No. 614
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 08, 2022

Tar and Feathers.

Lawyer Iken of Rushville, West Nebraska, enjoys a treat at the hands of his neighbors.
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February 8, 2022
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Tag: Broadway

Naughty Anthony.

10/23/2012

Spectacular Scenes & Sights Down on the Jersey Coast

Poster for the 1898 Broadway show "Have You Seen Smith?"

7/17/2012

New York Society Classified.

11/27/2011
FREDERICK BENNER
alias: DUTCH FRED, FRANK BELMONT, FRE~ERICK BENNETT
PICKPOCKET, BURGLAR

Weekend Link Dump

 Welcome to this week's Link Dump, where our host will be Little Tim!Although I don't think he approves of us one bit.Watch out for the Skunk River Monster!The Los Angeles novelist who is forgotten at home, but loved in Italy.From "miracle vine" to invasive species: yes, yet another instance of government and unexpected consequences.A ramming disaster at sea.Europe's "hunger stones."Japan's
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Strange Company - 10/16/2026

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
Amen.

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

Carlyle and Helen.

 Carlyle Harris and Helen Potts.(The Trial of Carlyle W. Harris for Poisoning His Wife, Helen Potts, at New York.)Helen Potts, a nineteen-year-old student at Miss Comstock’s School in New York City, decided not to join her roommates when they went to hear a concert. Helen was feeling ill, but her boyfriend (secretly her husband), a medical student named Carlyle Harris, had prescribed a
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Murder By Gaslight - 10/17/2026
On the Russians.

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
A Bevy of Stage Beauties. | They Were "Soaked" in Every Sense.

Tar and Feathers.

Tar-and-feathers2

An exciting tar and feather affair occurred at Rushville, West Nebraska, recently, a man named Iken, lawyer and land agent, being the victim. Iken had made himself disliked by a large number of settlers by getting In their confidence and then contesting their claims by means of information thus surreptitiously obtained. A number of the victims took him from his office, stripped him and applied a coat of tar and feathers. forcing him at the point of revolvers to assist to decorating himself. Iken was then marched through the streets to drums, which headed the procession. Finally, he was ordered to leave the country and proceeded to do so as soon as be he got the tar and leathers off.

National Police Gazette, July 3, 1886.

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