No. 862
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
April 21, 2026

Their Daily Bath.

Girls Enjoying Their Daily Bath - An Inducement For Young Men to Go West.
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April 21, 2026
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Tag: Illinois

Spoiled the Chappies’ Fun.

Policemen of Aurora Ill. Break into a famous resort during an orgy and capture some well-known young men of the town.

6/18/2018

That Settled It.

A Chicago man wants a divorce because his wife sings Salvation hymns, gains his suit by having her give an exhibition of her vocal powers in court.

1/22/2018

Had a High Old Time.

9/12/2016

Unmindful of their Attire.

A Fire in the Chicago Opera House creates a stampede among pretty actresses who rush to the street dishabille.

3/11/2014

Taking a Criminal's Measure.

12/11/2012

The Diamond King.

J. I. Lighthall, better known as the Diamond King, was a charismatic showman and a master of marketing, but he was also a dedicated healer.

12/4/2012

Allan Pinkerton.

The Eye that Never Sleeps.

3/27/2012

Cursing In Church

Westfield, Ohio, October 23, 1887 - The Sudden Insanity of Rev J. R. Young. He uses profane language in a Sunday school at Westfield, Ohio.

12/20/2011
JOE RICKERMAN
alias: NIGGER BAKER
PICKPOCKET, BURGLAR

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com Here is just one of those minor little oddities that help keep life on this earth from getting too dull.  The “Boston Globe,” December 17, 1928:SANTA BARBARA, Calif, Dec 16 (A.P.) -There may be sermons in stones and books in the running brooks, but it was left for a Santa Barbara woman to reveal today that there is a Schubert melody in a pan of boiling vegetables.&
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Strange Company - 4/22/2026

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.

The most unusual house number in all of New York City is on West Fourth Street

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

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

Mamie Cunningham.

(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
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
| Bloody Duel over a Woman.

Their Daily Bath.

Daily-Bath

Lafayette, Ind., Girls Enjoying their Daily Bath in the River—An Inducement for Young Men to Go West.

The Lafayette (Ind.) papers are complaining in right earnest because troops of girls go swimming in conspicuous places in the river near that town. Many people suppose the paragraph is probably merely a device of Lafayette newspapers to draw the attention of clergymen on vacations and other pleasure seekers to the charms of Lafayette as a watering place, but the journalist do not exaggerate the matter at all, as we are reliably informed that any fair day, scores of beautiful maidens enjoy a bath, regardless of the comment of the admiring crowds who watch their movements from the shore.

Illustrated Police News, August 8, 1873.

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