No. 53
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
November 08, 2011
alias: BIG JIM CASEY
PICKPOCKET, BANCO
Ever since the concept of the penthouse became fashionable in the 1920s, New York City rooftops have hosted lots of creative domicile styles. There’s a pink fairybook-like cottage on the top floor of a prewar building on East 52nd Street (once home to John Lennon in the mid-1970s), for example. And what would the East […]
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Ephemeral New York - 4/26/2026
"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
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
Welcome to this Friday's Link Dump!Our host for this week is the one-and-only Goody Two-Shoes!The power of pregnant medieval queens.A possible serial killer in 1890s New York.Decoding some political gossip from medieval Britain.The latest research on the Antikythera Mechanism.Is Shakespeare's grave missing his skull?Solving the mystery of Antarctica's ice.Possible evidence of Noah's
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Strange Company - 4/24/2026
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
(New York Journal, August 5, 1896)Annie Bock and her husband Jacob were spending the summer at Rockaway Beach. On Sunday, August 1, 1896, Annie went back to their flat at 207 E. 21st Street in New York City’s Tenderloin district to pay their monthly rent. She had $300 in the Dry Dock Savings Bank and on Monday morning, she withdrew $50 from the bank and paid the rent with $20. The plan was to
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Murder By Gaslight - 4/25/2026
Whatever you believe about the guilt or innocence of Lizzie Borden, I have always believed film makers do a great injustice to the story by not beginning at the beginning- the death on March 26, 1863 of the first Mrs. Borden. In the dying moments of Sarah Morse, Emma takes on the weight of the care of her little sister, not yet three years old. Emma herself was just 12 on March 1st. Emma has seen her mother suffer for a long time, seen her pain and loss of little Alice Esther. Emma is old enough
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 3/26/2026
[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
Waldo, Florida, September 1894 - Dan Wiggins, a notorious wife beater of Waldo, Fla., was dragged from his home by masked men recently. Wiggins was carried into the woods and lashed to a tree. Several women of the neighborhood, who sympathized with Mrs. Wiggins, were present, and as soon as Wiggins had been tied, they began to whip him. After he was beaten unmercifully, Wiggins was untied and left to make his way home. It is thought he will die from the beating.The Bloody Century 2
Takes the reader back to 19th-century America in all its gory glory.
