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posted by martyb on Sunday January 06 2019, @10:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-go-there dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

In July of 1316, a priest with a hankering for fresh apples sneaked into a walled garden in the Cripplegate area of London to help himself to the fruits therein. The gardener caught him in the act, and the priest brutally stabbed him to death with a knife—hardly godly behavior, but this was the Middle Ages. A religious occupation was no guarantee of moral standing.

That's just one of the true-crime gems to be found in a new interactive digital "murder map" of London compiled by University of Cambridge criminologist Manuel Eisner. Drawing on data catalogued in the city Coroners' Rolls, the map shows the approximate location of 142 homicide cases in late medieval London. The map launched to the public in late November on the website for the university's Violence Research Center, and be forewarned—it's extremely addictive. You could easily lose yourself down the rabbit hole of medieval murder for hours, filtering the killings by year, choice of weapon, and location. (It works best with Google Chrome.)

"The events described in the Coroners' Rolls show weapons were never very far away, male honor had to be protected, and conflicts easily got out of hand," said Eisner, who embarked on the project to create an accessible resource for the public to explore the historical records. "They give us a detailed picture of how homicide was embedded in the rhythms of urban medieval life."

[...] The greatest risk of violent death in London was on weekends (especially Sundays), between early evening and the first few hours after curfew.

[...] As Eisner notes, "Sunday was the day when people had the time to engage in social activities—drinking and playing games that would occasionally trigger frictions leading to assault." Mondays were the second most likely day for homicides, perhaps because frictions spilled over from the weekend.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/01/addictive-interactive-murder-map-lets-you-explore-medieval-london-crime/


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 07 2019, @12:32PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 07 2019, @12:32PM (#783133) Journal

    There are windows in modern buildings that open? I sure don't see very many of them. Private homes, sure, but not in public buildings like schools, the VA, banks, hospitals, Federal buildings - hmmmm - maybe jails? Nope - the prison that I build had a small number of windows that opened, mostly sliding sideways. The dispensary, some of the holding cells, hmmm . . . library I think . . . that seems to be about it.

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