Author's Note: The spellings of names evolved over time. In order to be consistent, names were spelled as they appeared in government records.1 On Tuesday,…
Cara GriggsMay 2, 2022
Welcome to Mug Shot Monday! This is the latest entry in a series of posts highlighting inmate photographs in the records of the Virginia Penitentiary. John…
Roger ChristmanSeptember 24, 2018
Has researcher and author Cynthia Mattson uncovered a sordid, centuries-old murder conspiracy and cover-up? There’s good reason to believe she has. Reverend William Kay was…
Mike BinghamAugust 1, 2018
On 12 July 1898, an Albemarle County grand jury met to hear evidence against an African American man named John Henry James accused of assaulting…
Greg CrawfordJune 6, 2018
On the evening of 11 November 1892, attorney and Democratic Party operative John T. Clark shot and fatally wounded Reverend John R. Moffett on the…
Gregg KimballNovember 17, 2017
This is the latest entry in a series of posts highlighting inmate photographs in the records of the Virginia Penitentiary. John Henry Green, known as the…
Roger ChristmanNovember 14, 2016
In his debut novel, Forsaken, Ross Howell Jr. tells the story of an uneducated African American servant, Virginia Christian, who was tried for killing her white employer…
Roger ChristmanMarch 3, 2016
In 1883, the year when Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solved the case of the Speckled Band, an equally baffling real-life killing drew another noted…
Bill BynumNovember 19, 2014
This is the latest entry in a series of posts highlighting inmate photographs in the records of the Virginia Penitentiary. Ernest Harper, the subject of this…
Roger ChristmanSeptember 8, 2014
A recent episode of BackStory With the American History Guys entitled “On The Take” addressed the topic of corruption in American politics and government. Host Brian Balogh interviewed…
Mary Dean CarterSeptember 3, 2014
Editor’s Note: Jerry Hunt is a graduate history intern from Virginia Commonwealth University and is working on processing and indexing Depression-era coroner’s inquisitions from Elizabeth…
Guest ContributorAugust 6, 2014
Cornbread and cabbage turned lethal for one Petersburg woman, but it was another woman’s need for some chicken feed that exposed the death as something…
Mary Dean CarterAugust 7, 2013
In 1879, Charles C. Curtis was working at the retail store of Wingo, Ellett, and Crump at 1000 Main Street in Richmond. A customer, a…
Mary Dean CarterFebruary 27, 2013
16 August 2012 is the 100th anniversary of the execution of Virginia Christian for the brutal murder of Ida V. Belote in Hampton, Virginia, on 18…
Roger ChristmanAugust 15, 2012
