No. 652
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 18, 2024

Now in Convenient Book Form!

November 26, 2014
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 "The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan MandijnWelcome to this week's Link Dump!Game on!The bizarre Chowchilla kidnapping.The photo of what might be the iceberg that sunk the Titanic.Did Marshal Ney have PTSD?A visit to John Keats' house.A pilgrimage ends in murder.The vampire of Kisiljevo.A clandestine war mission that ended with a laugh.Iran's first selfie.The enigma of "Lead Lady."The
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Strange Company - 5/17/2024
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.
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 2/12/2024
What kind of block was East 63rd Street between Second and Third Avenues in the first half of the 20th century? Like so many other streets hemmed in by elevated trains and relatively close to the riverfront, it was a modest stretch of walk-up residences, stores, and stables—anchored on the Second Avenue end by the […]
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Ephemeral New York - 5/13/2024
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: […]
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Early American Crime - 12/17/2021
On December 11, 1879, neighbors searching the Harelson farm in Kerney, Nebraska, found the bodies of Mrs. Harelson and her three children inside a haystack. There was little question as to the murderer's identity. Stephen D. Richards, who had been living with the Harelsons for the previous two weeks, told them that Mrs. Harelson and the children had gone to join her husband, a fugitive from
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Murder By Gaslight - 5/18/2024
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
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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
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Executed Today - 11/13/2020
Giddy Young Girls. | Aboriginal Footprints.

Now in Convenient Book Form!

The Bloody Century

America’s Gas-lit Murders

Now in Convenient Book Form!

No Electrical Device Required

(also available for Kindle)

 [more]

The Bloody Century

Stories include:

  • Lizzie Borden Took an Axe…Or Did She?
  • Delia's Gone, One More Round
  • The Demon of the Belfry
  • That Bad Man Stagolee
  • “I Was Born with the Devil in Me”
  • The Bloody Benders
  • The Minister and the Mill Girl
  • The Boston Boy Fiend
  • Found Drifting with the Tide

And 41 more!

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