the spanish inquisition had no budget of its own, so lived on the possessions and money of those it sent to the flames... which it had a clear incentive to do.

the practice of scalping dead enemies was introduced to the american colonies in the 1660's by governor willem fieft of new netherland. it caught on: in massachusetts, the scalp of a dead native american was worth us$60. by the 1750's, a male native scalp was worth us$134 in pennsylvania and a female scalp was worth us$50.

that was how the native tribes learned to scalp.

in 2015, at least 185 people were killed for trying to keep their land from being seized by companies - the highest number recorded to date. the countries involved were brazil (50 deaths), the philippines (33), colombia (26), peru (12), nicaragua (12) and democratic republic of congo (11). the industries involved were mining (42 deaths), agribusiness (20), logging (15) and hydropower (15).

amelia dyer, a married victorian woman of means, took in unwed mothers until their babies were born. if the young woman came from a wealthy family who wanted to keep the child a secret, amelia agreed to adopt them, for a suitable fee. she did the same thing for poor mothers, since being a single woman with a baby at that time meant there were few options other than prostitution or the workhouse, but she charged the poor girls much less. then, once the mother left, amelia murdered the babies - more than 400 of them.