No. 77
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
April 03, 2012

Killed By Cowardly Anarchists.

April 3, 2012
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Tag: Fire

Burning of Steamers at Cincinnati.

Burning of Steamers on the Ohio River at Cincinnati May 17, 1869.

9/17/2018

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

What a New York Girl Did.

A vain girl makes a fireman wait until she fixes her hair preferring to risk her life rather than appear in public not “made up’; New York.

5/22/2017

Unmindful of their Attire.

A Fire in the Chicago Opera House creates a stampede among pretty actresses who rush to the street dishabille.

3/11/2014
The 1883 book “Shropshire Folk-lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings” included a story about what we today would call a “poltergeist” which appeared to center around an enigmatic farm servant.  While the tale purports to be true, at this distance of time it is impossible to say how much of it is fact, and how much is legend.  Still, it’s such a quaintly charming little curiosity that I wanted to
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Strange Company - 8/24/2026
  [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
"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
(Illustrated Police News, April 3, 1886.)Agnes Anastasia Long moved out of her parents’ home in East Attleboro, Massachusetts, in April 1882. With her many male suiters, she was considered the black sheep of the family. Her father had enough of her bad behavior and, according to the Boston Herald, “refused to permit her to darken the threshold of his humble home.”She took a job at Streeter
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/22/2026
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
Melancholy Boat Accident. | Allan Pinkerton.

Killed By Cowardly Anarchists.

Killed by Anarchists Calamity, Pennsylvania, Oct. 1893 - Mrs. Reese, of Calamity, Pa., Learned their secrets, and she and her husband are shot.[more]

Mrs. August Reese was murdered and her husband brutally and seriously beaten by anarchists at Calamity, a small mining town two miles south of Pittsburgh, Pa., the other night. Some time ago Mrs. Reese learned the secrets of the anarchists and her death was at once decreed

While returning from church Mr. Rees and wife were met by Moen Laisen and August Brice, anarchists, who at once opened fire. Mrs. Reese was killed at the second shot. The murderers then turned upon the husband and left him for dead. A party was organized and Laisen captured. Brice had already succeeded in getting away. Constable Hebaffer, of Calamity, says the murder is the direct result of the killing of a Frenchman a year ago. Brice cannot avoid arrest.


Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, October 14, 1893