No. 550
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
November 17, 2020

Anxious For a Funeral

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November 17, 2020
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Tag: Railroad

Sketches on the Rail.

Characters Found on a Passenger Train.

3/24/2026

Wantons' Wiles.

The Bad Girls of Gotham and Their New Schemes for Man-Catching.

9/10/2024

A Pullman Parlor Car.

Interior of a Pulman Parlor Car on the Pennsylvania Railroad.

7/16/2024

Interior of a Pullman Parlour Car.

The Smoking Saloon.

9/20/2022

Customs Inspections on the Canadian Frontier.

"Madam, is there anything dutiable in this bag?"

9/13/2021

Thrilling Railroad Accident.

Startling accident at the draw bridge of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad, Federal Street, Troy, N. Y., Saturday, Sept 23.

11/6/2017

A Train of Cars Rushing Through Fire.

Traveling through fire—Fearful peril of a railway train, at Cedar Swamp, on the Eastern Railroad, Maine, Sunday, Sept. 17

10/23/2017

The Women Screamed.

A gang of pickpockets go through an excursion train near Wabash, Ind.

11/15/2016

"Ten Minutes for Refreshments and Divorce!"

Our suggestion.-- A divorce court in every railroad depot in Chicago! Time saved, and everybody happy!

3/23/2015

The Southern Pacific Railway Disaster.

2/11/2014

"Four Aces."

9/25/2012

Love in a Railroad Car.

9/16/2012

Steam Powered Reformation.

8/14/2012

Another Voice for Cleveland.

12/13/2011

Crush Collision!

Crush, Texas, September 15, 1896

2/24/2011
CHARLES R TITUS
alias: DOCTOR THOMPSON
FORGER

Strange Days at the Lamb Inn

The Lamb Inn was a large, comfortable establishment in Bristol, England, with a long history, from the mid-17th century until it was demolished in 1910,  Over the centuries, the inn undoubtedly saw many strange and interesting things, but undoubtedly its most famous episode began in late 1761, when all hell broke loose at the hostel.  And, yes, I am speaking quite literally.Richard
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Strange Company - 9/7/2026

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
Amen.

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

"As his son I am proud of hisefforts to succeed in life"Jefferson Randolph Smith IIIArtifact #93-2Jeff Smith collection(Click image to enlarge) oapy's son hires a legal firm to stop the defamation of his father's name. At age 30, Jefferson Randolph Smith III, Soapy and Mary's oldest son, was protecting his father's legacy and his mother's reputation from "libel" and scandal. He was also
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025

Sadie and Clarence.

Sadie and Clarence.In April 1894, the murder of Montgomery Gibbs, a successful attorney, caused great excitement in Buffalo, New York. He was found shot to death in a driveway on Delaware Avenue with no clues to the killer’s identity. The police and newspapers investigated the crime, but they had no solid leads, and it remained unsolved. Then, in October, they received a tip that Clarence
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Murder By Gaslight - 9/5/2026
On the Russians.

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
A Newspaper Man’s Plight | The Edson Electric Garter.

Anxious For a Funeral

Anxious For a Funeral

Joseph Biberich, of San Francisco, has his wife measured for a coffin before she is dead. [more]

Joseph Biberich, a San Francisco. Cal., man, was arrested the other night for disturbing the peace. Blberich has been married only six months, and his wife lies on her deathbed, cared for by a nurse and attended by kind-hearted neighbors. Biberich got drunk and tried to drive tho nurse from the bedside.Then the police interfered.

The nurse says he has openly threatened to poison his wife, and has pinched and beaten her while she lay powerless in bed. He called in an undertaker and had his wife measured for a coflin. Then be purchased a burial lot and made arrangements for the funeral. His wife has some property which, the nurse says, Biberich wants to get hold of.

The National Police Gazette, October 10, 1891

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