No. 621
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
March 08, 2022

A Smuggler Queen.

The beautiful contrabandista lately arrested with five confederates near Deming, New Mexico.
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March 8, 2022
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JOHN CLARE
alias: GILMORE
BANK BURGLAR

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.comThis account of your basic friendly neighborhood monster appeared in the “Mexico Weekly Ledger,” December 13, 1883:MEXICO, Mo., December 8.--The neighborhood of Hopewell Church, near this city, is much excited over the appearance in the locality of a strange creature, which is thought by the credulous to be a ghost, and which is a puzzle at least to the most skeptical. The
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Strange Company - 9/23/2026

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
Amen.

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

Song of the St. George Murder.

 A Song Written in Memory ofThe St. George Murder.(excerpt) In St. George, Me., as you shall hear,It proves to be the fatal year -That Mrs. Meservey, in the prime of life.By a murderer's hand has lost her life....Nathan Hart is the murderer's name,Father and husband think of the shame,Did he forget all woman kind,Seek like a beast some prey to find?...God in His written book doth say, 
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Murder By Gaslight - 9/19/2026
On the Russians.

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
A Society Escapade. | Bloody Duel over a Woman.

A Smuggler Queen.

Smuggler-Queen

The Collector of Customs at El Paso, Texas, has received information of an important capture in Deming, N. M. A band of Mexican smugglers were overhauled and surrounded. They had a dozen pack mules loaded with goods, and were driving 64 head of cattle and 20 horses, all of which has been known by Mexicans for many years. Five Mexicans, including a woman, said to be the chief of the band, were arrested and lodged in jail at Deming. They are under the lead of Capt. Ignacio Isternano, formerly an officer in the Mexican army. Thousands of cattle and horses have been smuggled over by this mountain path.

 

National Police Gazette, December 4, 1886.

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