No. 774
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
October 15, 2024

Shot for a Bear.

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October 15, 2024
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Tag: Connecticut

Colt's Patent Fire-Arms.

Hartford, Conn.

8/27/2024

Revelry Rampant.

The orgies indulged in by Yale students and their female friends.

8/15/2023

Solving the Problem.

The great trouble in aerial navigation.

6/13/2023

Her Trick Spirit Trick Exposed.

Mrs. Bested seized by two men while giving a séance at Hartford, Conn.

9/18/2017

Left His Digits as Souvenirs.

The Misses Franklin, of Glenn Falls, Conn., armed with pistol and axe, put a burglar to flight minus two fingers.

12/12/2016

A Wild Girl in a Connecticut Swamp.

She resides in a swamp near Branford, Conn, and fills the rustics with terror.

6/28/2016

Ought to be Ashamed of Herself.

Miss Venus De Medici, of Italy, outranges the ideas of Norwalk, Conn., Citizens and is Garbed.

5/30/2016

An Undertaker’s Assistant’s Mistake.

8/26/2014

Gold from Seawater!

In 1898, the Reverend Prescott F. Jernegan founded the Electrolytic Marine Salts Company to extract gold from seawater. When the gold ran out, so did Rev. Jernegan, taking the company’s capital.

7/16/2013
ALBERT CROPSEY
alias: WILLIAMS
HOTEL THIEF

This 19th century Brooklyn house faces an early turnpike road that no longer exists

On the edge of Prospect Heights at 736 Bergen Street sits a charming slate blue row house. Just two stories high with a top half-floor (based on some Zillow interior photos), the little Greek Revival-style relic features long slender windows, an ornamental front entrance, and a cornice with decorative moldings. Exactly when 736 Bergen Street […]
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Ephemeral New York - 7/19/2026

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
Amen.

Weekend Link Dump

 Welcome to this week's Link Dump!And greetings from the Strange Company mail room!A teenager who died in the American Revolution has finally been identified.An ancient Roman fossil collector.The strange case of the "Leavenworth Look-Alikes."The legend of what may have been the first underwater tunnel.Casual snapshots of the Romanovs.The strange case of the Beale Ciphers.A diplomat's widow
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Strange Company - 7/17/2026

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

The Tell-Tale Skull.

(Philadelphia Inquirer, April 29, 1895.)Johanna Gahan married Jimmy Logue, a professional thief, in 1871, just as he was preparing to serve a seven-year prison sentence for burglary. She waited for him, and after his release, Jimmy bought a house for them in Philadelphia. Within a year, Jimmy was off on a “thieving expedition” to Boston. When he returned, Johanna was gone. Those who knew Jimmy
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Murder By Gaslight - 7/18/2026
On the Russians.

Countdown to the Crime

Join us on our Facebook page as we begin counting down the days to August 4th and all of the events leading up to the day. https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/7/2026

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
Gamblers and Their Games. | Bucking the Tiger

Shot for a Bear.

Shot-For-A-Bear

At Platte Lake. a few miles north of Frankfort. Mich., on Oct. 26, Mrs. Jane Briggs, of Platte Township, while picking cranberries in a swamp and walking along In a stooping position, with a black hood and shawl on, was mistaken for a bear by two hunters and shot through the neck. Death followed In a few hours. Mrs. Briggs was an old resident of this county and the mother of a large family.


National Police Gazette, November 14, 1885.

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