No. 338
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
December 12, 2016

Left His Digits as Souvenirs.

The Misses Franklin, of Glenn Falls, Conn., armed with pistol and axe, put a burglar to flight minus
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December 12, 2016
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Tag: Jealousy

A Jealous Husband’s Mistake.

How a Reading, PA., merchant, broke open his wife’s charmer and discovered a supposed lover to be a harmless female cousin.

2/19/2018

The Green-Eyed Monster.

10/14/2014

Bloody Duel over a Woman.

J. Williams and A. Jabes, two Salt Lake City, Utah, Men, carve each other in a frightful manner.

11/19/2013

What Led to a Divorce.

What a Husband Discovered, and How a couple were separated.

5/20/2013

A Fiendish Husband’s Desperate Deed.

10/16/2012
GEORGE N ELWOOD
alias: GENTLEMAN GEORGE
MASKED BURGLAR

The Pilot's Return

During the 1950s, Martin Caidin was the official historian for America’s Fifth Air Force during his stint in A-2 military intelligence.  In that capacity, he had full access to military combat files.  In his book “Ghosts of the Air,” he described a story he found in one of those files that was reported from air force operations in North Africa during WWII--a story that he admitted was “
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Strange Company - 6/29/2026

Artifact #93: Soapy's son, hires attorney to stop the slurring of his father's name.

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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
Amen.

This controversial Union Square flagpole was created to honor America’s 150th birthday in 1926

The 1876 Centennial was an all-out party in Gotham—fireworks, military parades, musical performances, and thousands of American flags and bunting draped over the windows of city buildings, houses, and hotels. But the Sesquicentennial, or America’s 150th birthday? By comparison, it was much more low-key. The big national celebration took place at Philadelphia’s Sesquicentennial International Exposition. […]
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Ephemeral New York - 6/29/2026

1617: A miller of Manberna, the hangman’s last

Youth With Executioner by Nuremberg native Albrecht Dürer … although it’s dated to 1493, which was during a period of several years when Dürer worked abroad. November 13 [1617]. Burnt alive here a miller of Manberna, who however was lately … Continue reading →
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Executed Today - 11/13/2020

Charles and Lizzie.

 Charles Kaiser conspired with Lizzie DeKalb to murder his wife for insurance. When the plot was uncovered and the murderers tried, both claimed that they acted under the hypnotic power of James Clemmer, the insurance agent who conceived the plan.Read the full story here: The Kaiser Conspiracy.
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Murder By Gaslight - 6/27/2026
On the Russians.

June 14, 1893 Big Day In Court

Be sure to stop by our Facebook page tomorrow for a Prosecution Marathon of witnesses. Here are the witnesses for Wednesday, June 14th, Day 9 Rufus Hilliard, City Marshal, Mayor John Coughlin, Mrs. Hannah Gifford (seamstress and dressmaker), Anna Borden ( wealthy socialite who was on Lizzie’s grand tour of Europe, distantly related to Lizzie), Lucy Collett (watching the office of Dr. Chagnon day of the murder), Thomas Bowles ( handyman who once rented a room from Addie Churchill and was wa
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 6/13/2026

Convicts to Maryland, 1773 by Peter Dickson

  [Editor’s note: Guest writer, Peter Dickson, lives in West Sussex, England and has been working with microfilm copies of The Duncan Campbell Papers from the State Library of NSW, Sydney, Australia. The following are some of his analyses of what he has discovered from reading these papers. Dickson has contributed many transcriptions to the Jamaica […]
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Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
Pretty Stars for the Southern Dives. | December 1860.

Left His Digits as Souvenirs.

Left his Digits

The Misses Franklin, of Glenn Falls, Conn., armed with pistol and axe, put a burglar to flight minus two fingers. 

Two girls frustrated a burglary the other night at the home of Col. Daniel Franklin, a retired merchant of Glen Falls, a thriving village four miles north of Plainfield, Conn. Col Franklin was away. The only persons at home were Mrs. Franklin who is an invalid, and her daughters, Emma and Matilda. They were startled some time after midnight by the noise of somebody breaking in at the rear of the house.

Emma took a revolver from the bureau, Matilda got an axe, and together they stole downstairs just in time to find a big ruffian climbing into a window.

The burglar had one hand on the sill. Matilda raised the axe and quickly brought it down on the hand, while Emma fired two shots. With a cry of pain the burglar dropped out of sight.

A light was struck in a few moments, and underneath the window were found two fingers which had been cut off near the hand.

The pistol shots aroused the neighborhood and search was made fore the burglar, but no trace of him was found.

Reprinted from National Police Gazette, December 10, 1892

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