March 5 | Lena Baker

June 8, 1901 - March 5, 1945: Age 44

Lena Baker grew up in Georgia, where her family worked for a farmer chopping cotton. At 20 she discovered she could make money as a sex worker, but when the county sheriff discovered that some of her clientèle were white, she was arrested and sent to a workhouse for several months. When released, she found herself shut out by the black community.

By the time she was hired by Ernest Knight she was an alcoholic. He needed someone to take care of him after he had broken his leg in a fall. Eventually, however, the relationship included her trading sexual favours in return for alcohol.

The community was scandalized, and Knight's son tried to break them up. "She was going in and out there and drinking and some of the neighbors complained about it," he said. "I went to Lena and said, 'Lena, this has got to stop. I don't want to hurt you, don't want to have any trouble with you and you stay away from my Daddy. Don't come back to this house never no more'... Two days later, I drove by, and she was there. I took her and beat her until I just did leave life in her," he said.

Another one of Knight's sons persuaded his him to move to Florida, but Baker came with him. When confronted by the son and asked to leave, she did, but this time Knight followed her, and they both ended up back in small-town Georgia.

In April 1944 Knight showed up at her house, drunk, and demanded she come with him to his mill. She tried to evade the issue by asking for money for whiskey and then hiding from him, but he found her and forced him to come with him. She escaped and hid again, finding herself some whiskey and sleeping at a convict camp. The next morning she went to the mill, thinking that would be the last place he would be, but he was there. He confined her there for several hours, telling her that if she ever left him again he would kill her. They struggled, she managed to get hold of his pistol, and she killed him.

When tried for murder she pleaded self-defence, but given the public outrage at a black woman killing a white man it is not surprising that the all-white male jury convicted her in less than a day. She was sentenced to death in the electric chair. On entering the execution chamber, she sat calmly in the chair and said, "I have nothing against anyone. I'm ready to meet my God."

In 2005, at the request of her family, she was pardoned by the George Board of Pardons and Paroles, who commented that a verdict of manslaughter would have been more appropriate.

Source: Wikipedia, Crime Library

February 18 | George Plantagenet

October 21, 1449 - February 18, 1478: Age 28

George Plantagenet seems to have been a rather ordinary man, with ordinary weaknesses, plunged into an extraordinary situation — that is, the dynastic mess already referred to on these pages recently with his great-great-great uncle, Richard II, and his neice, Elizabeth of York. Seems like February was a bad time to be royalty in Britain in the 15th century.

George Plantagenet, a.k.a. the Duke of Clarence, was the younger brother of Edward IV, the guy who deposed Henry VI, who was the grandson of the guy who deposed Richard II. In fact the only person who got the throne by direct inheritance during the 15th century who wasn't deposed and/or murdered was Henry V, who died of dysentery 9 years after he became king. And of the seven monarchs who ruled Britain in that century, a majority — Henry IV, Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VII — got the throne by means other than conventional inheritance. (Given the quality of life of those who had it... why?)

Back to George. It's very simple really, he got embroiled in some kind of plot against his brother Edward. Edward had him imprisoned and condemned to death. Legend has it that he was given his choice of execution methods, and he famously chose to be drowned in a butt of malmsey, that is, a giant keg of wine. Apparently he was fond of the stuff. It sounds like urban legend, but Shakespeare knew a good story when he saw one (as do I) and wrote it into Richard III. In fact Plantagenet's body was exhumed many years later and although not even the CSI guys can prove drowning from a skeleton, it was clear he had not been beheaded, the usual method of execution for those of noble birth.

By the way, I have a little souvenir booklet purchased in Britain many years ago that shows all the lines of succession of Britain's monarchs. I have had to refer to it so frequently in this past two weeks that it now practically falls open at the page showing the line between Edward III (Richard II's grandfather) and Henry VII.

Sources: Wikipedia; Montague-Smith, Patrick, The Royal Line of Succession

February 5 | Violette Szabo

June 26, 1921 - c.February 5, 1945: Age 23

Violette Szabo was an Allied secret agent in France during the Second World War. She was born in Paris, her mother being French and her father English. When she was 19, she met and married a French soldier of Hungarian descent, who was killed in battle shortly after the birth of their daughter in 1942.

She offered her services to the British Special Operations Executive, based on her fluency in French and her knowledge of the country. After extensive training she was sent into France to research munitions factories in order to establish efficient targets for Allied bombs. After one successful mission, she returned to France in June 1944, but was wounded by a German patrol. She insisted that her companions escape while she provided covering fire, which they did. Once she ran out of ammunition, she was captured.

She was tortured and interrogated but revealed nothing. She was transferred to eight different prisons during her incarceration; when she was in one lightly guarded prison her comrades organized a rescue mission but arrived just two hours after she had been sent away to Ravensbruck, a notorious concentration camp for women, where nearly 100,000 women were killed. Violette, ultimately, was among them. After enduring hard labour and malnutrition there, and later in a labour camp on the Russian front, she was returned to Ravensbruck and executed by firing squad in February 1945.

Sources: Wikipedia, findagrave.com, The Violette Szabo Museum

January 31 | Guy Fawkes

April 13, 1570 - January 31, 1606: Age 35

Guy Fawkes was a professional soldier, forever famous for his involvement in a plot to blow up the House of Lords in London. Although it is his name that is synonymous with the events, he was not the mastermind; that was someone else. But Fawkes was the first to be discovered, and something about him caught the public imagination.

Fawkes was a Catholic at a time when England's Catholics were feverishly dreaming of a national return to the Church of Rome. It was rather unpopular to be Catholic at the time, there were a lot of rules about open practice of the Faith and a great deal of informal social prejudice. Fawkes kept quiet about his convictions and spent as much time as possible out of the country. As a professional soldier he had many opportunities to do so.

The staunchly Protestant James I (the Scottish king who had succeeded Queen Elizabeth only three years previously) was seen by Catholics as the biggest obstacle to the glorious return to true Christendom. A small group of conspirators decided that by blowing up the House of Lords, with James and his family and most of the aristocracy inside, they would initiate a general uprising across the country, supported of course by foreign troops arriving from the continent. Fawkes was put in charge of the practical details of executing the plot because of his experience as a soldier. Under his management, they rented a cellar under the House of Lords and began surreptitiously filling it with vast quantities of gunpowder and firewood.

Unfortunately for the group, some of them had consciences, or a partial consciences anyway: they were concerned about the few Catholics who would be present at the opening of Parliament. One went so far as to write an anonymous letter of warning to Lord Monteagle, who promptly took it to the authorities. At least, that was his story. Many believe today that he found out about the plot through his own Catholic connections, and concocted the "anonymous" letter himself in order to gain credit for the discovery and distance himself from the conspirators.

In the early morning of November 5 he and another Lord searched the vaults under Parliament, aided by a band of stout constables, and discovered "tall and desperate fellow" skulking around — Fawkes himself, disguised as a servant. They seized and bound him. The other conspirators quickly heard of the arrest and fled London, vainly trying to raise mobs of angry Catholic sympathisers along the way.

Meanwhile, back in London, Fawkes was being tortured for information. He was very strong, calm, and a fanatical idealist; he held out for several days (earning the respect of his torturers and even the King in the process). It was only when he learned that his co-conspirators had revealed themselves by publicly taking up arms that he began to talk, but even then gave only the names that were already known or of those already dead. By this time, it was a formality. Most of the details of the plot were known, and everyone remotely involved in it had been arrested.

Fawkes was sentenced to be hung, drawn, and quartered on January 31, 1606, along with three other conspirators (four others had already been executed). Visibly "weak with torture and sickness" he asked forgiveness of the King and state, but maintained his Catholic faith to the end. He was barely able to mount the ladder to the scaffold, and had to be helped up by the hangman. He was able, however, to mount high enough and then leap from the scaffold, breaking his neck and dying before being taken to the quartering table.

Under the public outrage against Fawkes, which was considerable, there was always a sneaking admiration, that has come more and more to the surface, the more time passes. To this day November 5 (the date of the discovery of the plot) is Bonfire Night, when children put together an effigy of Fawkes and then burn him. But he was also voted #30 in the BBC-sponsored list of "100 Greatest Britons" in 2002. In 2006 the film V for Vendetta, set in a future British dystopia, had the mysterious protagonist take Guy Fawkes as his historical inspiration. It includes a re-enactment of his capture and execution. Kinda fun (as these things go).

Sources: Wikipedia; Fraser, Antonia, Faith and Treason, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1996

December 23 | Tojo Hideki

December 30, 1884 – December 23, 1948: Age 63

Tojo Hideki was Prime Minister of Japan and Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff at the time of Japan's unconditional surrender in 1945. General MacArthur ordered the arrest of Tojo, but American military policy arrived at his home just as he shot himself in the chest. He had had a doctor draw a charcoal "X" on his chest at the location of his heart, but although he shot himself directly through the mark, he missed his heart and didn't die. "I am very sorry it is taking me so long to die," he remarked. "I wished to commit suicide but sometimes that fails."

Once he recovered from his injuries, he was tried and found guilty of a number of crimes, including waging unprovoked and aggressive wars and ordering inhumane treatment of Prisoners of War.

The Americans had determined that the Emperor himself should not be directly impugned by any testimony, allowing the Japanese monarchy to remain intact. The Emperor was presented as a figurehead who was controlled by the military, but in fact this was not the case. Hirohito, although not always bellicose, took a keen interest in the war and had considerable influence over military decisions. Thus when Tojo inadvertantly offered testimony that implied the Emperor had influence, the Americans called a recess, met with Tojo, and coached him to recant the problematic section.

Tojo accepted full responsibility for the crimes of which he was accused, and was sentenced to death. He was hanged on December 23, 1947.

December 22 | Constantia Jones

1708 - December 22, 1738: Age 30


Constantia Jones was a prostitute living and working in London in the 18th century. She was sentenced to hang for stealing 36 shillings and a half-guinea (about $600) from a customer.

The evidence for her conviction was the say-so of the gentleman in question, who stated that "As I stood against the Wall, [she] came behind me, and with one hand she took hold of . . . --and the other she thrust into my Breeches Pocket and took my Money."

Prostitution was very common (when hasn't it been?) and was tolerated in general, although the women in the profession suffered the kind of discrimination evident in Jones' conviction on the testimony of one person. Robbing the clients was not uncommon, as most gentlemen were unwilling to endure the humiliation of giving evidence. Guilty or no, Jones was 30 years old when she was executed, yet had already been in jail 20 times previously: a hard life, and one that ended in a noose on December 22, 1738.

November 26 | Hugh le Despenser the Younger

1286 - November 26, 1326: Age 40

Hugh Despenser was a nobody, just a landless knight, until he married Eleanor de Clare. Her grandfather, Edward I, owed his father a lot of money, and her hand in marriage was intended to stand in for payment of the debt. It really paid off when the unexpected death of her brother left her an heiress. Despenser suddenly found himself one of the richest men in the kingdom. Moreover his status as the nephew-in-law to the new king Edward II, who succeeded his father in 1307, gave him personal access to the sources of power in the kingdom.

Wealth: check. Power: check. What was next? More wealth and power, and as much vicious pleasure as he could squeeze out of life. Hugh le Despenser the Younger was a complete bastard. He robbed from anyone he could: rich, poor, anyone weaker than himself was fair game. He murdered hostages who didn't pay their ransom. He even had a noblewoman tortured to force her to hand over her lands. But his worst crime, in the eyes of the English aristocracy, was that he became the King's lover. Edward II was weak, unintelligent, and gay. Hugh le Despenser took full advantage of those qualities, and made himself the most hated man in Europe.

When the English barons forced Edward II to exile le Despenser, he became a pirate in the English Channel. When he returned the next year he once again became the favourite of the king and worst enemy of everyone else, especially the Queen. When she succeeded in deposing the King in 1326, le Despenser was captured.

He tried to starve himself before his trial but was unsuccessful. He was tried on a number of charges, found guilty, and sentenced to death by hanging, drawing and quartering. He was dragged to the execution site behind four horses, hung until nearly dead, then tied to a high ladder where the executioner cut off his genitals and cut out his entrails, throwing them on a fire below. Then he was taken down and beheaded. His body was cut into four pieces, each piece being displayed in a different city, and his head was mounted on the gates of London. Apparently the Queen was picnicking with her boyfriend on the execution grounds while all this was being done. It is also mentioned that le Despenser "suffered with great patience, begging forgiveness from the bystanders."

Sources: Wikipedia, Edward II (blog), Chronicle

October 16 | Marie Antoinette

November 2, 1755 - October 16, 1793: Age 38

Marie Antoinette was born as an Archduchess of Austria. Her mother, the Empress of the Holy Roman Empire and Queen of Hungary, was a formidable woman who read and signed state papers while in labour with Marie Antoinette, who was her 15th child.

The main job of a young royal female in those days was to get married as advantageously as possible, but since Antoinette had 10 sisters she didn't receive much attention until 1767, when a smallpox epidemic reduced the number of eligible sisters by two. Other sisters were already married (except one who was crippled and ineligible) so plans began for a marriage between the young Antoinette and the Dauphin of France. She was married by proxy in April 1770 (age 14) and was handed over to the French in May. She became Queen four years later, when her father-in-law died of smallpox.

Then came the French Revolution. 1989, with the storming of the Bastille, marked the end of any real royal power in France. Popular hatred for the aristocracy gradually and inevitably extended to hatred for the King and Queen, and by 1792 their legal power was abolished and they became known as "Louis and Antoinette Capet" and imprisoned. In December of that year Louis was put to trial for "undermining the Repulic" and condemned to death, which followed by guillotine in January. Antoinette, became known as "Veuve Capet" (Widow Capet). Imprisoned with her surviving son and daughter (two children had died in infancy), she fell into a deep depression.

Her 8-year-old son, Louis Charles, by rights the King of France, was taken away from her in July and given into the "care" of a cobbler. There he was mistreated and coached to hate his parents. In October Antoinette was put on trial for various crimes for which there was not a shred of real evidence, including the allegation that she had sexually abused and masturbated her son. The boy was brought into court and coached into accusing his mother, causing her great distress. The conclusion was pre-ordained: she was found guilty on all counts.

Early on the morning of her execution her hair was cut and her hands bound. She was put in a open cart and carried through the streets of Paris to the Place de la Révolution. When she stepped down from the cart and looked up at the guillotine, the priest whispered, "This is the moment, Madame, to arm yourself with courage." She replied, "Courage? The moment when my troubles are going to end is not the moment when my courage is going to fail me."

When she mounted the platform she accidentally stepped on the executioner's foot, and said, "Monsieur, I ask your pardon. I did not do it on purpose." These were her last words. She was executed shortly after noon. Her head was displayed to a cheering crowd; and her body was dumped in an unmarked mass grave in the Rue d'Anjou. (In 1815 it was retrieved and reburied at St. Denis Cathedral.)

Sources: The Free Republic, Wikipedia

October 15 | Mata Hari

August 7, 1876 - October 15, 1917: Age 41


Mata Hari is remembered as the embodiment of espionage and wartime double-dealing — and in a way, she was. But she had no particular interest in spying either for the Germans or the French. She was interested in surviving.

Born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle in a middle-class family in Holland, Mata Hari slept with her headmaster at the age of 16 and got expelled. Two years later she married a soldier 22 years her senior, but her equal in sexual promiscuity. They had two children before separating (the boy died at a young age and the girl lived only to the age of 21). The split was not amicable, and her husband vindictively cut off all her funds and took out an ad proclaiming himself not responsible for her debts.

Cut off from legitimate means of support, Zelle turned to other means of support. She moved to Paris and set herself up as an exotic dancer and courtesan, and lived very well indeed. Her admirers were numbers; her patrons rich and powerful. At the outset of the First World War she was living and performing in Berlin. In the belligerent and reactionary atmosphere public opinion turned against her, and she moved back to Amsterdam.

There, broke and with an uncertain future, she was approached by the German consul with a proposal to spy for the Germans. He gave her 20,000 francs and some invisible ink. According to biographer Pat Shipman she didn't take him seriously, simply accepted the money as recompense for the money and furs that had been confiscated from her in Berlin, and threw away the invisible ink.

The French government were aware of her supposed role with German intelligence, and were determined to unmask and punish her. They offered her espionage work, but turned her efforts into evidence of her spying for the Germans, arresting her in February 1917. At the time the French were under a lot of public pressure to "do something" about spies, and Zelle was a perfect scapegoat. She was convicted and sentenced to face a firing squad.

Mata Hari's whole life was a performance. She pretended to like certain men, to know sacred exotic Eastern dances, to spy for the Germans. When she really did try to spy for the French, she was betrayed. She had one more performance left. On September 29 she dressed in her best clothes, fixed her hair and makeup, was driven to Vincennes and strode out into the damp woods with her executioners. She refused to be tied or blindfolded, and blew a kiss to her lawyer (an ex-lover) and priest while waiting for the order to fire. "The sun was coming up when the shots rang out. Zelle slumped to the ground. The officer in charge marched forward and fired a single bullet into her brain, the coup de grace. An extraordinary life was over." (Tony Rennell, The Daily Mail, August 10, 2007)

Sources: First World War.com, Daily Mail

October 3 | Kintpuash

1837 - October 3, 1873: Age 36

Kintpuash, commonly known as "Captain Jack", was a leader of the Modoc people, a small band of Indians whose traditional home was on the California/Oregon border. In the 1820s an explorer for the Hudson's Bay Company established first contact with them, trading with their neighbours to the north, the Klamath people. In the 1840s settlers began to move through the area on their way to western Oregon. The Modocs, numbering at the time about 600, began to raid the settlers, and in 1852, after a massacre of a 65-person caravan (only 3 survived), the cycle of vengeance unfolded in its usual way.

In 1864 a treaty with the US Government moved the Modocs north to share territory with several other tribes in an area dominated by the Klamath. The land ceded did not provide enough food for the combined tribes, and poverty and sickness increased racial tensions. Since the US Government wanted to deal with one leader, the tribe was required to choose a single individual to lead all the bands (a form of government completely alien to them); the individual chosen was from the Klamath tribe and the Modoc in general were treated as intruders. The Modoc applied to the US Government for territory nearer their ancestral home but were rejected. In 1870 Kintpuash led a group of Modocs back to reestablish a village in their ancestral home.

The general outcome was inevitable. Both the US Government and the Modoc repeatedly attempted to negotiate some kind of settlement over several years of struggle and intermittent violence. After 3 years, Kintpuash's comrades began to doubt his leadership. In a complete misunderstanding of white people's culture and intentions, they believed that if the white generals were killed, the army would go away. During a negotiation, Kintpuash made yet another plea for a reservation to be established for his people on their ancestral land. As he spoke about their grievances, he suddenly shouted Utwih-kutt! ["Let's do it!"] and fired at one of the white negotiators, a US general. The warriors fled back to their camp and prepared to die in the fighting that would follow.

They did not — not right away. They held out until May, when Kintpuash and his lieutenants turned over their guns and gave themselves up. They were sentenced to hang. Kintpuash refused to name a successor, and the Modoc who had followed him were forced to witness his execution. After burial, Kintpuash's head was severed from his body and sent to the collections of the Army Medical Museum in Washington along with the heads of other warriors. The skulls were later transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. In 1984 the Smithsonian returned the remains to Kintpuash's relatives.

The remaining Modoc who had followed Kintpuash back to their ancestral land were sent to live on Shawnee land in Oklahoma, where many died of hunger and disease. Today about 200 Modoc live in Oklahoma. 600 Modoc live in Klamath County, Oregon, the descendants of those who did not follow Kintpuash. The ancestral language of the Modoc, the Klamath-Modoc Indian Language, has only one truly fluent speaker (of the Klamath dialect) left, and a few dozen other elders who remember something.

Sources: Answers.com, Wikipedia article on Kintpuash, Wikipedia article on the Modoc, Native Languages of the Americas

September 22 | Mary Easty

August 1634 - September 22, 1692: Age 68

In early 1688 a 13-year-old girl named Martha Goodwin began behaving strangely after having an argument with a laundress, Goody Glover. A few days later the girl's brother and two sisters started behaving strangely too. Goody Glover was arrested and tried for bewitching them, and when she refused to repent for her witchcraft, she was hanged. This was the first of the Salem witchcraft trials.

Four years later, in January 1692, some other young girls, including the nine-year-old daughter of a minister, began behaving in the same way the Goodwin children did four years earlier. The minister's daughter, when asked who was causing the behaviour, accused a family slave. Later she and the other girls accused two other women in the community, a beggar and a bedridden old women. The slave confessed and implicated the other two women.

Soon other young women in the community started exhibiting symptoms and accusing various community members, including a four-year-old child and her mother. Soon the jails were filled with people accused of witchcraft. Among the accused was Mary Easty, a well-liked woman of a neighbouring community. During the trials, if the accused admitted to practising witchcraft, they were freed. If they did not, they were condemned to death.

Mary Easty was accused on April 21 and examined the next day. Her convincing manner and community standing caused doubt in the judge's mind, and she was released on May 18. After this, one of the accusers redoubled her suffering and insisted that she was being tormented by Mary's "spectre". Mary returned to jail and was tried on September 9 and, denied her own counsel and not allowed to plead her case, was condemned to hang. Her final petition was written, not to save her own life, but as a plea that "no more innocent blood may be shed". It acknowledged the good intentions of the court but made a couple of practical suggestions: that the accusers be kept separate from one another to prevent influence and collusion, and that all the accused should be tried, not just the ones claiming innocence.

Easty was hanged on September 22. According to writer Robert Calef, "when she took her last farewell of her husband, children and friends, was, as is reported by them present, as serious, religious, distinct, and affectionate as could well be exprest, drawing tears from the eyes of almost all present."

In October the judges decided to stop admitting spectral evidence, and in January, 49 of the 52 surviving accused were released. In summary, between February 1692 and May 1693 more than 150 people were arrested, with even more accused. Thirty people were convicted and 20 of them executed (14 women, six men), 19 by hanging, and one by being pressed to death by rocks. At least five more died in prison.

Sources: Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, Search.com, Wikipedia's Timeline of the Salem Witch Trials, Salem Witchcraft Trials

September 11 | Beatrice Cenci

February 6, 1577 - September 11, 1599: Age 22

Beatrice Cenci was the daughter of an Italian Count named Francesco Cenci. He had a dubious reputation, and kept Beatrice and her mother virtually prisoners in his country castello while he amused himself with the vicious pleasures of Rome. His visits home were no picnic for the women, as he was said to have abused both of them physically and sexually.

One day in 1598 a great commotion was heard in the castle. The locals rushed over to find Beatrice's mother screaming, Beatrice "strangely silent", a splintered wooden balcony, and the Count's bloody body 30 meters below it in a gully of rocks and shrubs. He was definitely dead. In fact, oddly enough, he was cold. Moreover, when the body was washed, it was discovered that he had somehow acquired several stab wounds in the head that were not quite consistent with the notion of a fall.

A year of investigations revealed that the Count had been drugged and then two men had entered the castle and driven an iron spike into his head. They pushed the body off the balcony and made a hole in the balcony floor to make it look like an accident, but neglected to get rid of the bloody sheets and mess inside. Extensive confessions (obtained under torture) revealed that the men had been hired for this purpose by the Count's family. Both murderers died during the investigation: one ran away but got his head cut off by a bounty-hunter's hatchet, the other died under torture. Although Beatrice never confessed, it was believed that she had been the most determined of the conspirators, urging the men on when they hesitated at the last minute. The whole family was found guilty.

Alhtough Beatrice never confessed, nobody doubted her culpability. The Count was extremely unpopular and the common people had no trouble believing he had abused Beatrice. That, combined with her youth and beauty — she was thought to be about 17 — made her a cause célèbre. Widespread protest of the verdict did bring about a brief stay of execution, but in the end the Pope ordered that the sentences be carried out. (The family estate reverted to the Church.)

On September 11, 1599, one year and two days after the murder, the sentence was carried out. The elder brother, Giacomo, was publicly tortured to death. Beatrice and her mother were beheaded. The other brother, being only 12, was considered by the judges to have been too young to have had anything to do with it. Even so, he was sentenced to be present on the scaffold with his family to witness their executions before being sent to the galleys for a life of slavery. Today, Beatrice's ghost can be seen every year on the night of the eve of her execution, walking the Sant'Angelo Bridge where the scaffold was built, carrying her severed head.

Over the years the story of the desperate innocent girl driven to murder by her father's abuse seized the imagination of artists, playwrights, poets, and filmmakers. The portrait by Reni (shown here) was a big part of that continuing interest; many wrote about its inspiring effect. Mary Shelley, writing of her husband's interest in the legend (he wrote a play about it), said that the portrait's "beauty cast the reflection of its own grace over her appalling story; Shelley's imagination because strangely excited." Stendhal wrote of "a poor girl of 16 who has only just surrendered to despair. The face is sweet and beautiful, the expression very gentle, the eyes extremely large; they have the astonished air of a person who has just been surprised at the very moment of shedding scalding tears." Dickens foudn it "a picture almost impossible to be forgotten", full of "transcendent sweetness" and "beautiful sorrow". Hawthorne found it "the very saddest ever painted or conceived: it involves an unfathomable depth of sorrow", and further wrote, "She is a fallen angel — fallen and yet sinless."

Modern historical research is such a buzzkill. Reni was Bolognese and didn't even paint in Rome before 1608, nine years after her death. It's much more likely the portrait is one of the Muses, and the link with Beatrice is a based on pure speculation ("probably the Cenci girl" written in a catalogue in the late 18th century). Moreover, documentary research has turned up a record of her birth and shown that "the poor girl of 16" was 22 when she was executed. Finally, there is some suggestion that she had an illegitimate child — a plausible explanation for her "imprisonment" in the castle.

It is obvious that the Cenci family was dysfunctional, even abusive; there is plenty of evidence supporting that. However this story, that grew into a rather simplistic drama laced with sex and violence, is deeper and more complicated than the myth.

Sources: Beatrice Cenci: Storia del secolo XVI (Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi), Screaming in the Castle (Charles Nicholl), Wikipedia