No. 707
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
July 5, 2025

A Pair of Colorado Dianas.

The Sensation They Made in Leadville Streets.
November 4, 2024
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 The Strange Company staffers wishes all our fellow Americans a happy Independence Day!The dark side of the Tower of London.The dark side of small town America.A 16th century manuscript about Robin Hood.The mock mayor of Stroud Green.Once upon a time, there was an ancient Roman with really freaking big feet.Something that is not--in no shape or form, absolutely not, no way in hell--a photo
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Strange Company - 7/4/2025
Wouldn’t you love to have interviewed Lizzie’s physician, Dr. Nomus S. Paige from Taunton, the jail doctor, ? He found her to be of sane mind and we can now confirm that he had Lizzie moved to the Wright’s quarters while she was so ill after her arraignment with bronchitis, tonsilitis and a heavy cold. We learn that she was not returned to her cell as he did not wish a relapse so close to her trial. Dr. Paige was a Dartmouth man, class of 1861. I have yet to produce a photo of him but stay tuned! His house is still standing at 74 Winthrop St, corner of Walnut in Taunton. He was married twice, with 2 children by his second wife Elizabeth Honora “Nora” Colby and they had 2 children,Katherine and Russell who both married and had families. Many of the Paiges are buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Taunton. Dr. Paige died in April of 1919- I bet he had plenty of stories to tell about his famous patient in 1893!! He was a popular Taunton doctor at Morton Hospital and had a distinguished career. Dr. Paige refuted the story that Lizzie was losing her mind being incarcerated at the jail, a story which was appearing in national newspapers just before the trial. Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Taunton, courtesy of Find A Grave. 74 Winthrop St., corner of Walnut, home of Dr. Paige, courtesy of Google Maps Obituary for Dr. Paige, Boston Globe April 17, 1919
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 5/24/2025
How did New Yorkers get through sweltering summer days before the invention and widespread use of air conditioning? Well, a lot of it depended on your income bracket. If you were wealthy, you likely waited out the summer at a seaside resort like Newport or on a country estate cooled by mountains or river breezes. […]
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Ephemeral New York - 6/30/2025
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
Dr. John W. Hughes was a restless, intemperate man whose life never ran smoothly. When his home life turned sour, he found love with a woman half his age. Then, he lost her through an act of deception, and in a fit of drunken rage, Dr. Hughes killed his one true love.Read the full story here: The Bedford Murder.
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Murder By Gaslight - 7/5/2025
Soapy Smith STAR NotebookPage 20 - Original copy1884Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge) oapy Smith's early empire growth in Denver.Operating the prize package soap sell racket in 1884. This is page 20, the continuation of page 19, and dated May 6 - May 29, 1884, as well as the continuation of pages 18-19, the beginning of Soapy Smith's criminal empire building in Denver, Colorado.&
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 6/1/2025
  [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
Circumstances Alter Cases. | Pedal Advertising.

A Pair of Colorado Dianas.

Colorado Dianas At Leadville, Colorado, a few days ago, when the sun was doing its best to provoke the mercury beyond its never-varying maximum expression of heat—65—two handsome young girls rode in from the plains with game-bags, over their shoulders and rifles across the pommels of their saddles. They circled through the town two or three times, awaking the latent manhood In every ennui-stricken breast. They flirted violently as they rode about and managed to get half a dozen of the laziest young tourists In the place to ambling and dodging after them. Suddenly they began to discharge their rifles to right and left in a reprehensively reckless and Improper fashion. Their lovers scattered rapidly, and after pirouetting with their ponies for a short time succeeding the rifle discharges, the fair creatures gallopped off out of sight These two girls are the daughters of a gentleman who camps with his family in Middle Park every year They are highly accomplished and well educated and behaved young women during three-fourths of the year, and seen in the streets of Denver would attract attention by their lady-like deportment.


Illustrated Police News, August 16, 1879.