1500: 18 thieves in Rome
Add comment August 27th, 2011 Headsman
Tourism is pretty essential to the Roman economy, and for as long as there have been dumb foreigners come to gawk, the Caput Mundi has supplied robbers alert to relieve them of their opes mundi.
And as it happens, that’s been for quite a long time. They don’t call it the Eternal City for nothing.
Ponte Sant’Angelo. (Hanged corpses not included.) The bridge was built by Emperor Hadrian in the early second century. (cc) image from Jimmy Harris.
On this date in 1500, a gang of 18 brigands were all hanged (Italian link) along Rome’s Ponte Sant’Angelo for their activities preying on traveling pilgrims.
One of those executed was an orderly at the nearby Ospedale S. Spirito, whose particular specialty was casing the infirmaries for weakened patients
This death penalty venue facing the Vatican’s Castel Sant’Angelo across the Tiber saw plenty of traffic in its day. Bookending the other end of the 16th century, it would host the legendary execution of Beatrice Cenci.
On this day..
- 1909: Joe Gauvitte, wife-slayer - 2020
- 1861: Martin Doyle, the last hanged for attempted murder - 2019
- 1858: Peter Williams and Abraham Cox, to the air of Old Ironsides - 2018
- 1830: Ebenezer Cox, gone postal gunsmith - 2017
- 1870: Charles Harth, Prussian spy - 2016
- 1824: Johann Christian Woyzeck, non compos mentis? - 2015
- 1610: Roger Cadwallador, English priest - 2014
- 1853: John Hurley, medicalized - 2013
- 1628: Milady de Winter, Three Musketeers villainess - 2012
- 1679: St. David Lewis, the last Welsh martyr - 2010
- 30 B.C.E: Caesarion, "Little Caesar" - 2009
- 1979: Eleven by a Firing Squad in Iran - 2008
Entry Filed under: 15th Century,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Execution,Hanged,History,Italy,Mass Executions,Murder,Organized Crime,Outlaws,Papal States,Pelf,Public Executions,Theft
Tags: 1500, 1500s, august 27, pilgrims, ponte sant'angelo, rome
Recent Comments