No. 100
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
August 14, 2012

Steam Powered Reformation.

August 14, 2012
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Tag: Sex

Photography's Abuse by Blackmailers.

The Scheme of a Conscienceless Adventurer in New York - "Chippies" his Accomplices in Trapping Old Sinners into Hush-Money Situations.

9/28/2021

The Demi Monde of Paris.

You will Miss the Treat of Your LIfe if You Fail to Read It.

1/16/2017

Serpent and Dove.

10/2/2012

Love in a Railroad Car.

9/16/2012

A Terrible Punishment.

A father revenges an outrage on his daughter by pulling the wretch asunder; near Junction City, Kansas.

8/28/2012

Comstockery.

Anthony Comstock was on a personal mission to protect America from vice.

5/1/2012

It Was Another Kind of Cat.

2/21/2012

Another Voice for Cleveland.

12/13/2011

Hid the Girls' Skirts

8/22/2011

Recruiting For Sin's Army

7/5/2011

Sparking in Tompkins Square

Cupid in Tompkins Square

6/28/2011

Did the Naughty Midway Dance

Pretty Ida Lawrence gets arrested while entertaining some hackmen in Cincinnati, O.

3/28/2011
If you’re curious about New York’s Gilded Age, then you’re familiar with certain recurring family names—like Astor, Vanderbilt, Morgan, Rockefeller, and Roosevelt. But what made these elite families so influential? How did they reshape and rule the city’s business and social worlds while leaving a lasting impact on the city of today? Starting July 29 […]
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Ephemeral New York - 7/10/2026
"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
 Welcome to this week's Link Dump, which is so action-packed, not one, but four hosts were required!Two ships from the "dawn of naval aviation."It turns out that wild chimpanzees are pretty good drummers.If you're planning to visit the Grand Canyon, maybe think twice about that.I was in a happier frame of mind before I learned that there is a spider that can outrun humans.A really confusing
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Strange Company - 7/10/2026
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
The Confession of Mary Cole, 1813.Cornelius and Mary Cole lived in a farmhouse in Sussex County, New Jersey, with their two children and Mary’s widowed mother, Agnes Teaurs. Cornelius bought the property from Agnes in exchange for an annuity of $50 per year for the rest of her life. Mary and her husband did not live happily with Agnes. According to Mary, her mother was always very hard on her,
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Murder By Gaslight - 7/11/2026
Join us on our Facebook page as we begin counting down the days to August 4th and all of the events leading up to the day. https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/7/2026
  [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
Copper. | The Two Paths in Life.

Steam Powered Reformation.

Steam Powered Reformation

How the indignant citizens of Brockwayville, PA., ridded themselves of a nuisance by calling in the assistance of a plucky engineer and his locomotive.

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For some time Dominic Morillo, an Italian, has been keeping a house of bad repute and an illicit liquor shop on the property of the Ridgeway and Clearfield Railroad at Brockwayville, Penn. Every effort was made to close it up, but without success.

On the evening of Dec. 20 A. J. Cooper an engineer, ran his locomotive on the siding near the house, and a number of men fastened chains around the house and to the locomotive. Then the engine was started, and the whole building was torn form its foundation and completely wrecked. The ruins were afterward set on fire and burned. The inmates escaped unhurt.

 

From The National Police Gazette, January 12, 1884