No. 886
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
October 20, 2026

The Floor Falls Through,

And Precipitates a Dense Crowd of Women into the Cellar.
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October 20, 2026
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Tag: New Orleans

She Whipped the Dude.

Young man who guyed performers in a New Orleans theatre was severely corrected.

10/29/2023

Pretty Stars for the Southern Dives.

Fifteen charming chippies make Rome howl while voyaging to New Orleans, Louisiana.

12/19/2016

Demi-Monde Excursion.

Members of the New Orleans Demi-Monde Enjoying an Excursion to the Suburbs of the Southern Metropolis.

5/16/2016

Torturing a Lover.

6/26/2012

Voodoo Queen Marie

For over forty years, beginning around 1830, Marie Laveau was the most powerful and most feared woman in New Orleans.

3/21/2011
FREDERICK BENNER
alias: DUTCH FRED, FRANK BELMONT, FRE~ERICK BENNETT
PICKPOCKET, BURGLAR

The Bootleg Boyer Baby

If you are at all familiar with my blog, you know that I delight in sharing moral tales that provide both spiritual uplift and valuable practical advice at navigating this thing called Life.  For instance, if you are going to fake a pregnancy in order to gain a claim to your husband’s inheritance, make sure you have all your paperwork in order.  Acquiring bogus heirs is not a job for
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Strange Company - 10/19/2026

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

Carlyle and Helen.

 Carlyle Harris and Helen Potts.(The Trial of Carlyle W. Harris for Poisoning His Wife, Helen Potts, at New York.)Helen Potts, a nineteen-year-old student at Miss Comstock’s School in New York City, decided not to join her roommates when they went to hear a concert. Helen was feeling ill, but her boyfriend (secretly her husband), a medical student named Carlyle Harris, had prescribed a
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Murder By Gaslight - 10/17/2026
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
| A Sleep-Walker’s Act.

The Floor Falls Through,

floorCollapse The Floor of a Millinery Establishment at Hornellsville, N. Y., Falls Through During an Auction Bale and Precipitates a Dense Crowd of Women into the Cellar.

While an auction sale was proceeding in a millinery store at Hornellsville, N. Y., one evening last week, the room being densely crowded with women, the floor gave way, and the entire company, together with the fixtures of the store and a stove in which a hot fire was burning, fell into the cellar. The burning coals from the stove set fire to the clothing of those near it, and at one time it seemed that the whole building would burn with all entombed beneath it. The flames were quickly extinguished, however, and the occupants of the cellar rescued from their perilous situation. Some were quite seriously injured, one woman having both legs broken, many were burned, many were bruised, and all were thoroughly frightened.

Illustrated Police News, February 15, 1872.

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