No. 858
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
March 24, 2026

Sketches on the Rail.

Characters Found on a Passenger Train.
March 24, 2026
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Tag: Louisiana

Torturing a Lover.

6/26/2012

Terrible Struggle with Flame and Flood

The burning of the steamer John H. Hanna near Plaquemine, Louisiana, by which thirty lives were lost

6/20/2011

Voodoo Queen Marie

For over forty years, beginning around 1830, Marie Laveau was the most powerful and most feared woman in New Orleans.

3/21/2011
 Welcome to this week's Link Dump!Meanwhile, the Strange Company HQ staffers are hoping to make the 2028 U.S. Olympics gymnastics team.Navigating the Pacific, ancient Polynesian style.How to make a medieval king fall in love with you.  Although, considering what most medieval kings were like, I'm not sure that you'd want this.A murder that was "solved," but remains unresolved.The "Oz
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Strange Company - 9/4/2026
  [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
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
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
Belles of the Bowling Alley. | An Irishman and a Yankee Settle a Dispute.

Sketches on the Rail.

Railroad-Characters

Sketches on the Rail - Characters Found on a Passenger Train - Beats and their Games - Trying to Change a Shirt in a Tunnel -"Funny Business" in the Back Seats and The Palace Car State Rooms.


Illustrated Police News, February 22, 1879.