No. 406
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
January 29, 2018

A Wife at Auction.

An unsympathetic husband, who was in desperate need of money, sells his pretty wife to the highest b
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January 29, 2018
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Tag: Photography

A New Child Abandonment Trick.

How a woman slipped out and left a kid on a photographer's hands.

11/4/2024

The Craze of the Day.

The amateur camera fiend carries his deadly machine in all sorts of disguises, nowadays.

3/6/2017

Amateur Photography.

The only way to prove that you have been clubbed by a policeman - photograph him in the act.

4/6/2015

Photographed as he Died.

6/24/2014

Society Unveiled.

2/3/2014
EDW'D FAIRBROTHER
alias: DOCTOR ST CLAIR, DR EDW'D S WEST
HOTEL, BOARDING-HOUSE THIEF

The Plum Tree Hanging

I’ve noticed that in recent years, Halloween decorations have grown increasingly macabre.  In my neighborhood, at least, grinning Jack o’lanterns and innocuous ghosts are being replaced by ghoulish skeletons (both human and animal,) gravestones, knife-wielding devils, and various other ugly monstrosities.  Last year, a house near me put in their yard such a revolting handmade display of
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Strange Company - 10/26/2026

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
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

The Three Hangings, Lycoming County.

This week, we feature a guest post by Don Everett Smith Jr., author of The Goffle Road Murders of Passaic County (History Press, 2011).   In a previous post on Murder by Gaslight, “Revisiting the Goffle Road Murders,” Don presented an excerpt from his book. This week’s post, “The Three Hangings, Lycoming County,” examines the 1880 murder of Andrew Miller in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania
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Murder By Gaslight - 10/24/2026
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
Principles of Finance. | That Settled It.

A Wife at Auction.

Wife at Auction

 An unsympathetic husband, who was in desperate need of money, sells his pretty wife to the highest bidder, at Guthrie Okla. [more]

William Cardwell, an erstwhile Cherokee strip boomer, became hard up, and some days ago announced that he was going to sell his wife to the highest bidder.

The sale came off at Cardwell’s cabin, in Guthrie, Okla. There were hale a dozen bidders present, and as the woman was buxom and good-looking, bidding was spirited. John Insley, a grass widower of Guthrie, secured the woman, bidding $100 in cash, a colt, a horse, and a lot of household furniture.

The wife seemed to be wholly unkerned about the matter, and departed with Insley, smiling, after he had turned over the amount of his bid. The pair left for Texas in a covered wagon.

Reprinted from National Police Gazette, September 15, 1894.

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