No. 164
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
August 27, 2013

A Bride’s Toggery.

An inquisitive male sees the contents of a bride
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August 27, 2013
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Tag: Washington D.C.

Crooks at the Capitol.

Noted Criminals Collared Inauguration Week.

2/26/2025

Reward.

The Post Office Department will pay the sum of ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS REWARD, each, for the capture of Joseph Killoran, Harry Russell, and Charles Allen.

7/25/2016

It Was Another Kind of Cat.

2/21/2012

A New Gag.

Her health drunk by a young lawyer in slipper-full of champagne.

2/7/2012

A Characteristic Present

1/17/2012
WILLIAM PERRY
alias: BILLY PERRY, GRAHAM, WILSON
SNEAK, PICKPOCKET, SHOPLIFTER

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.comThis brief, but particularly unsettling UFO account was given by John Keel in the “Staten Island Advance,” June 29, 1967:One rainy night in early March, Beau Shertzer of Huntington, W. Va., and a young nurse, were riding in a Red Cross Bloodmobile along Route 2 in the Ohio Valley. Suddenly, according to their story, a bright glare fell over the night-shrouded road. Looking out
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Strange Company - 5/6/2026

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 return of a 1970s Hallmark card store sign on a Yorkville street

The upside to a constantly changing city is the sudden resurfacing of a faded store sign. Case in point: the outline of the “Cards-U-Like” Hallmark store on First Avenue between 75th and 76th Streets. I’m placing it in the late 1970s because of the cute cursive letters, and the earliest newspaper ads I could find […]
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Ephemeral New York - 5/4/2026

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

Hannah Altman.

(New York Evening Journal, March 18, 1898)Around 1 a.m. on September 2, 1896, Samuel Meyers ran out of the tenement at 202 East 29th Street, screaming, “Murder! Murder! Police! Police!” Patrolman Tyler heard his cries and ran to the spot. “My wife is murdered!” said Meyers, “Somebody has killed my wife. She’s dead.” Tyler and another officer followed Meyers to a second-floor apartment.
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Murder By Gaslight - 5/2/2026
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
The Last Dip of the Season. | She Had a High Old Time.

A Bride’s Toggery.

A Brides Toggery An inquisitive male sees the contents of a bride’s trunk, and solves the mystery of fine figures, greatly to his astonishment; Sedalia, Mo.

What an Inquisitive Reporter Saw Which was Intended to be Strictly Private.

A freshly made bride at the Sedalia, Mo., depot went down in her pocket after her purse and discovered that it was missing. She came to the conclusion that it was in her trunk, which was on the baggage truck and having it set out on the platform, opened it and began a search, which was rewarded with success. The eyes of the newspaper fiend were greeted with more things than he ever saw before—more than was ever dreamed in his philosophy. When well dressed, a woman is fearfully and wonderfully thrown together.

The National Police Gazette, October 16, 1880.

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