Syllabus for the History of Crime in America
Steve Marrs


1st Six Weeks ----

1) Introduction to the History of Crime in America
2) “The Salem Witch Trials”(1 week)
a) What caused the hysteria?
b) Economic and religious factors
c) Puritan lifestyle
3) The Bill of Rights (2 weeks)
a) What are these?
b) Why are they necessary?
c) Research court cases involving each of the Bill of Rights
d) Guest speaker from the Longview Police Dept.
4) Civil War Era (3weeks)
a) Bleeding Kansas
b) The assassination of Abraham Lincoln (conspiracy theories)
c) The rise of the Ku Klux klan
d) Andersonville

2nd Six Weeks ----

1) The Wild West (The Sacketts)
a) Famous Outlaws
1) Jesse James
2) Billy the Kid
3) Dalton Gang
4) Sam Bass
5) Butch Cassidy the Sundance Kid
6) John Wesley Harden
b) Gunslingers v. Lawmen
1) “Tombstone”
c) Rise of the Texas Ranger
d) Indian Problems
1) Little Big Horn
2) Wounded Knee
2) The 1920’s
a) Prohibition
1) The rise of organized crime
2) Chicago and mob warfare
b) Important people
1) Bonnie and Clyde
2) John Dillinger
3) Al Capone
4) Eliot Ness
5) Murder, Inc.


3rd Six Weeks

1) The 60’s and 70’s (3 weeks)
a) The assassination of JFK
b) Serial Killers
1) Boston Strangler
2) Richard Speck
3) Ted Bundy
4) Son of Sam
5) Charles Manson
6) John Wayne Gacy
7) Albert Fish
8) Eddie Gein
9) The Night Stalker
2) The Modern Era
a) O. J. Simpson
b) Terrorism
1) Oklahoma City
2) World Trade Center
3) 9/11