, Grat, and Emmett were accused of stealing horses near Claremore to sell them in Kansas. With a posse close behind of them Bob and Emmett left the territories for California where brother Bill was residing. Grat was arrested for the crime but would gain his release because of a lack […]

Adeline Lee Younger Dalton (1835 - 1925)

Western Figure. Born to Charles Lee “Cole” Younger and his common law wife Parmelia Wilson, she married James Lewis Dalton and had 17 children. Known as the mother of the Dalton Boys Gang clan, she was also the aunt of another family of outlaws, Cole, Bob and Jim Younger. In addition some of her other […]

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (1960 - 1994)

Serial Killer, having killed an estimated 16 men and boys.  Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, his parents divorced when he was 18, shortly after his first, undetected (later confirmed) killing in June 1978 of a hitchhiker, Steven Hicks.  His father sent him to college, at Ohio State University, but he flunked out in the first semester, […]

Paul “Skinny” D’Amato (1970 - 1984)

Organized Crime Figure. Known as “Mr. Atlantic City”, he was the owner of the 500 Club in Atlantic City, New Jersey from the 1930’s until the club burned down in 1973. The 500 Club was a front for an illegal gambling operation providing slot machines, baccarat, craps, roulette, and blackjack. To draw gamblers, he had […]

William “Billy The Kid” Bonney (1859 - 1881)

Legendary Outlaw. He was born in New York City as Henry McCarty. His mother’s name was Catherine McCarty. Not very much information is known about his father except that he died when the Kid was young. Eventually, Catherine moved with the Kid and his brother Joseph to Wichita Kansas. After his first brush with the […]

Stede Bonnet (1688 - 1718)

Stede Bonnet (c.1688 – 10 December 1718 was an early 18th-century Barbadian pirate, sometimes called “The Gentleman Pirate” because he was a moderately wealthy landowner before turning to a life of crime. Bonnet was born into a wealthy English family on the island of Barbados, and inherited the family estate after his father’s death in […]

Joseph Bonanno (1905 - 2002)

Joseph Bonanno Crime Figure. He immigrated to the United States in his 20s and began to work as a muscleman for the large New York gangs of era, most under Joseph (Joe the Boss) Masseria, and Salvatore Maranzano. When both were murdered in 1931, Bonanno was appointed as boss of the Brooklyn-based Bonnano Family, which […]

Ruggiero “Richie the Boot” Boiardo (1890 - 1984)

Organized Crime Figure. He was a Capo in the Genovese Family from the days of Joe the Boss Masseria in the 1920’s until his retirement in the early 1970’s. He was based in the North Ward of Newark, New Jersey and he had absolute power over all organized crime in that city. His influence in […]

James A. Boarman (1919 - 1943)

Criminal, American Folk Figure. He was a young, violent criminal who found trouble early on in Indianapolis. He was convicted in October 1940 of a Denver bank robbery and sentenced to Alcatraz. He soon threw in with an escape attempt which included Floyd Hamilton, Fred Hunter, and Harold Brest. On April 14, 1943 they made […]

Anthony Blunt (1907 - 1983)

Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), known as Sir Anthony Blunt, KCVO, from 1956 to 1979, was a leading British art historian who in 1964, after being offered immunity from prosecution, confessed to having been a Soviet spy. He had been a member of the Cambridge Five, a group of spies […]

Kid Cann (1900 - 1981)

With the onset of Prohibition, Kid Cann and his brothers were transformed from small time hoods into major figures in the American Mafia. His ties to the Chicago Outfit and New York’s Genovese crime family date back to the Prohibition period. According to a later trial, they would legally import industrial grade alcohol from Canada, ostensibly […]

Thomas Blood (1618 - 1680)

As part of the expression of discontent, Thomas Blood conspired to storm Dublin Castle, usurp the government, and kidnap James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, for ransom. On the eve of the attempt, the plot was foiled. Blood managed to evade the authorities by hiding with his countrymen in the […]

Vasili Blokhin (1895 - 1955)

Soviet Secret Police Commander. As chief executioner of Josef Stalin’s security forces (variously named the OGPU, NKVD and MGB) he supervised and participated in the mass killings of “enemies of the Soviet state” during the 1930s and 1940s. In 2010, Guinness World Records listed him as the “most prolific executioner” in history. Blokhin was born […]

George Birdwell (1894 - 1932)

George Birdwell’s first recorded robbery was on March 9, 1931, when he and Floyd joined William “Billy the Killer” Miller in robbing a bank in Earlsboro, Oklahoma, for $3,000. Five months later, they raided another bank in nearby Shamrock but managed to get only $400. They fared better several days later when they raided a […]

Mary Lily Kenan Bingham (1867 - 1917)

Socialite. Born Mary Lily Kenan, she met Henry Morrison Flagler, a founding partner of Standard Oil in 1891, at the home of mutual friends in Newport, Rhode Island when he was 61and she 23. Married, he set about obtaining a divorce from his wife who eventually had to be confined to an asylum. Although it […]

Osama Bin Laden (1957 - 2011)

Osama Bin Laden Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the most devastating attack on American soil in modern times and the most hunted man in the world, was killed in a firefight with United States forces in Pakistan, President Obama announced on Sunday. In a late-night appearance in the East Room of the White House, Mr. Obama declared that “justice […]

Laleh Bijani (1974 - 2003)

Medical Figure. She was the second of 29-year-old craniopagus twins to pass away after a 50-hour surgical procedure to separate them. Although the twins were successfully separated, her sister Ladan Bijani died first and Laleh died 90 minutes later, due to loss of blood during surgery. The twins were from a family of 11 children […]

Rainey Bethea (1909 - 1936)

Criminal. He was the last person to be publicly executed in America.  Born ca. 1909-1913 in Roanoke, Virginia, Bethea, a young African-American, moved to Owensboro, Kentucky, in order to find work in the tobacco fields.  Local police charged him with various petty offenses, but in 1935, he was convicted of stealing a purse and sentenced […]

David Berman (1970 - 1957)

Organized Crime Figure. Known as “Davie the Jew”, Berman was an American mobster in Iowa, New York and Minnesota before becoming one of the pioneers of gambling alongside Bugsy Siegel at The Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. As a child, his family departed Russia for America and settled in South Dakota then moved to Sioux […]

Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (1899 - 1953)

Soviet Secret Police Chief. He was the former head of the Soviet NKVD, forerunner of the Russian KGB. He joined the Bolshevik Party in 1917 and rose to prominence in the Russian Republic of Georgia. He served as head of the local Georgian secret police, and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for […]

Derek Bentley (1933 - 1953)

Execution Victim. Considered the victim of one of the greatest miscarriages of British justice. He suffered from epilepsy, had been injured during the War when a bomb fell on his house, was unable to read or write, had an I.Q. of 66 and the mental age of a four year old. He had never been […]

Lawrencia “Bambi” Bembenek (1958 - 2010)

Crime Figure. Convicted of murdering her husband’s ex-wife, Christine Schultz, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on May 28, 1981. Her story garnered national attention after she escaped from Taycheedah Correctional Institution and was recaptured in Canada, an episode which inspired a TV movie and the slogan “Run, Bambi, Run”. Upon winning a new trial, she pled no […]

Charles Bellinger (1875 - 1937)

Businessman, Political Leader. As a boy, he learned the art of dealing a deck of cards and became so good at it he was hired to work as a dealer in a gambling establishment. There he worked until he made his boss wealthy. With a little money he then moved to San Antonio. His luck […]

Byron De La Beckwith (1920 - 2001)

White supremacist convicted of the June 12, 1963, murder of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers in Mississippi. In 1964, Beckwith was tried twice for the murder, but both trials ended with hung juries, both juries being all-white. In 1989, at the insistence of Evers’ widow Myrlie Evers Williams, Hinds County, MS, Assistant District Attorney Bobby […]

Jereboam O. Beauchamp (1970 - 1826)

Convicted Murderer, Figure In The Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy. From a fairly prominent family Beauchamp was a respectable law student before the murder. In the early hours of November 7, 1825, he fatally stabbed Colonel Solomon Sharp, a former attorney-general of Kentucky at Sharp’s home in Frankfort, Kentucky. During an 1824 political campaign a handbill had been […]

Hans Peter Baur (1897 - 1993)

Adolf Hitler’s personal pilot, author. He was a decorated WWI flyer and a leading commercial aviator during the pioneer, fledging days of Lufthansa Airlines in the late twenties. Hitler became the first head of state to use air travel extensively. He personally selected Hans Baur to be his official pilot. “Luftwaffe One” was a reliable […]

Margaret Batten (1970 - 1970)

Said to have died at the age of 136. Native of Lochborough in Paisley, reputed to have been brought to England to prepare Scotch broth for King James II. Though after his death she fell into poverty and died in St.Margaret’s workhouse. (bio by: Kieran Smith) Cause of death: Extreme old age.

Sam Bass (1851 - 1878)

Western Outlaw. Born on a farm near Mitchell, Indiana, he was orphaned before he was thirteen and spent five years at the home of an uncle. In 1870, he arrived in Denton, Texas, handled horses in the stables and became interested in horse racing. Acquiring a fleet mount, he won most of his races when […]