No. 100
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
August 14, 2012

Steam Powered Reformation.

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August 14, 2012
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WILLIAM BURKE
alias: BILLY THE kID, etc, MURPHY, PETRIE
BANK SNEAK

Weekend Link Dump

 Welcome to this week's Link Dump!IS EVERYBODY HAPPY???What the hell was the Whitechapel Mount?Fair play for cannibals.The "wonderful year" 1759.The mysterious Great Serpent Mound.Why the number 17 was not popular in ancient Rome.BREAKING:  Scientists have just discovered dogs.  (Note: Cats can tell if you're sad, too.  They just usually don't care.)The lady who was eulogized
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Strange Company - 8/14/2026

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

Ida and Sophia.

 Ida Quinlan and Sophia Grant.Mrs. Ida Quinlan went out to buy a pair of stockings at around 9:00 on the night of February 1, 1896, leaving her baby in the care of her sister, Mrs. Sophia Grant. She took a streetcar to the store several miles away and returned to the house at around 11:00. Entering the sitting room, she was surprised to find the drawers of the chiffoniers pulled out and
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/15/2026
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
Copper. | The Two Paths in Life.

Steam Powered Reformation.

Steam Powered Reformation

How the indignant citizens of Brockwayville, PA., ridded themselves of a nuisance by calling in the assistance of a plucky engineer and his locomotive.

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For some time Dominic Morillo, an Italian, has been keeping a house of bad repute and an illicit liquor shop on the property of the Ridgeway and Clearfield Railroad at Brockwayville, Penn. Every effort was made to close it up, but without success.

On the evening of Dec. 20 A. J. Cooper an engineer, ran his locomotive on the siding near the house, and a number of men fastened chains around the house and to the locomotive. Then the engine was started, and the whole building was torn form its foundation and completely wrecked. The ruins were afterward set on fire and burned. The inmates escaped unhurt.

 

From The National Police Gazette, January 12, 1884

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