5. The First Recorded Execution By Poison
Socrates was one of the wisest men in ancient times, but his ideals often clashed with his fellow Athenians. He praised the methods of Sparta, Athens’ old rival and didn’t follow the ways of the Athenian gods.
Believing Socrates to be corrupting children, he was put on trial, found guilty and sentenced to death. The method? Being forced to drink hemlock, a poisonous plant, making Socrates his own executioner.
4. First Use of DNA Evidence Leading to a Conviction
In trials DNA now plays a key part in how we convict criminals and has even led to releasing innocent people from prison.
British courts were the first to uphold DNA evidence in 1987, when Robert Melias was found guilty of raping a 42 year old disabled woman. It’s from this trial that the term “DNA fingerprinting” comes from.
3. The First Broadcast Assassination
Lee Harvey Oswald was the first man ever to be murdered on live TV. At the time, Oswald was being taken from the police station when Jack Ruby, who had been seen hanging around the station earlier, shot Oswald in the stomach.
After being accused of shooting President John F Kennedy, Oswald’s arrest was a hot topic and millions tuned in only to be stunned when Ruby assassinated Oswald right in front of them.
2. The First Lethal Injection
Charles Brooks, convicted of murdering car mechanic David Gregory, was the first person to be executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas in 1982.
He received three injections, one after the other. The first put Brooks in a deep sleep, the second paralysed his muscles and the last caused a heart attack. This is seen as more humane than the other options – death by gas chamber, death by hanging or death by electric chair.
This method is now used by over 100 countries all over the world.
1. First Child Serial Killer
Mary Bell, 11, was a British girl found guilty of murdering two young boys. Mary’s mother was a prostitute who forced her daughter into sexual acts with her clients. In May of 1968, Mary strangled four year old Martin Brown in an empty house. In July that same year she murdered a second boy, Brian Howe, and carved a large ‘M’ into his stomach with some scissors.
Mary was put away “at Her Majesty’s pleasure,” a prison sentence without an official end date, but was eventually released in 1980 and has since raised a family.
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