No. 328
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
June 12, 2017

Jack the Garter Stealer.

A bold and eccentric individual, who is alarming the girls and puzzling the authorities of Exeter, M
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June 12, 2017
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Tag: Football

A Great Game of Football.

Fair college students engage in a rough-and-tumble chase after the pigskin.

11/7/2023

Fierce Football.

The great game recently played between teams representing the colleges of Princeton and Yale, on the former's grounds, Thanksgiving Day.

11/23/2015

She Went into the Scrimmage.

Mrs. Miller Forcibly Removes Her Two Sons form a Football Game at Bridgeport, Conn.

12/8/2014

Collegians at Football.

12/10/2013
HARRY BUSBY
alias: MITCHELL, WILLIAMS
PICKPOCKET, SHOPLIFTER

The Natives of the Red Dragon

A journal dedicated to stamp-collecting seems like an unlikely place to find a prime slice of The Weird, but that just goes to show that life is full of surprises.  In 1928, “The Stamp Lover” carried an article by one C.H.R. Andrews titled “The Red Dragon Stamps” that is, frankly, not quite like anything I’ve ever heard of.  I’m a bit surprised that Andrews’ story seemed to languish in
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Strange Company - 9/15/2025

It’s Almost August

Stop by this week as we explore what happened the week before the murders, Emma and Lizzie’s getaway to Fairhaven and New Bedford, and new imagery which will help to tell the story. The pears are almost ripe, August 4th is coming fast, and thoughts begin to turn to that house on Second Street once again. Follow us at https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts/ !
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/26/2025
Amen.

The enchanting stained glass luring drinkers into one of Midtown’s dwindling workingman’s taverns

Deep roots anchor P.J. Clarke’s, the restaurant and bar occupying a Civil War–era brick building with its top two floors sheered off at Third Avenue and 55th Street. Converted into a tavern in 1884 when Irish laborers held a large presence in the developing neighborhood, the building was bought by Irish immigrant Patrick “Paddy” J. […]
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Ephemeral New York - 9/15/2025

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

Lust and Lead.

Around 1:30 a.m. on February 5, 1881, police were summoned to 109 Poplar Street in St. Louis to investigate gunshots. Inside, they found a scene of bloody carnage. At the top of a staircase, a woman lay on her back, the blood from three gunshot wounds slowly dripping down the steps. Sprawled across the bottom steps in a pool of blood lay the corpse of a man with a single wound to the head. It was
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Murder By Gaslight - 9/13/2025
On the Russians.

Soapy Smith's "STAR" notebook, 1883-84, St. Louis, San Francisco, Soapy arrested: Pages #22-23

Soapy Smith STAR NotebookPage 22 - Original copy 1884Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge) ADDENDUM: Published September 12, 2025(At bottom of page) oapy Smith's "STAR" notebook, 1883-84, St. Louis, San Francisco, Soapy arrested: Pages #22-23      This post is on page 22 and 23 of the "STAR" notebook. I am combining these two pages as they only account for a total of
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 8/27/2025

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
Retribution. | Tennis.

Jack the Garter Stealer.

Jack the Garter Stealer

A bold and eccentric individual, who is alarming the girls and puzzling the authorities of Exeter, Mass.[more]

The terror which Exeter’s (Mass.) mysterious “waterproof” man has aroused among the weaker sex of the town shows no sign of abatement. The best description which has been given of the man comes from one of Exeter’s prettiest society belles. She describes the fellow as tall and slim with a slouch hat pulled down over his eyes. He wore a long black coat which came nearly down to his heels. She was going to her home, which is in almost the very centre of the town, between the hours of 7 and 8, when suddenly she was grasped around the waist with one hand, the other being placed over her mouth so she could not cry out. She was thrown on her back to the ground and her garters forcibly removed. The girl’s cries frightened the man away.

Reprinted from National Police Gazette, November4, 1893.

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