Come with us now to a bygone New York State, before the days when it pioneered the electric chair, before the days when it was the world oligarchy capital — back when high crime in New York was a minor scoundrel who had gone so far as murder, and justice for same was the trusty old noose.

• May 28, 1829: George Chapman
• May 29, 1818: Abraham Casler
• May 30, 1868: Joseph Brown
• May 31, 1793: Ezra Mead

On this day..

• 1754: Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, the first Washington atrocity
• 1345: Arnaud Foucaud, jobbing trooper
• 1753: George Robertson, prick
• 1794: The neighbors of Susan Sorel, the female atheist
• 2015: A day in the death penalty around the world
• 1879: Alexander Soloviev, bad shot
• 1213: Peter of Pontefract, oracle
• 1829: George Chapman, besotted
• 1686: Paskah Rose, Jack Ketch interregnum
• 1872: Franks survives Fiji's first hanging
• 2002: Napoleon Beazley, who threw it all away
• 1871: The Paris Commune falls
• 1987: Valery Martynov, betrayed by Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen