No. 512
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
March 17, 2020

An Irishman and a Yankee Settle a Dispute.

An Irishman and a Yankee Settle a Dispute Across the Breakfast Table at their Boarding House in New
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March 17, 2020
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Tag: Fraud

Vaccination from a Beauty.

Idiotic freak of some young men at Los Angeles.

3/9/2021

Beat the Hypnotist.

Two girls, who had been ill-treated by a fake mesmerist, get revenge in Indianapolis, Ind.

7/2/2018

Her Trick Spirit Trick Exposed.

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

9/18/2017

They Ran a Snide Game.

A “friendly” poker scheme exposed at Bogota, N. J., by one of the players squealing.

6/13/2016

Thimble Rig A La Mode.

3/18/2014

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

The Pawn-Ticket Game.

Pawn tickets make bad collateral.

3/5/2013

Napoleon's Oraculum.

6/19/2012

The Swindling Beggar

7/11/2011
EMANUEL MARKS
alias: MINNIE MARKS, THE RED-HEADED JEW
BANK SNEAK, CONFIDENCE MAN, SKIN GAMBLER

Weekend Link Dump

 Welcome to the Link Dump!  Our host for this week is the very handsome mascot of HMS Barham!The herbalist of Spitalfields.The "Exposition Universelle" of Paris.The King of Switzerland.Cleopatra's mysterious death.A shipwreck from WWI has just been discovered.The real "Lord of the Flies" was nothing like the novel.  Thankfully.The laughter epidemic of 1962.Ancient Roman
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Strange Company - 5/8/2026

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.

The return of a 1970s Hallmark card store sign on a Yorkville street

The upside to a constantly changing city is the sudden resurfacing of a faded store sign. Case in point: the outline of the “Cards-U-Like” Hallmark store on First Avenue between 75th and 76th Streets. I’m placing it in the late 1970s because of the cute cursive letters, and the earliest newspaper ads I could find […]
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Ephemeral New York - 5/4/2026

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

"Diamond Flossie" Murphy.

"Diamond Flossie" Murphy.(New York Journal, March 18, 1898.)Flossie Murphy was a flamboyant character, notorious in the demi-monde of New York City’s Tenderloin. She had a fondness for diamond jewelry, which she wore conspicuously, earning her the nickname, “Diamond Flossie.” But when she was found on the floor of her room on April 22, 1897, with a rope tied around her neck and all her jewelry
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Murder By Gaslight - 5/9/2026
On the Russians.

Remembering Sarah Morse Borden

Whatever you believe about the guilt or innocence of Lizzie Borden, I have always believed film makers do a great injustice to the story by not beginning at the beginning- the death on March 26, 1863 of the first Mrs. Borden. In the dying moments of Sarah Morse, Emma takes on the weight of the care of her little sister, not yet three years old. Emma herself was just 12 on March 1st. Emma has seen her mother suffer for a long time, seen her pain and loss of little Alice Esther. Emma is old enough
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 3/26/2026

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
An Underground Stale-Beer Dive. | Another Voice for Cleveland

An Irishman and a Yankee Settle a Dispute.

Irishman and Yankee

An Irishman and a Yankee Settle a Dispute Across the Breakfast Table at their Boarding House in New York.

An Irishman and a Yankee recently got into a dispute across the breakfast table in their boarding-house in New York and both became so angry that they determined to fight it out. The Yankee aimed a blow at the head of the Irishman, who dodged it, and seizing the wrist of his adversary he forced one of his fingers between his teeth and bit it until the poor Yankee screamed with pain. Nor did he then let go until he had severed the finger at the first joint. He was arrested on the charge of mayhem, and will no doubt be punished.

Reprinted from Weekly Varieties, February 22, 1887.

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