No. 691
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 23, 2025

“For Members Only.”

November 10, 2014
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(Click image to enlarge) LUBFOOT" HALL - CON MANSoapy Smith's mentor?     Recently, I saw two Youtube videos on "Soapy" Smith. Both chose to use the old error filled biographies as sources. Sometimes I leave a comment, letting the author and visitors know some of the errors in the videos and letting them know that there are published true histories of Soapy if they so desire. In
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 2/23/2025
Included in yesterday’s trip to Fall River was a stop at Miss Lizzie’s Coffee shop and a visit to the cellar to see the scene of the tragic demise of the second Mrs. Lawdwick Borden and two of the three little children in 1848. I have been writing about this sad tale since 2010 and had made a previous trip to the cellar some years ago but was unable to get to the spot where the incident occured to get a clear photograph.  The tale of Eliza Borden is a very sad, but not uncommon story of post partum depression with a heartrending end. You feel this as you stand in the dark space behind the chimney where Eliza ended her life with a straight razor after dropping 6 month old Holder and his 3 year old sister Eliza Ann into the cellar cistern. Over the years I have found other similar cases, often involving wells and cisterns, and drownings of children followed by suicides of the mothers. These photos show the chimney, cistern pipe, back wall, dirt and brick floor, original floorboards forming the cellar ceiling and what appears to be an original door. To be in the place where this happened is a sobering experience. My thanks to Joe Pereira for allowing us to see and record the place where this sad occurrence unfolded in 1848. R.I.P. Holder, Eliza and Eliza Ann Borden. Visit our Articles section above for more on this story. The coffee shop has won its suit to retain its name and has plans to expand into the shop next door and extend its menu in the near future.
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 2/12/2024
 Welcome to the latest Link Dump!Our host for this Friday's festivities is the one-and-only BABY.Watch out for the Gown Man!Two violent and puzzling deaths.You know, "radioactive anomaly" are two words you'd rather not see together.Ancient diet tips.A widower's mourning gets...complicated.The saloon cat and Theodore Roosevelt.The CIA's psychic army.There's a lot of ancient writing out there
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Strange Company - 2/21/2025
An article I recently wrote for the British online magazine, New Politic, is now available online. The article, “The Criminal Origins of the United States of America,” is about British convict transportation to America, which took place between the years 1718 and 1775, and is the subject of my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: […]
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Early American Crime - 12/17/2021
Illustrated Police News, Nov. 10, 1883.Zora Burns was a beautiful and captivating young woman with “…abundant hair of yellow-golden tint clustered about features as perfectly regular as those which Phidias chiseled from the marble of Greece. Her form was grace and symmetry personified, and despite her lack of educational advantages, her natural tact and quickness of intellect atoned in great
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Murder By Gaslight - 2/22/2025
When 721 St. Nicholas Avenue (below, corner house) made its debut in 1891, the formerly sleepy village of Harlem was rapidly becoming part of the urban streetscape. What had been a rural area dotted with estate houses in the 18th century (like Alexander Hamilton’s country retreat, the Grange) became a popular place for wealthy New […]
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Ephemeral New York - 2/17/2025
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
Aboriginal Footprints. | Bulldozing a Voter.

“For Members Only.”

Members Only

A Lot of Boy Burglars Fit Up and Run a Snug Little Club of Their Own in Boston, Massachusetts. 

A Den of Thieves.

A special from Boston, Mass., October 5, says: To run club rooms in the proceeds of burglaries is the latest exploit of Boston youths. Five lads averaging 15 years of age, are behind the bars because of their jovial tastes, and another in in Montreal from fear of arrest. They had fitted up in an elaborate style a front room in a house on Tabor street, at the Highlands, and had named their organization “The Tabor Club.” It appears to have been well supplied with cash; also with cigars. When the members visited the theatre in a body they had plenty of money to buy a box if they desired, They also had plenty of money for supper afterward. The clubroom had lots of change in it at all hours. A big box in the corner had lots of change in it at all hours. This bore the inscription in small letters, “For members only.” Only in one instance in the club’s existence did the box get empty, according to the police. This was several weeks ago, when one member suspected another of taking the last cent to secure a bunch of matches. Two guns were hung on one side of the wall. There was a big hitting bag in the centre. The library opposite the main door was quite extensive. Among the volumes it contained the following half-dime novels: “Deadwood Dick’s Device,” “Kit Harefoot, or Old Powderface,” “Corporal Cannon the man of Forty Deeds,” “Pier Detective, or Phil’s Big Skirmish.”


The National Police Gazette, October 29, 1887.