When one thinks of the items available from Montgomery Ward, the prominent mail-order retailer based in Chicago, an electric chair is certainly not among them. Yet in 1913, this merchandising giant received an unusual letter from the Colonial Stores Company in Canton, China, seeking to purchase an apparatus for executing criminals. The letter sent by…
Category: Criminal Justice
History of Capital Punishment in New Jersey: A Talk at the Library
WHEN THE SHERIFF WAS THE EXECUTIONER THE HISTORY OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN NEW JERSEY PROGRAM AT THE AVALON FREE LIBRARY JAN. 11, 2025 @ 1 p.m. by Mike Dixon 235 32nd St., AVALON, NJ 08202 This program explores the complex history of capital punishment in New Jersey. The talk begins by examining the era when…
Pikesville Speakers Series: CSI-The Historical Edition
Historian Mike Dixon reviews the advancements made in criminology that helped solve once unsolvable historical cold cases. Wed., Dec. 4, 2024 @ 2 pm. Pikesville Branch, Baltimore County Public Library Television programs, such as Law and Order and CSI, have acquainted most people with the modern techniques for solving crimes. However, for most of our past, sleuths did…
The Cape May County “Murder Map”
While exploring the history of capital punishment in pre-World War II, New Jersey, I stumbled upon an elusive artifact during a visit to the Cape May County Archive in August 2024. As I inquired about 19th-century judicial documents and outlined the scope of my research, the Records Room Supervisor casually mentioned the “Murder Map.”1 Naturally,…