No. 339
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
December 19, 2016

Pretty Stars for the Southern Dives.

Fifteen charming chippies make Rome howl while voyaging to New Orleans, Louisiana.
December 19, 2016
...
...

"Indian Citizen," November 12. 1914, via Newspapers.comA frightening and inexplicable tragedy hit the normally peaceful town of Durant, Oklahoma in 1914.  According to Jake and Celia Amsel, a well-to-do, respectable couple, at about one-thirty a.m. on the night of November 11, they were awakened by screams emanating from their home’s outdoor sleeping porch.  They were horrified to
More...
Strange Company - 6/8/2026
"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
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
You can see it peeking out from the Harlem River Drive or through the chain-link fence of the Third Avenue Bridge: a five-story red brick building almost buried behind glass and steel apartment towers. The towers are newish luxury rental residences built on the Bronx side of the Harlem River. Shiny and modern, they bring […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 6/8/2026
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
More...
Executed Today - 11/13/2020
In 1830, Joseph Knapp conspired with his brother, John Francis Knapp, to hire a local criminal, Richard Crowninshield, to murder their great uncle, Captain Joseph White, in Salem, Massachusetts. They believed that if the captain died without a will, they stood to inherit a sizable fortune.Read the full story here: "A Most Extraordinary Case"
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 6/6/2026
As Mr. Moody for the Prosecution dramatically expounds on hatchets and grisly details, and a glimpse of two skulls in a leather case, Lizzie slumps over in her chair. Was it the heat or the ghastly descriptions?
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 6/7/2026
  [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 […]
More...
Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
Seeing in the New Year. | Left His Digits as Souvenirs.

Pretty Stars for the Southern Dives.

Pretty Stars for the Southern Dives

Fifteen charming chippies make Rome howl while voyaging to New Orleans, Louisiana. [more]

New Orleans, Oct. 23, - This announcement was displayed a few days ago in form t of the Pala is Royal, one of the low resorts on Royal street:

“Fifteen distinguished lady artists form New York will make their first appearance here this evening.”

It happened that there were only nine lady artists in the party, and they had arrived that morning from New York. During the six days’ trip by steamer from Gotham the artists had made things decidedly lively for themselves and the ten other passengers who shared with them the accommodations of the first cabin. The artists were not a particularly tough lot, judged by the lowest standards, but they were noisy and untamed, and they made Rome howl whenever the sea was smooth. When the artist ceased to be a novelty, most of the other passengers welcomed a good stiff breeze and the consequent indisposition of the ladies as kindred blessings.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, November 10, 1888.