No. 195
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
March 24, 2014

What it is Coming to in Chicago.

March 24, 2014
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Tag: Thomas Byrnes

Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes.

3/4/2012

The Sawdust Game

The "sawdust game," was a confidence scam that only swindled those who deserved to be swindled.

1/10/2012

The Bunco Game

The term “bunco” has come to mean to any type of swindle, but in the 19th century it usually referred to a confidence game involving crooked gambling.

5/17/2011

Bank Heist

The Audacity of a Professional Thief.

4/3/2011
 Welcome to this week's Link Dump, where the Strange Company HQ staffers wish you a lucky Friday the 13th!Watch out for the Beast of Bladenboro!J.R.R. Tolkien and Catholicism.A book for a 15th century prince.A tale of love and revenge in medieval Cyprus.The enigma of Saki, one of my favorite short-story writers.Some object is speeding towards our planet, and scientists have no idea what it
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Strange Company - 11/13/2026
  [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
(Illustrated Police News, Feb. 15. 1879)Molly McGlew (aka Mary McGlew) and her friend Ada McLaughlin stood on South Street in Indianapolis on the night of September 19, 1878, when Louis Guetig approached them. Molly had recently broken up with Louis, and she was not happy to see him. She worked as a dining room girl at the Spencer House hotel where Louis Guetig was the night clerk.  He was
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Murder By Gaslight - 11/7/2026
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
Abducted by a Woman. | Thimble Rig A La Mode.

What it is Coming to in Chicago.

Chicago

Suggestions for an evening costume. [more]

“The respectable citizens of Chicago are making an effort to rescue the city from the control of the disorderly classes. It is doubtless to-day the worst governed of the large cities in the country, and the effort to rescue it from those who have disgraced its name has been none too soon.” - N. Y. Tribune.

Quoted in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, March 31, 1883.