No. 651
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 11, 2024

Threatening an Umpire.

President Byrne saves the bones of umpire Jimmy Clinton from a severe and undeserved pounding at Brooklyn, N. Y.
May 31, 2022
...
...

 "The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan MandijnBehold, the entrance to this week's Link Dump!I really need to get a pair of these for outside Strange Company HQ.Watch out for the Wampus Cat!The bizarre case of the Putney Pusher.The celebration of strawberries.The taming of a fungus.The grave of an unknown shipwreck victim.Newly discovered rock art in the Sahara.A phantom sewing machine.India's
More...
Strange Company - 5/10/2024
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.
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 2/12/2024
It’s Mother’s Day 1960, and you’re part of a well-to-do family looking to celebrate the holiday at one of the Mother’s Day brunches hosted by hotels and restaurants all over the city. You choose the Park Lane Hotel, which in 1960 actually was on Park Avenue, opposite the Waldorf-Astoria. (Since 1971, the Park Lane Hotel […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 5/6/2024
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: […]
More...
Early American Crime - 12/17/2021
 4-year-old Rosa Lochner witnessed her mother’s murder, but Rosa had been deaf since birth, so no one believed she could provide any information. However, after she regained composure, she gave a detailed account in pantomime: mamma rocked the baby to sleep, then Papa woke her up, pointed a revolver at her head, and fired; mamma fell dead on the floor, papa took off her rings, then fled.Read
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 5/11/2024
CHIEF OF CONSThe Morning Times(Cripple Creek, Colorado)February 15, 1896Courtesy of Mitch Morrissey ig Ed Burns robs a dying man?      Mitch Morrissey, a Facebook friend and historian for the Denver District Attorney’s Office, found and published an interesting newspaper piece on "Big Ed" Burns, one of the most notorious characters in the West. Burns was a confidence man and
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 4/2/2024
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
More...
Executed Today - 11/13/2020
Done Up by Dizzy Blondes. | A Female Gambling House in Boston.

Threatening an Umpire.

Threatening

Poor Jimmy Clinton was in pretty hard luck May 19 in Brooklyn while attempting to umpire the second game of the championship series between the Brooklyn and St. Louis clubs. He made some pretty bad breaks and the crowd got on to him, and the more he tried to square himself the ranker be got until, by the close of the game, he had the cranks worked up to such a pitch that it required the combined efforts of the police and the players, all armed with clubs and headed by President Byrne to prevent him from being lynched. In fact, it was really the cunning of Byrne alone that saved him, as the energetic little gentleman restored peace by pouring oil on the troubled waters.


National Police Gazette, June 5, 1886.