No. 159
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
July 23, 2013

A New Shoplifting Dodge.

A female thief who carries a baby in her arms and made its flowing skirts a cover for stolen goods
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July 23, 2013
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JAMES BURNS
alias: , BAKER, BIG JIM, BOSTON J1M, etc, HAWKINS, JAMES BOYLE, JOHN BOWEN
SNEAK, BURGLAR

Weekend Link Dump

 Welcome to this week's Link Dump!And you're just in time for afternoon tea!A flying horse in Staffordshire.A mysterious murder-suicide.New York's war against banana peels.The houseplant that can count.Fun and games in medieval London.Hitler's dress rehearsal for war.A coded letter from Napoleon has finally been deciphered.A woman is cleared of being a witch.  Three hundred years after
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Strange Company - 10/9/2026

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

Laura and Alexander.

 Laura D. Fair and Alexander P. CrittendenA prominent California legislator was sitting with his wife and son on board the Oakland-San Francisco ferryboat El Capitain the evening of November 3, 1870. They did not notice the woman approaching them, dressed entirely in black, wearing a broad-brimmed black hat with a black veil covering her face. From the folds of her dress, the woman
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Murder By Gaslight - 10/10/2026
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
Cuban Beauty Emporium. | Gold from Seawater!

A New Shoplifting Dodge.

nails in his ears

Ella Shingledecker, wife of a Bourbon, Ind., man, adopts a novel method of getting rid of her husband. 

Ella Shingledecker, of Bourbon Ind., recently tried to poison her husband with strychnine. She then drove eight-penny nails in his ear while he was asleep. Shingledecker is badly injured. His wife was arrested and held to await the result of his injuries.

"Drove Nails in his Ear." The National Police Gazette 17 Sep 1894: 6.

A New Shoplifting Dodge A female thief who carries a baby in her arms and made its flowing skirts a cover for stolen goods. 

A New Game.

A female shoplifter was detected in a shrewd trick in this city the other day. She had a baby in her arms, and although she was closely watched and finally arrested, nothing could be found upon her. At last it occurred to the officers to examine the baby, beneath whose long clothes were found several hooks attached to what were two pairs of shoes, two silk handkerchiefs, a dress pattern, etc.

National Police Gazette, October 16, 1880.

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