No. 860
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
April 07, 2026

Cool Break for Liberty.

Two Prisoners Handcuffed Together Jump from a Hotel Window in their Night Clothes and Escape.
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April 7, 2026
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Tag: Beer

Collecting Beer Money.

A gang of female rogues, of the East Side, New York, work a little racket of their own.

9/15/2015

She Liked Her Lager Beer.

A Murray Hill belle, with a fondness for the Teutonic beverage, sets up a keg in her boudoir.

8/24/2015

Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co.

6/11/2013
JOSEPH COOK
alias: GEO HAVILL, HARRY THORN
SNEAK, FORGER

Weekend Link Dump

 Welcome to this week's Link Dump!  There are no strangers here; only cat friends you haven't met yet.Feeling melancholy?  Try ostrich liver!In 2024, something left a very weird crater on the Moon.More deadly amusement parks.A very unsuccessful hermit.A new cat species has been discovered.  A darn cute one, too.Europe's first treatise on cheese.A sorcerer's magical diary.Why
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Strange Company - 9/25/2026

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

James Dougherty's Obsession.

Mary Anderson was an acclaimed international stage actress in the late 1800s. Among her many fans was a young Brooklyn man named James M. Dougherty.  He worked as a telegraph lineman and studied science in his spare time. He dabbled in a little of everything until, after watching one of her plays, he became obsessed with Miss Anderson. His love for Mary Anderson became his sole
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Murder By Gaslight - 9/26/2026
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
Bloody Duel over a Woman. | Belles of the Bowling Alley.

Cool Break for Liberty.

Cool-Break

Two Prisoners Handcuffed Together Jump from a Hotel Window in their Night Clothes and Escape.

Clinton West and W. J. Ninman were brought to North Manchester, Ind. from Union City in that State on Tuesday night, Feb. 4. to answer to the charge of burglarizing Rev. Kempi's house in December last. They were taken to the American House to be kept until morning. Expressing a desire to go to bed, they were taken up stairs, handcuffed together, and their boots and clothing taken from the room, and they were allowed to retire. Between two and three o'clock it was discovered that they had jumped out of the window, a distance of about ten feet, and made their escape in their night clothes and stocking feet. They went four miles south of town. where they entered the stable of J. W. Mease, stole two of his horses and lit out. Men following in hot pursuit caught them on the horses.

Illustrated Police News, February 29, 1879.

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