No. 242
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 23, 2015

A Monkey and Dog Time.

The novel bating match in Van Wert, Ohio, between a Marion gorilla and a Fort Wayne, Indiana Canine.
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February 23, 2015
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Tag: Voyeur

The Scandal Which Agitates St. Louis.

Astounding Revelations of a Low Cunning and Vile Curiosity in One of the Proprietors of the Grand Opera House.

7/23/2024

Peeped at the Bride.

A little incident that marred actor Lawrence Hanley’s wedding night in Terre Haute, Ind.

4/3/2017

A Man under Her Bed.

Had Miss Baker looked under the bed before making her toilet she would have postponed it.

9/26/2016

His Peep Ends Disastrously.

William Peters, a Cincinnati dude, tries to mash Maggie Bolton but gets mashed instead.

8/15/2016
MICHAEL KURTZ
alias: MICHAEL SHEEHAN, SHEENY MIKE
BURGLAR

The Ghostly Coven Of Branden Farm

Ian Davison was a successful librettist, actor, and playwright on the London stage during the 1920s.  However, Davison grew tired of the big city theatrical life, and decided to retire to the countryside.  His choice of rural retreat was Branden Farm, just outside Sissinghurst, in Kent.At first glance, Branden seemed an odd pick for someone seeking a pastoral idyll.  The farm was
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Strange Company - 4/13/2026

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.

A birds-eye view of Riverside Park in 1934 shows how much this slender green space has changed

Conceived as a romantic English landscape garden and enhanced by sloping contours, rock outcroppings, and dramatic river views, Riverside Park began opening in stages in the 1870s. Since then, it’s undergone a lot of changes—and it helps to click into the image above to see them. For starters, the original Riverside Park only stretched from […]
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Ephemeral New York - 4/13/2026

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

Minnie Weldt.

New York Evening Journal, March 18, 1898.Helen Kahlert, a washerwoman, came home from work at 8:00 on the evening of Wednesday, May 30, 1894. After working all day at a home on Park Avenue in New York City, she climbed the stairs to the humble, second-floor apartment on East 61st Street that she shared with Minnie Weldt. To her surprise, the door was unlocked, and the apartment was dark. Minnie
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Murder By Gaslight - 4/11/2026
On the Russians.

Remembering Sarah Morse Borden

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

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
Was Her Story a Fake? | A Woman’s Flat-Irony.

A Monkey and Dog Time.

Monkey and Dog

The novel bating match in Van Wert, Ohio, between a Marion gorilla and a Fort Wayne, Indiana Canine. [more]

A fight between the thoroughbred English bulldog Jack and an African gorilla occurred recently at Van Wert, Ohio. The dog was owned by W. H. Steward, of Fort Wayne, Ind., and weighed about forty pounds. The ape belonged in Marion, Ind., and was nearly twice as heavy. The stakes were a $1000 purse. As soon as the animals faced each other the dog fastened his teeth in the ape’s neck, but seemed unable to penetrate the thick hide of the latter. Quick as a flash the gorilla had the dog in his long arms and broke his back by main strength. He sunk his long tusks repeatedly into the neck and spine of the bulldog until the blood flowed in streams. The dog was utterly helpless, and his owner threw up the sponge to save him from being killed just as the dog fell over dead.

Reprinted from National Police Gazette, January 4, 1890

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