No. 137
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 26, 2013

Imitating Old Times.

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February 26, 2013
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Tag: Rats

A Human Rat Eater.

An employee of the Boston Gas Works boasted his ability to kill a rat with his teeth.

8/14/2017

Hospital Horrors.

3/20/2012
JOSEPH GORMAN
alias: BROWN, CLIFFORD
PICKPOCKET

Weekend Link Dump

 Welcome to this week's Link Dump!Just watch out for Strange Company HQ's resident flirt.How the California Gold Rush birthed the modern world.The sound of King Tut's trumpets.I suppose the moral here is, if you're going to commit murder, make sure that the victim is someone nobody will mourn."Enigmatic tablets" from the Bronze Age.How a kitten joined an Ohio construction crew.19th century
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Strange Company - 8/28/2026

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 Attleboro Sensation.

(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
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
| Shocking Youthful Depravity.

Imitating Old Times.

Burning Dog A couple of boys imitate the people of the dark ages by burning a dog at the stake, just to see “how the thing works.” Galveston, Tex. [more]

Some Galveston boys were impressed by reading of the martyrdom of saints by death at the stake, they decided to burn a pet dog in the same manner. The leader in the movement had a theory that the poor brute’s sufferings would result in immortal joys, and so be a good thing for it. A post was driven into the ground, the dog chained fast, and a roaring fire was built. The boys sang hymns while their victim was roasting to death.
Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, November 13, 1880

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