No. 814
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 20, 2025

Cheating the Liquor Laws.

The ingenious patent which has been got up for use in prohibition states.
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May 20, 2025
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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
The Western Drama. | No Dudes Wanted.

Cheating the Liquor Laws.

Cheating Liquor Laws

The ingenious patent which has been got up for use in prohibition states. 

Some curious patents are taken out at the Patent Office. One last week—“cover for liquor flask”—would never be fully appreciated by its title. It is a design of a book, about two and a half inches thick. At the bottom end of the book is an opening for the insertion of the flask, the opening being afterwards neatly closet with a sprint, the surface of which is marbleized lie a book end of leaves. At the top all seems correct and regular, but the pressure of the thumb throws open a circular hole at the same time raise the neck of the hitherto hidden vessel about two inches within easy range of the mouth.

National Police Gazette, January 9, 1886.

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