No. 761
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
July 30, 2024

Counterfeiters Surprised.

New York—Base Metal Coinage
July 30, 2024
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Tag: 1850s

Grand Panoramic View

Of The East Side of Washington Street, Boston.

4/4/2023

Dogographs.

By a Fast Young Puppy.

10/4/2022

June.

Allegorical Representation of the Month of June.

6/4/2018

Turkey Shooting.

About the beginning of October, turkeys, young and old, move from their breeding districts towards the rich bottom lands near the Ohio and the Mississippi.

11/20/2017

October.

Above we give a representation of a portion of the work which occupies the New England farmer at this season of the year.

10/2/2017

The Valentine.

The subjoined engraving, the design of which is from the graceful pencil of Rowse, is more eloquent than words.

2/12/2017

January.

Allegorical Representation of January

1/2/2017

September.

9/5/2016

May-Day.

May-Day

5/2/2016

Floating Circus.

Spaulding & Rogers’s Floating Circus Palace.

4/11/2016

Chang and Eng, The Siamese Twins.

A characteristic group, representing Chang and Eng, the Siamese Twins, with their wives and Children.

2/29/2016

A Winter Scene.

Winter Pastime – A Skating Scene.

1/25/2016

Kate Warne.

Kate Warne, America’s first female detective.

5/30/2012

Allan Pinkerton.

The Eye that Never Sleeps.

3/27/2012
Eugène Bléry, "The Elm Tree" I always enjoy when someone manages to gain fame through unconventional and imaginative methods, so if an elm tree manages to put itself into the history books by moaning and wailing like a maniac, I say, “Congratulations!” and invite the voluble hunk of wood into the hallowed halls of Strange Company.Our story takes place in the English village of Baddesley. 
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Strange Company - 4/20/2026
"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
Fractional house numbers can be found across New York’s older brownstone and townhouse neighborhoods. Usually the half refers to an adjacent carriage house or backhouse, or sometimes even a basement apartment. But as far as I can tell, this is the only 3/4 fractional on a Gotham doorway or entryway. It’s at 184 3/4 West […]
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Ephemeral New York - 4/20/2026
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, May 31, 1896.)On the morning of Memorial Day, May 30, 1896, Mrs. Annie Cunningham had to go to work, while her 13-year-old daughter, Mary (known as Mamie), was home from school for the holiday. Mrs. Cunningham asked Mamie if she planned to go to the parade. Mamie said no, she wasn’t interested, and she planned to do housework and study. At 8:30, she said goodbye to her daughter
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Murder By Gaslight - 4/18/2026
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
The Convicts Returning from Dinner. | The Scandal Which Agitates St. Louis.

Counterfeiters Surprised.

counterfeiters Notwithstanding the extreme hazards involved, in these days of sharp detective service, the factitious business of manufacturing counterfeit money seems to keep a greater or less number of "crooks " at work almost continually. The latest capture in this line was accomplished in Brooklyn, upon the night of Thursday. December 27th, by Special Operative John P. Brooks, of the U. S. Secret Service force, who surprised three men in the act of turning out a rather poor imitation of the silver dollar. Some of the base coins were red hot in the molds, while the crucible, battery, milling - tools, and other paraphernalia, were in active employment in the hands of Messrs. Green, Cassidy and Kenney, the three men who constituted the gang. The two former are old offenders, both having recently completed terms in the Penitentiary for counterfeiting. The dollars turned out by their counterfeit-factory, upon the top floor of a tenement in Pearl Street, Brooklyn, where they were arrested, had been in circulation in Brooklyn for two or three months past. Mr. Brooks traced up their source, and planned the raid so successfully, that when the doors were burst in by the police the crooked alchemists were completely surprised, and surrendered without resistance.


Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, January 12, 1889.