No. 707
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
July 3, 2025

A Bold Robbery.

A Faro Dealer Despoiled at a Pistol's Point—A Stranger Loses One Dollar and Goes Away With $200, Which He Wishes Treated as a Loan.
July 28, 2021
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Via Newspapers.comFor this year’s Fourth of July, I’m bringing you something a bit different: A patriotic mystery!  The “Bonner County Daily Bee,” August 26, 2014:KELLOGG - Old Glory is flying high atop a large ponderosa pine on Fourth of July Pass. How the flag got there, on national forest land, is a mystery.At night the American flag, which is on the north side of the highway around
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Strange Company - 7/2/2025
Wouldn’t you love to have interviewed Lizzie’s physician, Dr. Nomus S. Paige from Taunton, the jail doctor, ? He found her to be of sane mind and we can now confirm that he had Lizzie moved to the Wright’s quarters while she was so ill after her arraignment with bronchitis, tonsilitis and a heavy cold. We learn that she was not returned to her cell as he did not wish a relapse so close to her trial. Dr. Paige was a Dartmouth man, class of 1861. I have yet to produce a photo of him but stay tuned! His house is still standing at 74 Winthrop St, corner of Walnut in Taunton. He was married twice, with 2 children by his second wife Elizabeth Honora “Nora” Colby and they had 2 children,Katherine and Russell who both married and had families. Many of the Paiges are buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Taunton. Dr. Paige died in April of 1919- I bet he had plenty of stories to tell about his famous patient in 1893!! He was a popular Taunton doctor at Morton Hospital and had a distinguished career. Dr. Paige refuted the story that Lizzie was losing her mind being incarcerated at the jail, a story which was appearing in national newspapers just before the trial. Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Taunton, courtesy of Find A Grave. 74 Winthrop St., corner of Walnut, home of Dr. Paige, courtesy of Google Maps Obituary for Dr. Paige, Boston Globe April 17, 1919
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 5/24/2025
How did New Yorkers get through sweltering summer days before the invention and widespread use of air conditioning? Well, a lot of it depended on your income bracket. If you were wealthy, you likely waited out the summer at a seaside resort like Newport or on a country estate cooled by mountains or river breezes. […]
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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 boatman working near the foot of Little Street in Brooklyn, on October 3, 1864, saw a package floating on the water. Thinking it might contain something of value, he took it into his boat. He unraveled the enameled oilcloth surrounding the package, and inside, covered in sheets of brown paper, was the trunk of a human body. The head, arms, pelvis, and legs had been cut off with a saw or sharp
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Murder By Gaslight - 6/28/2025
Soapy Smith STAR NotebookPage 20 - Original copy1884Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge) oapy Smith's early empire growth in Denver.Operating the prize package soap sell racket in 1884. This is page 20, the continuation of page 19, and dated May 6 - May 29, 1884, as well as the continuation of pages 18-19, the beginning of Soapy Smith's criminal empire building in Denver, Colorado.&
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 6/1/2025
  [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
Mixed Drinks for Six. | Pugilistic Females.

A Bold Robbery.

Beating-the-Bank

A Faro Dealer Despoiled at a Pistol's Point—A Stranger Loses One Dollar and Goes Away With $200, Which He Wishes Treated as a Loan.

A robbery, accompanied by a murderous assault which rivals in cool daring and reckless desperation the deeds of the James boys, took place, Jan. 27, in the Bijou faro rooms, at Seattle, Wash. A stranger, aged 22, tall, dark-complexioned and of a sinsister, desperate aspect, entered the room, bet and lost $1, and then remained watching the game. One by one the others departed leaving no one in the room but Dealer Burns and the stranger.

Suddenly the latter jumped to his feet, pulled a revolver, cocked it, pointed it at Burns, and sternly said: "Mr. Dealer, I'm in pretty hard circumstances. I must have money: Pass over $200 and be quick about it."

The gambler thought the robber was fooling, and looked inquiringly at him. He saw that his face was set like adamant. The robber said, sternly, "I mean what I say. Fork over the money, or I'll kill you where you sit."

The dazed dealer passed over $200 in twenties. The robber said: "Don't say anything about this and I'll bring you back $500 in a short while. Consider it a loan."

The robber walked toward the door. turned back and demanded $300 more. At this juncture two players entered the room, and the stranger thought it was becoming topical and began to beat a retreat.

Just then Dick Rickards, the door-keeper, came in from a back room and attempted to oppose the passage of the robber. The latter had a pistol in his hand and fired two shots in rapid succession. They entered Rickards' neck and ranged out-wan The second struck his right forearm, passing through the fractured bone. The robber passed down stairs through the saloon flourishing his pistol. Twenty men were in the saloon, but no one opposed him. Then he ran through an alley two blocks and disappeared among the tents.

The police searched all day, but were unable to find him, but he was located in the White House, a pleasure resort four miles south of Seattle, by Deputy Sheriffs McDonald and Brooks. They entered the house and a pistol fight occurred. Over ten shots were fired, but no one was hurt. The man escaped from the rear of the house and fled to the woods.

Rickards will probably die.


Reprinted from Illustrated Police News, February 15, 1890.