No. 348
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 20, 2017

He Was Coffined Alive.

A Sandusky citizen, the father of Capt. Jacob Garrett of Springfield, O., has a novel experience whi
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February 20, 2017
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Tag: California

Her Striped Stockings.

Bound to be in style - The expedient of a carriage painter's daughter at Vallejo, Cal., to obtain striped stockings.

11/30/2021

Vaccination from a Beauty.

Idiotic freak of some young men at Los Angeles.

3/9/2021

An Adventure with a Sea-Lion.

With open mouths and protruding tusks, they warn the intruder agents too near an approach.

3/26/2018

Thrown from a Balcony.

An Old Man in San Francisco Becomes Enraged at a Young Lady who Teased Him and Flings Her from a Fourth story Balcony.

1/23/2017

Trying to Scare an Old Maid with a Wooden Dutchman.

A wooden Dutchman, rather than no man at all, was what a sensible spinster argued when some practical jokers under took to scare her in Oakland, Cal.

7/11/2016

The Southern Pacific Railway Disaster.

2/11/2014

Hospital Horrors.

3/20/2012

Anxious For a Funeral

10/23/2011
JOE RICKERMAN
alias: NIGGER BAKER
PICKPOCKET, BURGLAR

The Groaning Tree of Baddesley

Eugène Bléry, "The Elm Tree" I always enjoy when someone manages to gain fame through unconventional and imaginative methods, so if an elm tree manages to put itself into the history books by moaning and wailing like a maniac, I say, “Congratulations!” and invite the voluble hunk of wood into the hallowed halls of Strange Company.Our story takes place in the English village of Baddesley. 
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Strange Company - 4/20/2026

Artifact #93: Soapy's son, hires attorney to stop the slurring of his father's name.

"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
Amen.

The most unusual house number in all of New York City is on West Fourth Street

Fractional house numbers can be found across New York’s older brownstone and townhouse neighborhoods. Usually the half refers to an adjacent carriage house or backhouse, or sometimes even a basement apartment. But as far as I can tell, this is the only 3/4 fractional on a Gotham doorway or entryway. It’s at 184 3/4 West […]
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Ephemeral New York - 4/20/2026

1617: A miller of Manberna, the hangman’s last

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

Mamie Cunningham.

(New York Journal, May 31, 1896.)On the morning of Memorial Day, May 30, 1896, Mrs. Annie Cunningham had to go to work, while her 13-year-old daughter, Mary (known as Mamie), was home from school for the holiday. Mrs. Cunningham asked Mamie if she planned to go to the parade. Mamie said no, she wasn’t interested, and she planned to do housework and study. At 8:30, she said goodbye to her daughter
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Murder By Gaslight - 4/18/2026
On the Russians.

Remembering Sarah Morse Borden

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

Convicts to Maryland, 1773 by Peter Dickson

  [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
Robbing a Corpse. | The Valentine.

He Was Coffined Alive.

He Was Coffined Alive

A Sandusky citizen, the father of Capt. Jacob Garrett of Springfield, O., has a novel experience which he will not soon forget. [more]

Captain Jacob Garrett, of Springfield, O., recently received a telegram notifying him of the death of his father, at Sandusky. Mr. Garrett left at once for Columbus, where the funeral was to be held.

The coffin was opened of a last look, when signs of life were perceived.

Restoratives were brought and a physician summoned, and in a short time the supposed dead man was able to speak. H has taken to a bed, and now lies there very weak and ill, but still alive, and his relatives are not without hope that he may yet be wrested from death’s grip.

Reprinted from National Police Gazette, January 18, 1890.

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