No. 645
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
March 19, 2024

Singular Specimen.

Singular Specimen of the prints taken by the police authorities.
May 15, 2018
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Tag: Abduction

A Square Meal.

A wolf in search of a square meal helps himself to a baby; Clintonville, PA.

3/21/2016

Chloroformed While She Slept.

The attempted abduction of Miss Hildreth, a Chesterfield, N.H., girl, by her lover, Fayette Haskins.

5/24/2015

Was Her Story a Fake?

Miss Alice Jackman, a St. Louis heiress, claims to have been abducted a second time.

3/2/2015

Abducted by a Woman.

3/31/2014
Encountering a ghost may be a strange, possibly terrifying experience, but fortunately they are rarely harmful.  However, every now and then there is an account of a spirit that is not just malevolent, but physically dangerous.  One such story was told by folklorist Mary L. Lewes in the December 1912 issue of “Occult Review.”  It concerns a couple named Mr. and Mrs. Caxton. 
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Strange Company - 3/18/2024
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HE DUEL IN ELLEN'S HONOR. Soapy Smith’s grandmotherOn Wednesday, August 9, 1820, an argument between 17-year-old, James Bowe Boisseau (1802-1820) and Robert C. Adams (unknown-1820) vying for the attention of 18-year-old Ellen Stimpson Peniston (1802-1860), took a terrible turn. The happy party in her honor took a tragic turn when the competition for Ellen’s affections ended in a deadly duel,
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 1/10/2024
Going to the theater has always been a beloved New York City pastime. But theater became even more thrilling with the advent of open-air rooftop gardens—which hit the scene in the late 1880s with the opening of the rooftop theater at the Casino on Broadway and 39th Street. It wasn’t just the cool breezes that […]
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Ephemeral New York - 3/18/2024
An article I recently wrote for the British online magazine, New Politic, is now available online. The article, “The Criminal Origins of the United States of America,” is about British convict transportation to America, which took place between the years 1718 and 1775, and is the subject of my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: […]
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Early American Crime - 12/17/2021
Dr. John W. Hughes. Dr. John W. Hughes was a restless, intemperate man whose life never ran smoothly. When his home life turned sour, he found love with a woman half his age. Then, he lost her through an act of deception, and in a fit of drunken rage, Dr. Hughes killed his one true love.Date:  August 9, 1865Location:   Bedford, OhioVictim:  Tamzen ParsonsCause of Death:&
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Murder By Gaslight - 3/16/2024
Included in yesterday’s trip to Fall River was a stop at Miss Lizzie’s Coffee shop and a visit to the cellar to see the scene of the tragic demise of the second Mrs. Lawdwick Borden and two of the three little children in 1848. I have been writing about this sad tale since 2010 and had made a previous trip to the cellar some years ago but was unable to get to the spot where the incident occured to get a clear photograph.  The tale of Eliza Borden is a very sad, but not uncommon story of post partum depression with a heartrending end. You feel this as you stand in the dark space behind the chimney where Eliza ended her life with a straight razor after dropping 6 month old Holder and his 3 year old sister Eliza Ann into the cellar cistern. Over the years I have found other similar cases, often involving wells and cisterns, and drownings of children followed by suicides of the mothers. These photos show the chimney, cistern pipe, back wall, dirt and brick floor, original floorboards forming the cellar ceiling and what appears to be an original door. To be in the place where this happened is a sobering experience. My thanks to Joe Pereira for allowing us to see and record the place where this sad occurrence unfolded in 1848. R.I.P. Holder, Eliza and Eliza Ann Borden. Visit our Articles section above for more on this story. The coffee shop has won its suit to retain its name and has plans to expand into the shop next door and extend its menu in the near future.
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 2/12/2024
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
| The Temptation of the New York St. Anthony.

Singular Specimen.

Singular Specimen of the prints taken by the police authorities.

Great is the mystery of iniquity! Verily man has sought out many inventions some blessed ones and some cursed. During the past week many hidden things of darkness have come to light, and some were full of mystery and wickedness. To show how seductive are the forms of vice, we have procured one of these prints which is a mystery.

You see nothing in it but a round-faced young woman, with a singular arrangement of her clothing, and below, an uncouth, plain piece of work, like a painting of some kind of architecture. Naw, who would think that that very print, innocent as it appears is when prepared by a simple process, full of evil. The lower part, being cut out as to form a curve, resembles a sort o tub, and when the white spaces are cut away and two fingers passed through, and into the piece below, the combination forms a sort of panoramic view of an exceeding improper character, and one which our modesty will not permit us to describe. We warn our readers not to try the experiment, unless, with the most virtuous intentions. As the picture stands, there is nothing indecent about it, but I our readers choose to make it so, after this warning, with them be the sin and the shame. We hope no one will be so wicked.


Reprinted from The Weekly Rake, August 20, 1842. (Readex, American Underworld: The Flash Press)