3,576 articles
Paul Michael Stephani
Paul Michael Stephani (September 8, 1944 – June 12, 1998), the "Weepy Voiced Killer," was a Minnesota serial killer who murdered three women and attacked two others in the Twin Cities, 1980–1982, tearfully reporting his crimes to 911 until his voice was recognized after his final attack.
Paul Ruiz and Earl Van Denton
Paul Ruiz and Earl Van Denton were Oklahoma prison escapees whose 1977 crime spree killed several people across Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas; both were executed in Arkansas on January 8, 1997.
Paul Snider
Paul Snider, also known as Paul Leslie Snider, was a Canadian promoter and pimp who married and murdered Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten in Los Angeles in 1980.
Paul Vario
Paul Vario, Lucchese crime family capo and alleged consigliere based in Brooklyn, extorted JFK Airport labor, was convicted in 1973 tax and 1986 racketeering cases, was the model for Goodfellas' Paul Cicero, and died in prison in 1988.
Paul Warner Powell
Paul Warner Powell, Virginia murderer who killed Stacey Lynn Reed and raped her sister in Manassas in 1999; his taunting letter to prosecutor Paul Ebert after his first death sentence was overturned supplied evidence for a second capital conviction and his 2010 execution.
Paula Vennells
Paula Vennells, British businesswoman and ordained priest, was Post Office Limited chief executive 2012-2019 during the Horizon IT scandal; she returned her CBE in 2024 and gave evidence at the Horizon IT Inquiry.
Paulie Gualtieri
Paulie Gualtieri, "Paulie Walnuts" (Peter Paul Gualtieri), is a fictional caporegime in HBO's The Sopranos, played by Tony Sirico; nicknamed after a hijacked truck of nuts, with nine on-screen kills, surviving all six seasons.
Payton Gendron
Payton Gendron, white supremacist mass shooter who killed 10 Black people at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on May 14, 2022; serving 11 life terms after a state guilty plea and facing a federal death penalty trial.
Peaky Blinders
Peaky Blinders: BBC crime drama (2013–2022, six series) by Steven Knight about the Shelby gangster family in post-WWI Birmingham, named for a real 1890s gang, continuing via The Immortal Man film and sequel series.
Pear of anguish
The pear of anguish (poire d'angoisse, choke pear) is a pear-shaped metal object widely presented as a medieval torture device, but historians find no medieval evidence; surviving specimens are later fabrications or reinterpretations of gags and tools.
Pearl Hart
Pearl Hart (Lillie Naomi Davy, 1871–1935), Canadian-born Arizona outlaw, robbed the Globe-to-Florence stagecoach with Joe Boot on May 30, 1899, escaped jail, served time at Yuma, and was pardoned in 1902.
Pedro Avilés Pérez
Pedro Avilés Pérez, El León de la Sierra, was Mexico's first wholesale drug smuggler, active in Sinaloa in the 1960s-1970s, pioneer of air smuggling and mentor of Félix Gallardo; killed 15 September 1978.
Pedro López (serial killer)
Pedro Alonso López, the "Monster of the Andes" (el Monstruo de los Andes), is a Colombian serial killer born 1948 who confessed to over 300 murders of girls in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, was convicted in Ecuador, served 14 years, and vanished in 1999.
Pedro Rodrigues Filho
Pedro Rodrigues Filho (Pedrinho Matador, "Little Pedro the Killer"), Brazilian serial killer born 1954, convicted of 71 murders and claiming over 100 victims, mostly criminals; served decades under Brazil's 30-year sentence cap, released 2018, killed 5 March 2023 in Mogi das Cruzes.
Peine forte et dure
Peine forte et dure, Law French for strong and hard punishment, was the English penalty of pressing with weights imposed on felons who refused to plead, abolished in 1772; Giles Corey died under it at Salem in 1692.
Pelican Bay State Prison
Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) is California's supermax prison in Crescent City, opened 1989. Known for its 1,056-cell Security Housing Unit, Madrid v. Gomez (1995), and the 2011 hunger strike; its former SHU is now rehabilitative.
Pelicot rape case
Pelicot rape case (Mazan case): 2024 Avignon trial in which Dominique Pelicot and 50 co-defendants were convicted of drugging and raping Gisèle Pelicot; it prompted France's 2025 consent-based rape law.
Penal colony
A penal colony, also called a penal settlement, is a remote settlement where convicts serve sentences of transportation through exile and forced labor, used widely by European powers from the 17th to 20th centuries.
Penal labor in the United States
Penal labor in the United States: work by roughly 800,000 incarcerated people, also called prison labor, permitted by the 13th Amendment's punishment exception. Wages run from a few cents per hour to nothing; output exceeds $11 billion yearly.
Penal labour
Penal labor, also known as prison labor or penal servitude, is work performed by convicted prisoners as punishment, ranging from compulsory prison work to convict leasing and penal colonies.
Penal transportation
Penal transportation: punishment by exiling convicted offenders to penal colonies. Britain sent ~69,000 convicts to the Americas before 1776 and 158,702 to Australia, 1788–1868; also practiced by Portuguese, French, Spanish, Russian, and other empires.
Penal treadmill
Penal treadmill (treadwheel, 'everlasting staircase'), invented by William Cubitt around 1817-1818 for Bury St Edmunds and Brixton prisons; a rotating stepped wheel climbed by prisoners as hard labour, in 54 British prisons by 1824 and banned in 1902.
Penn State child sex abuse scandal
The Penn State child sex abuse scandal centers on Jerry Sandusky, convicted in 2012 of 45 counts of abusing boys via The Second Mile charity, triggering the Freeh Report, NCAA sanctions, $109M settlements, and ongoing appeals.
People Nation
People Nation: Chicago-based street gang alliance, rival of Folk Nation, founded in Illinois prisons in the late 1970s and formalized in 1981 by Black P Stones, Vice Lords, Latin Kings, and Mickey Cobras; five-point star, number 5, left-side representation; now largely defunct on the streets.
People v. Lazarus
People v. Lazarus names several US cases, chiefly the 2015 California decision affirming LAPD officer Stephanie Lazarus's first degree murder conviction for the 1986 DNA-solved killing of Sheri Rasmussen; also Michigan 2010, New York 2013, and California 1929 cases.
People v. Turner
People v. Turner (Santa Clara County, 2016) is the Brock Allen Turner sexual assault prosecution: jury conviction on three felony counts, Judge Persky's six-month sentence, recalled judge, changed California law, appeal affirmed 2018.
Perjury
Perjury: the crime of knowingly making a false statement under oath about a material issue in a proceeding. Also called false swearing; related to subornation of perjury. Key elements: oath, falsity, materiality, intent; US federal maximum five years under 18 U.S.C. 1621.
Perp walk
Perp walk: the American law enforcement practice of parading a handcuffed suspect before news cameras, also called perpetrator walk. Key facts: Fourth Amendment limits from Lauro v. Charles (2000), DOJ policy prohibition, and 2018 survey showing under one third public support.
Perry Edward Smith
Perry Edward Smith (1928-1965), convicted with Richard Hickock of the 1959 Clutter family murders in Holcomb, Kansas; executed by hanging April 14, 1965; subject of Capote's In Cold Blood.
Persecution
Persecution, under Rome Statute Article 7, is a crime against humanity: intentional, severe deprivation of fundamental rights by reason of group identity, requiring discriminatory intent, distinguished from genocide by the absence of intent to destroy, first convicted at the ICC in the 2024 Al Hassan case.