No. 675
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
January 24, 2023

In a Deadly Folding-Bed.

January 24, 2023
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Tag: Crime

Garrotting.

To Choke.

8/12/2025

What it is Coming to in Chicago.

3/24/2014

Mother Mandelbaum's Secrets.

4/23/2013

Beauty as a Shield.

Beauty Conquers avarice and outlawry "We won't rob this house to-night."

7/24/2012

Allan Pinkerton.

The Eye that Never Sleeps.

3/27/2012

Hospital Horrors.

3/20/2012

Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes.

3/4/2012

Driven by Delusion

Henry Goodwin entered the office of his partner, Albert Swan, pulled out a revolver and shot him.

11/14/2011

Whipped By Women

11/8/2011

Anxious For a Funeral

10/23/2011

Trixie Got the Best of It.

Two Little Gem Theatre, Buffalo, N. Y., Soubrettes have a scrap on account of a man.

10/8/2011

The Astor Place Riot

8/15/2011

The Swindling Beggar

7/11/2011
Via Newspapers.comHere's one for the Weird Wills file--with a boffo surprise ending!  The "Rockford Daily Republican," April 4, 1911:Buchanan, Mich., April 4 — Shortly before the death of Hodson Burton, five years ago, he talked into the horn of a phonograph and had the record preserved. It was placed in the hands of his lawyer, with the request that it be concealed in his safe. When
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Strange Company - 4/15/2026
"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
Conceived as a romantic English landscape garden and enhanced by sloping contours, rock outcroppings, and dramatic river views, Riverside Park began opening in stages in the 1870s. Since then, it’s undergone a lot of changes—and it helps to click into the image above to see them. For starters, the original Riverside Park only stretched from […]
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Ephemeral New York - 4/13/2026
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
New York Evening Journal, March 18, 1898.Helen Kahlert, a washerwoman, came home from work at 8:00 on the evening of Wednesday, May 30, 1894. After working all day at a home on Park Avenue in New York City, she climbed the stairs to the humble, second-floor apartment on East 61st Street that she shared with Minnie Weldt. To her surprise, the door was unlocked, and the apartment was dark. Minnie
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Murder By Gaslight - 4/11/2026
Whatever you believe about the guilt or innocence of Lizzie Borden, I have always believed film makers do a great injustice to the story by not beginning at the beginning- the death on March 26, 1863 of the first Mrs. Borden. In the dying moments of Sarah Morse, Emma takes on the weight of the care of her little sister, not yet three years old. Emma herself was just 12 on March 1st. Emma has seen her mother suffer for a long time, seen her pain and loss of little Alice Esther. Emma is old enough
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 3/26/2026
  [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
$20-Bills on a Cane. | Thrilling Railroad Accident.

In a Deadly Folding-Bed.

Deadly Folding-Bed Two sleeping girls are imprisoned and one of them is nearly killed at Louisville, KY. 

Miss Lena Summers and Miss Nellie Mitchell were caught in a folding-bed recently in the fashionable boarding-house of Mrs. H.L. Mitchell, in Broadway, at Louisville, Ky. Miss Mitchell was not much hurt, but Miss Summers was unconscious when rescued, and has not yet regained her senses. No bones were broken, but her face is swelled, and the doctors believe she has sustained internal injuries that may prove dangerous. The accident happened about 2 o’clock in the morning. The house was aroused by the smothered shrieks of the girls. The bed was let down with difficulty, but in time to save them from suffocation. The girls had been asleep at the time, and the cause of the bed’s queer action cannot bue surmised. It is the second time it has acted in this way. Si months ago it flew up while occupied by a Miss Johnson, who was, however, rescored unhurt but badly scared. The bed is of the ordinary pattern.


Reprinted from the National Police Gazette, December 8, 1894