No. 48
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
October 08, 2011

Trixie Got the Best of It.

Two Little Gem Theatre, Buffalo, N. Y., Soubrettes have a scrap on account of a man.
October 8, 2011
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Tag: Insanity

A Lunatics Ball.

Ball of lunatics at the Asylum, Blackwell's Island, East River, N. Y.

10/10/2023

Crazed by Politics.

Lendall Pratt, and aged Long Islander, kills himself while in a political frenzy.

11/7/2016

She Liked Her Lager Beer.

A Murray Hill belle, with a fondness for the Teutonic beverage, sets up a keg in her boudoir.

8/24/2015

A Terrible Scare.

7/8/2014

Undercover Lunatic.

5/26/2013

Insane Criminal Escapes.

1/27/2013

Cursing In Church

Westfield, Ohio, October 23, 1887 - The Sudden Insanity of Rev J. R. Young. He uses profane language in a Sunday school at Westfield, Ohio.

12/20/2011
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
Anxious For a Funeral | A Map of Woman's Heart

Trixie Got the Best of It.

TrixieBuffalo, New York, November, 1893 - Two Little Gem Theatre, Buffalo, N. Y., Soubrettes have a scrap on account of a man.

Pretty little Nora Nedihart and Trixie Morris were recently in a Buffalo, N. Y. Police court in sore trouble, and the cause was a man—as usual.

Nora and Trixie do song and dance turns in John Golden's Gem saloon on Broadway.

Nora wore a veil that concealed, as she said, "two lovely black eyes," produced by wicked Trixie.

It all happened on account of a German who went into the wine room of the Gem theatre a few nights ago, when the orchestra was crashing out love songs and the fairies were looking their most witching in short dresses. He was attracted by Nora's languishing eyes—not then in mourning.

"Trixie." said Nora, telling her story, "tried to queer me, and, as she couldn't catch my man, she pasted me, judge.”

"She tried to hit me with a chair ," said Trixie, "I warded off the blow and she fell, and the chair fell on her."

"Ten dollars fine, Trixie," said Judge King. "Pay it or I'll make it thirty days in the workhouse. And you, Nora." said he, "you go home and behave yourself or I'll send you to the Good Shepherd's home."

Then Proprietor John Golden stepped up to the clerk and paid the tax.


Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, November 25, 1893