No. 359
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 02, 2017

A Duel on Horseback.

Two rivals for the affections of an Arkansas belle fight a desperate battle with knives.
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May 2, 2017
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Tag: Football

A Great Game of Football.

Fair college students engage in a rough-and-tumble chase after the pigskin.

11/7/2023

Fierce Football.

The great game recently played between teams representing the colleges of Princeton and Yale, on the former's grounds, Thanksgiving Day.

11/23/2015

She Went into the Scrimmage.

Mrs. Miller Forcibly Removes Her Two Sons form a Football Game at Bridgeport, Conn.

12/8/2014

Collegians at Football.

12/10/2013
ALBERT CROPSEY
alias: WILLIAMS
HOTEL THIEF

The Great Eater of Kent

Some people make it into the history books by becoming world leaders.  Some do so through acts of daring or heroism.  Some do so by creating immortal works of art.  And some, like the hero of today’s post, do so by eating an entire sheep in one sitting.It’s a funny old world.About all we know for sure about Nicholas Wood of Harrietsham, Kent, England, is that he would have been a
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Strange Company - 7/20/2026

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
Amen.

The spiteful family feud behind one of New York’s oldest and most luxurious hotels

A visitor to today’s recently restored Waldorf Astoria might be dazzled by the Art Deco design, the luxurious lobby, and the ghosts of all the actors, inventors, and heads of state who made it their temporary home. What that visitor might not realize is that “the hypen”—as the hotel was called before the hyphen was […]
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Ephemeral New York - 7/20/2026

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 Tell-Tale Skull.

(Philadelphia Inquirer, April 29, 1895.)Johanna Gahan married Jimmy Logue, a professional thief, in 1871, just as he was preparing to serve a seven-year prison sentence for burglary. She waited for him, and after his release, Jimmy bought a house for them in Philadelphia. Within a year, Jimmy was off on a “thieving expedition” to Boston. When he returned, Johanna was gone. Those who knew Jimmy
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Murder By Gaslight - 7/18/2026
On the Russians.

Countdown to the Crime

Join us on our Facebook page as we begin counting down the days to August 4th and all of the events leading up to the day. https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/7/2026

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
Photography's Abuse by Blackmailers. | Customs Inspections on the Canadian Frontier.

A Duel on Horseback.

Duel on Horseback

Two rivals for the affections of an Arkansas belle fight a desperate battle with knives and are horribly mangled near Bear Creek. 

Two young men, cousins, named Austin Guthrie and Franklin Meyers, near Bear Creek, Ark., rivals for the affections of a young girl, quarreled and proceeded to blows. Both were on horseback, and drawing their knives they commenced a contest which lasted several minutes, both receiving fatal wounds. Meyers's arm was almost severed from the body and he was horribly about the face and breast. Guthrie was fearfully wounded in the head and body. Both fainted and fell from their horses. They were found unconscious in a pool of blood by the roadside.

Reprinted from National Police Gazette, October 27, 1883.

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