No. 584
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
July 20, 2021

Pugilistic Females.

Two Lebanon, Pa., girls live the same young man and biff each other on the street.
July 20, 2021
...
...

Tag: Assault

Too Fond of Kissing.

A Steamship Steward Who Has Been Kissing Fourteen Years and Hasn’t Got Sick of It.

5/22/2018

Jack the Garter Stealer.

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

6/12/2017

Thrown from a Balcony.

An Old Man in San Francisco Becomes Enraged at a Young Lady who Teased Him and Flings Her from a Fourth story Balcony.

1/23/2017

The Pastor Kissed Her.

That is the allegation made against Dominie Hall of the Methodist Church at Livermore, Ky., by Miss May.

11/28/2016

Another Amorous Parson.

Westchester County is all agog over the case of the Rev. Mr. White, accused of violently assaulting the sister-in-law of a brother clergyman. We illustrate the scene.

10/6/2015

Getting Above his Business.

How a too presumptuous shoe dealer’s attention to a female customer was resented by her male escort.

8/31/2015

Murderous Assault by a Wife on Her Husband.

10/6/2014

A Human Vampire.

4/28/2014

What it is Coming to in Chicago.

3/24/2014

Robbed of Her Tresses.

1/14/2014

A Fiendish Husband’s Desperate Deed.

10/16/2012

It Was Another Kind of Cat.

2/21/2012
 Welcome to the latest Link Dump!This week, we are honored to be visited by some genuine royalty.That time someone stole 80,000 pounds of butter.The complicated medieval legal term, "raptus."The Roman Woman of Spitalfields.How medieval Europeans ate before contact with the Americas.You never know what you'll find in medieval latrines.  Other than the obvious, of course.You never know
More...
Strange Company - 5/15/2026
"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
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
John Sloan was a Village resident and something of a voyeur in the early 1900s, discreetly watching from his window or walking nearby streets in search of scenes to commit to canvas. He never lacked material, finding inspiration in the ordinary: a woman hanging laundry, men drinking in McSorley’s saloon, the elevated train snaking through […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 5/11/2026
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
More...
Executed Today - 11/13/2020
"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
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 5/9/2026
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
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 3/26/2026
  [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 […]
More...
Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
A Bold Robbery. | Combat Between a Lion and a Shark.

Pugilistic Females.

Pugilistic Females

Two Lebanon, Pa., girls love the same young man and biff each other on the street. 

Two young girls named Maggie Behny and Ella Book, employed in the Industrial Works on North Eighth Street, Lebanon, Pa., have for a long time had a difference of opinion about a young man’s love, and therefore declared war against each other. One Monday noon recently they ran against each other at the Philadelphia and Reading depot, and as each had sworn to have revenge, the set about in a true Sulivanistic manner. They both toed the mark and shot out their right and left dukes in such a way that the crowd that had gathered yelled with delight as the encouraged the female pugilists. When the biffers had fought their way to the Cornwell and Lebanon shirt factory, Officer McCord sailed in sight and the crowd dispersed, while the girls disappeared through the portcullis of the factory.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, October 5, 1889.