"The world's largest public repository of Ripper-related information!" Includes official documents, police reports, press reports, dissertations, blogs, even "games and diversions."
OK, it's outside our period, but it's definitely worth a look. It covers all types of crime and criminals, including "Trials at the Old Bailey, Hangings at Tyburn, Famous Criminals, Mobs and the Pillory."
Not specifically about crime, but a fascinating book by Henry Mayhew, primarily concerned with the lives and work of street vendors and costermongers (published 1862).
The Man Who Was John Lee, "The Man They Could Not Hang"
This is the true story one of the most famous events in Victorian history - the murder of Emma Ann Whitehead Keyse at Babbacombe, England, by her employee John Henry George Lee. Also the alarming failed attempts to hang the murderer and his bizarre life before, during and after a life sentence in prison.
The Metropolitan Police Service Historical Archives
The Newgate Calendar was one of those books, along with a Bible, Foxe's Book of Martyrs and the Pilgrim's Progress, most likely to be found in any English home between 1750 and 1850. Children were encouraged to read it because it was believed to inculcate principles of right living -- by fear of punishment if not by the dull and earnest morals appended to the stories of highwaymen and other felons. This site contains the complete contents.
A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.
An alphabetical list of serious crimes, including many in the Victorian period. Unfortunately it's just a list of names, dates and events, with no details, but it will serve as a useful starting point for further research.
This website is all about Crime and Punishment in the UK in the 19th Century. We have a prisoner database with actual prisoner records and case studies for a more in-depth view of the crimes and trials of some of the inmates.
