No. 678
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 14, 2023

His Wife Danced the Coochee-Coochee.

She and her friends had been drinking wine, and they gave the sedate hubby an unexpected treat when he arrived at his home in St. Louis Mo.
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February 14, 2023
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Tag: Saloon

Pandemonium in a Tumult.

Raid on the Broadway concert saloons, New York.

4/26/2022

Shocking Youthful Depravity.

The discovery that public school children frequent immoral places creates a startling sensation in Columbus, O.

2/22/2016

Mixed Drinks for Six.

Harry Johnson's Style of Straining Mixed Drinks to a Party of Six.

3/4/2014

Stabbed for not Buying Drinks.

Fresh Young Fellow Gets Six Inches of Cold Steel at a Sporting Resort, Seattle, Wash.

3/28/2013

An Underground Stale-Beer Dive.

12/18/2012

Saloons and Houses of Ill-Fame.

Buffalo, New York, May 1893.

5/8/2012

Rum on Tap.

Kyana, Indiana, 1890 - The women of Kyana, Ind., go to the railroad depot and demolish a cargo of liquor.

8/29/2011

Duel of the Divas.

The question of who was more beautiful, Lillian Russel or Lola Montez was settled by two cowpokes in the Nevada desert in the 1890s.

5/30/2011

“Daredevil” Steve Brodie

2/17/2011
JOHN CANNON
alias: BARTLETT, JACK CANNON, PAVIS, STEWART
HOTEL THIEF, SAFE BURGLAR

The Cursed Chest of Cornwall

"Western Morning News," January 8, 1949, via Newspapers.comIn late 1948, Trevor Ley of Stanbury Manor, Morwenstow, bought an old hand-carved, cedarwood chest from a Cornwall antique shop.  The woman who owned the shop let him have the chest for a low price, explaining that since she had acquired it, anything placed on the walls kept falling to the ground.  She thought that “some sort of
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Strange Company - 5/25/2026

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.

A Decoration Day morning of buying and selling at the Canal Street flower market

Looking to buy fresh flowers, plants, or other greenery in the New York City of 1880? Various flower markets existed across the city, and one small market sat at the foot of Canal Street and the Hudson River. Here, flower and plant dealers hauled their wares every day and set them out from horse-drawn carts […]
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Ephemeral New York - 5/25/2026

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

Kate Scharn.

Kate Scharn.(New York American, August 20, 1900.)It had been more than two years since a murder was reported in New York City’s Tenderloin district, but on August 20, 1900, the pattern was all too familiar. A young woman was found murdered in her room after 1:00 a.m. No one heard a sound. Her jewelry was stolen. A variety of men were suspected, but with very little evidence against any of them.
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Murder By Gaslight - 5/23/2026
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
Expensive Blowing in Congress. | A New Shoplifting Dodge.

His Wife Danced the Coochee-Coochee.

Hoochee-coochee

A staid citizen of St. Louis, Mo., was arrested in that city the other day, charged with beating his wife. He was taken to the police court, and three he made a remarkable statement. He said that when he came home the other night he found a jolly party in his house celebrating. They had been drinking wine and were about half full. As he opened the door he saw his wife and another woman dancing the coochee-cooche in what he said was a most disgusting manner. He said he didn’t mind her drinking but he did object to the dance. He admits that his rage at his wife’s performance carried him to the extreme of chastising her with a club, but pointed, without any pride, to some bumps and cuts on his own head, as he said, “and my wife is no slouch herself in a pugilistic way.”

National Police Gazette, December 19, 1896.

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