No. 864
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 06, 2026

Pluck and Presence of Mind.

A Quick-witted and Strong-armed School Girl Saves her Young Lover from a Terrible Death at North Platte, Nebraska.
May 6, 2026
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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.comThis brief, but particularly unsettling UFO account was given by John Keel in the “Staten Island Advance,” June 29, 1967:One rainy night in early March, Beau Shertzer of Huntington, W. Va., and a young nurse, were riding in a Red Cross Bloodmobile along Route 2 in the Ohio Valley. Suddenly, according to their story, a bright glare fell over the night-shrouded road. Looking out
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Strange Company - 5/6/2026
"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
The upside to a constantly changing city is the sudden resurfacing of a faded store sign. Case in point: the outline of the “Cards-U-Like” Hallmark store on First Avenue between 75th and 76th Streets. I’m placing it in the late 1970s because of the cute cursive letters, and the earliest newspaper ads I could find […]
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Ephemeral New York - 5/4/2026
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)Around 1 a.m. on September 2, 1896, Samuel Meyers ran out of the tenement at 202 East 29th Street, screaming, “Murder! Murder! Police! Police!” Patrolman Tyler heard his cries and ran to the spot. “My wife is murdered!” said Meyers, “Somebody has killed my wife. She’s dead.” Tyler and another officer followed Meyers to a second-floor apartment.
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Murder By Gaslight - 5/2/2026
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
| A Woman Rescued from the Jaws of a Catamount.

Pluck and Presence of Mind.

Plucky

A Quick-witted and Strong-armed School Girl Saves her Young Lover from a Terrible Death at North Platte, Nebraska.

A few days ago, an exciting incident occurred at one of the public schools in Platte. Nebraska, the particulars of which, as we learn them, are as follows: At the school in question, among the other pupils are a youth of seventeen and his lover a miss of "sweet sixteen," who are dead in love with each other. On the day alluded to the pair were alone in the third story of the building talking soft nonsense generally and leaning out of one of the windows, with arms around each other, when suddenly the youth projected his body a trifle too far, the centre of gravity overcame the base and he started—very much against his will—on his downward career to the bosom of mother earth. As he began to slip out, and his horror stricken lady-love felt him receding from her fond clasp around his waist, her presence of mind came to her, and like a flash she grasped him by one leg as he slid from the window.

Luckily for her, and still more so for him, she is a young lady of rare muscular development, and on this occasion her strong of arm and lung stood the pair in good need, for with the former she held on like grim death, and the latter was quickly called in play to summon assistance, which came speedily, and the young man was rescued from his perilous position. After being safely landed in the room again the pension on her nerves relaxed, the reaction was too powerful, and the beautiful preserver fainted away. She was conveyed to her home and soon entirely recovered, since which time the young heroine has received the hearty and well-merited congratulations of the entire community. It is safe to wager that she will make an excellent wife, and we advise that youth to guard well the priceless treasure of the love she has bestowed upon him.


Illustrated Police News, May 20, 1874.