The Crime Book

202

S

ome 430,000 years ago, high

in the Atapuerca Mountains

of northern Spain, a lethal

assault was committed. The

victim, a young adult Neanderthal,

received two blows to the head,

just above the left eye. These were

made by the same implement, but

from different angles, suggesting

two separate, deliberate strikes.

At some point after his or her

death, the victim’s corpse was

dropped down a 13-metre (43-ft)

vertical shaft into a pit within a

cave complex. The remains lay

undisturbed until an international

team of archaeologists discovered

the site – dubbed the Sima de los

Huesos (“Pit of Bones”) – in 1984.

Historic revelations

The victim’s skull – known as

Cranium 17 – was found smashed

into 52 fragments, among more

than 6,500 bones belonging to at

least 28 early human individuals

unearthed from the underground

cave. It is not clear how the bodies

ended up there, but it is believed

they may have been deliberately

deposited in the pit after death.

This suggests that early humans

began burying – or at least

collecting – their dead far earlier

than was previously thought.

Scientific analysis of the victim’s

skull, which included a CT scan

and a 3D model, led researchers to

conclude that the owner of Cranium

17 had not died as the result of an

accident, but by violence inflicted

by a fellow Neanderthal. It may

represent the first case of murder

in human history. ■

AN UNUSUALLY CLEAR

CASE, LIKE A

“SMOKING GUN”

THE NEANDERTHAL MURDER, 430,000 YEARS AGO

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Atapuerca Mountains,

northern Spain

THEME

Earliest known murder

AFTER

5000 bce In an early Neolithic

settlement in southwest

Germany, 500 people – babies,

children, and adults – are

killed and cannibalized.

392–201 bce In Ireland, two

men are tortured and killed as

part of a ritual sacrifice and

their bodies dumped in a peat

bog. Their mummified remains

are found by workmen in 2003.

c. 367 ce At Vindolanda,

a Roman fort near Hadrian’s

Wall in Britain, a 10-year-old

child is killed by a blow to the

head and buried in a pit in

a barrack room floor. The

skeleton is discovered in 2010.

Modern forensic techniques were

used to study the angle of the two

fractures at the front of Cranium 17,

and recreate impact trajectories. The

results supported the murder theory.

202-203_Neanderthal_Giuliano.indd 202 02/12/2016 17:15

203

See also: Sadamichi Hirasawa 224–25 ■ Elizabeth Báthory 264–65

■ The Dreyfus Affair 310–11

O

ne October night in 1761,

Marc-Antoine Calas was

found hanged in his father

Jean’s textile shop. Deep in debt,

the Frenchman was believed to

have killed himself. His untimely

death was a personal tragedy for

his family, but as Huguenots

(Protestants) living in a resolute

and unforgiving Roman Catholic

country, their problems had just

begun. Crowds gathered and

suspicion ran rampant: it was said

that Marc-Antoine had been on the

brink of converting to Catholicism,

and that his father must have killed

him to prevent this. Jean Calas was

arrested by the authorities, along

with four other suspects.

A gruesome trial

The Toulouse magistrate asked

witnesses to come forward. Their

testimony was merely hearsay, but

in 18th-century France, that was

accepted as evidence. Calas’s case

went to an appellate court, which

voted to convict and condemn him.

The sentence called for Calas to be

interrogated under torture, in the

hope that he would confess and

implicate his four co-conspirators.

But Calas steadfastly protested his

innocence. He was then broken on

the wheel, strangled, and burned.

Soon after, the philosopher

Voltaire took up Calas’s case,

believing he had been wrongly

executed. In a press campaign,

Voltaire convinced many that the

judiciary had allowed prejudice

against Huguenots to influence the

verdict. After a three-year crusade,

Calas’s conviction was overturned. ■

MURDER CASES

PERPETRATED

WITH THE SWORD

OF JUSTICE

JEAN CALAS, 1761

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Toulouse, France

THEME

Wrongful execution

BEFORE

1673 American colonial settler

Rebecca Cornell dies in an

accidental house fire. But her

son Thomas, with whom she

did not get along, is hanged

for her murder after hearsay is

offered as evidence at his trial.

AFTER

1785 Anna Göldi, a Swiss

maidservant to a physician, is

accused of witchcraft by her

employer (and rejected lover)

and executed. In 2007, the

Swiss parliament declares the

case a miscarriage of justice.

1922 In Australia, Colin

Campbell Ross is hanged for

the murder of a 12-year-old girl.

The case is re-examined using

modern forensic techniques,

and Ross is posthumously

pardoned in 2008.

It would seem that fanaticism

is angry at the success of

reason, and combats it ever

more f u r iou sly.

Voltaire

202-203_Neanderthal_Giuliano.indd 203 02/12/2016 15:03