No. 682
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
December 21, 2024

Revelry Rampant.

The orgies indulged in by Yale students and their female friends.
August 15, 2023
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Tag: Police

Circumstances Alter Cases.

The Gallant 'Cop' on the Crossing - Old and Ugly vs. Young and Pretty.

11/4/2024

Rogues' Gallery and Mementoes.

New York City Police, 1887.

5/14/2024

The Temptation of the New York St. Anthony.

A terrible struggle for member of "The Finest."

3/13/2024

A Way Out of the Sunday Difficulty.

Baffled Policeman, - Bedad, I can't arrest a machine!

10/22/2018

Renewed Activity of "The Finest."

The Police Succeed in Breaking Up Another Gambling Establishment.

5/14/2018

Slid Down the Firemen’s Pole.

How a plucky New Brunswick, N. J., girl won a wager from one of her doubting companions.

4/30/2018

A Needed Addition to the Park Police of Every City.

A "Life-Saving-Mattress-and-Net-Brigade" for inexperienced Riders.

3/27/2017

Raiding the Joints.

Superintendent Walling makes a raid on a Sixth Avenue opium den and gathers in a motley crowd of smokers.

9/15/2015

Shooting at the Elevated.

After-dinner pistol practice at the trains that rush by windows

5/7/2013

Blood on the Moon.

4/16/2013

Burglary Tools.

2/11/2013

"Four Aces."

9/25/2012

Copper.

8/20/2012

Killed By Cowardly Anarchists.

4/3/2012

Allan Pinkerton.

The Eye that Never Sleeps.

3/27/2012

Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes.

3/4/2012
 Welcome to this week's Link Dump, where it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!A deadly box of chocolates.A brief history of Devil's Island.A suburban Messalina.What may be the oldest story on Earth.A bit of current events weirdness: a mysterious man who keeps showing up at car crashes.A meeting with Napoleon on St. Helena.Christmas and an ancient Roman god.The famed Lincolnshire
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Strange Company - 12/20/2024
Included in yesterday’s trip to Fall River was a stop at Miss Lizzie’s Coffee shop and a visit to the cellar to see the scene of the tragic demise of the second Mrs. Lawdwick Borden and two of the three little children in 1848. I have been writing about this sad tale since 2010 and had made a previous trip to the cellar some years ago but was unable to get to the spot where the incident occured to get a clear photograph.  The tale of Eliza Borden is a very sad, but not uncommon story of post partum depression with a heartrending end. You feel this as you stand in the dark space behind the chimney where Eliza ended her life with a straight razor after dropping 6 month old Holder and his 3 year old sister Eliza Ann into the cellar cistern. Over the years I have found other similar cases, often involving wells and cisterns, and drownings of children followed by suicides of the mothers. These photos show the chimney, cistern pipe, back wall, dirt and brick floor, original floorboards forming the cellar ceiling and what appears to be an original door. To be in the place where this happened is a sobering experience. My thanks to Joe Pereira for allowing us to see and record the place where this sad occurrence unfolded in 1848. R.I.P. Holder, Eliza and Eliza Ann Borden. Visit our Articles section above for more on this story. The coffee shop has won its suit to retain its name and has plans to expand into the shop next door and extend its menu in the near future.
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 2/12/2024
At the end of a lovely brownstone row in Bedford-Stuyvesant is an empty space. Enclosed by a chain-link fence, the patchy ground here has been cleared of debris, save for some litter and a pile of wood remnants from a 2022 demolition. When these remnants are finally carted off, it’ll mark the demise of the […]
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Ephemeral New York - 12/16/2024
An article I recently wrote for the British online magazine, New Politic, is now available online. The article, “The Criminal Origins of the United States of America,” is about British convict transportation to America, which took place between the years 1718 and 1775, and is the subject of my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: […]
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Early American Crime - 12/17/2021
In 1898, Mrs. Ida Deane, of Dover, Delaware received a box of chocolates by mail from an anonymous sender. When she served them at a dinner party four people died of arsenic poisoning. Was it sent by Cordelia Botkin, the mistress of Ida’s husband?Read the full story here: Murder by Mail.
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Murder By Gaslight - 12/14/2024
Soapy STAR notebookPage 14 - Original copy1882Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge) OAPY SMITH IN CALIFORNIA♫ California's the place you outta to beSo he loaded up his grip and moved to Grass Valley ♪ This is page 14, dated 1882, the continuation of deciphering Soapy Smith's "star" notebook from the Geri Murphy's collection. A complete introduction to this notebook can be seen on
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 11/26/2024
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
"Stop Thief!" | Puck's Banana-Skin Manual.

Revelry Rampant.

Revelery-Rampant


National Police Gazette, June 5, 1886.