No. 850
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 10, 2026

Horses and Pavements.

New York City Enormities - The Broken Leg on Broadway.
February 10, 2026
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Tag: Montana

He May Be Lynched.

Miss Lily Dunkley, a Miles City, Mont., girl, refuses to marry Charles Snyder and he tries to kill her.

3/30/2015

He May Be Lynched.

Miss Lily Dunkley, a Miles City, Mont., girl, refuses to marry Charles Snyder and he tries to kill her.

3/10/2015

He Hit the Pipe

A Minneapolis millionaire, visits an opium joint and is carried out feet first.

11/20/2011
In the not-so-good old days, it was not rare for animals to be put on trial for crimes, usually witchcraft or murder, and summarily executed.  As dreadful as these events were, one at least has the comfort of knowing that in modern times, we have rejected such barbarism.That assumption, unfortunately, is not entirely correct.  In 1930s America, newspapers eagerly covered the grim story
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Strange Company - 4/27/2026
"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
There’s a curious pair of limestone row houses on the lower end of peaceful, park-facing Riverside Drive. Each looks similar from afar. They share the same color of stone, and both facades have bow fronts. But on closer look, you’ll notice that each sports different ornamental bells and whistles. One has a conical roof and […]
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Ephemeral New York - 4/27/2026
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 and paid $20 rent. The plan was to return to Rockaway that
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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
Their Sex's Worst Foes. | Song of the Great Blizzard.

Horses and Pavements.

Enormites

New York City Enormities - The Broken Leg on Broadway.

We flatter ourselves that, as a people, we are fond of horses. We are also fond of saying that we are a humane people. Are we? Let us lookt a little into the matter, and see whether each of us, disavowing to himself any part in the great inhumanity of the day, does not judge of public sentiment by his own generous impulses. "I love the noble creatures," says one of this class; "I would rather suffer myself, than treat them with cruelty. No reprobation can be too strong for those who daily torture some of them to death, and every man I know feels exactly as I do." It is hard to press a charge against a whole population in the face of individual disclaimers such as these, and perhaps, in charity, it should be modified into one of carelessness, or indifference to the horrible brutality Broadway daily witnesses, leaving it to each one to decide for himself, how much less culpable than the crime itself is the indifference to it in others.


Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, December 9, 1865.