No. 852
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 17, 2026

Their Sex's Worst Foes.

How the gilded vice of the metropolis fishes for its victims in the public streets, and innocent con
February 17, 2026
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 Welcome to the Link Dump, where this week, our Strange Company HQ staffers give a shout-out to Clarence, Iowa!Well, why not.  I'm sure it's a charming place.Where the hell is the Pedro Mountain Mummy?The tomb of King Midas' father.Graham Greene in Mexico.A look at supernatural smells.A German liner goes to war.A woman accused of murdering her sister.A mysterious object named Phoebe is
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Strange Company - 8/21/2026
  [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 […]
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Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
"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
(Illustrated Police News, April 3, 1886.)Agnes Anastasia Long moved out of her parents’ home in East Attleboro, Massachusetts, in April 1882. With her many male suiters, she was considered the black sheep of the family. Her father had enough of her bad behavior and, according to the Boston Herald, “refused to permit her to darken the threshold of his humble home.”She took a job at Streeter
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/22/2026
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
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Executed Today - 11/13/2020
$20 Bills on a Cane. | Horses and Pavements.

Their Sex's Worst Foes.

Worst foes

How the gilded vice of the metropolis fishes for its victims in the public streets, and innocent confidence is trapped by the fine feathers which disguise foul birds.

The police have recently turned their attention to the breaking up of the newest and most dangerous method of bagnio recruiting. It seems that it has been the practice of certain brothel keepers to send a couple of their star boarders to the railroad depots or ferries there to watch for and cast their wiles about fresh arrivals from the rural districts. A number of innocent country girls have thus been brought to shame and the infamous traffic will be broken up none too soon.


National Police Gazette, December 22, 1883.