No. 694
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
March 15, 2025

Two Giddy Girls.

Sent up Eight Years for Smoking Cigars in Public.
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May 27, 2014
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HARRIS GREENTHAL
alias: , BROWN, HERMAN GREENTHAL
PICKPOCKET

Weekend Link Dump

 Welcome to this week's Link Dump, where our staffers will premiere "Strange Company: The Musical."The Thames of Old London.The family that slays together...Yet another "insurance murder."Van Gogh in Paris.A very tragic family.Los Angeles' first policewoman.Britain's most ghostly places.A planet's gruesome death.So, let's talk Danish Protest Pigs.An English "major UFO scare."The case for
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Strange Company - 3/14/2025

Read My Article on Convict Transportation in New Politic

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
Amen.

Ephemeral New York’s walking tours of Gilded Age Riverside Drive are back for spring!

I’m thrilled to let everyone know that Ephemeral New York’s Gilded Age Riverside Drive walking tours are back and officially on the schedule this spring—and ready for sign-ups! More tours are planned through the year, but these are the first three of the season. Click the link for more information and how to get tickets. […]
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Ephemeral New York - 3/12/2025

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

Mary and Oscar.

 Mary Barrows and Oscar Blaney.Illustrated Police News, May 9, 1885,In 1883, Mary Barrows of Kittery, Maine, persuaded her son-in-law, Oscar Blaney, to murder her husband, Thomas Barrows. Mary had been married before and had a daughter by her first husband. Thomas never got along with his stepdaughter, and he despised Oscar. He went into a rage whenever they visited because he believed Mary
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Murder By Gaslight - 3/15/2025
On the Russians.

Soapy Smith's "STAR" notebook, 1884, Denver: Part #18 - page 18

Soapy Smith STAR NotebookPage 18 - Original copy1884Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge) oapy Smith in Denver.Operating the prize package soap sell racket in 1884.This is page 18, the continuation of page 17, and dated March 28 - April 12, 1884, the continuation of deciphering Soapy Smith's "star" notebook from the Geri Murphy's collection. A complete introduction to this notebook
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 3/11/2025
Progress of Naval Architecture. | Decoration Day and its Memories.

Two Giddy Girls.

2 Giddy Girls

Sent up Eight Years for Smoking Cigars in Public. 

A couple of dashing Providence, (R. I.) females imitate the Lords of Creation, are arrested, and sentenced to a reformatory for eight years.

A case at Providence, R. I., has excited considerable attention. Two girls were taken up for smoking cigars on the street and carrying canes, and were sentenced to the Reformatory for eight years. The sentence is pronounced cruel and unjust, particularly as men who have been guilty of great embezzlements, and even of manslaughter and other crimes, have been let off with from two to four years. It is well said that when these poor girls come out from their long term they will in all probability be hopelessly ruined. Reformatories seldom reform girls who are put there for eight years for smoking cigars.

The National Police Gazette, 23 Oct 1880

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