No. 702
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 19, 2025

That Settled It.

A Chicago man wants a divorce because his wife sings Salvation hymns, gains his suit by having her g
January 22, 2018
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Tag: Accident

A Man's Head Blown to Atoms.

A man's head blown to atoms by the explosion of a beer barrel on Long Island.

8/30/2021

Shot for a Bear.

An unsuspecting woman in Platte Lake, Mich., is horribly and fatally made game of.

12/9/2020

Another Fool with a Gun.

Mattie Salter killed by her brother, who didn’t know it was loaded, Sandersville, Ga.

2/18/2019

She Swallowed Her Teeth.

Mrs. Dunsford, of Reading, Pa., meets with a mishap in a theatre.

2/15/2016

Heroism of a Society Belle.

The Bravery of charming Miss Jaffray, the daughter of a New York millionaire, saves many lives at Irvington, N. Y.

12/28/2015

In a Deadly Folding-Bed.

12/15/2014

Fatal Soda Fountain Explosion.

5/13/2014
Which still-standing mansion on Riverside Drive has a basement tunnel leading to the Hudson River? Who was the not-yet-famous American writer who sat on a rock outcropping every day to gaze at the waterfront? Why are there no brownstones on Riverside Drive, and no stores, either? How did a Medieval heroine end up memorialized in […]
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Ephemeral New York - 5/16/2025
Included in yesterday’s trip to Fall River was a stop at Miss Lizzie’s Coffee shop and a visit to the cellar to see the scene of the tragic demise of the second Mrs. Lawdwick Borden and two of the three little children in 1848. I have been writing about this sad tale since 2010 and had made a previous trip to the cellar some years ago but was unable to get to the spot where the incident occured to get a clear photograph.  The tale of Eliza Borden is a very sad, but not uncommon story of post partum depression with a heartrending end. You feel this as you stand in the dark space behind the chimney where Eliza ended her life with a straight razor after dropping 6 month old Holder and his 3 year old sister Eliza Ann into the cellar cistern. Over the years I have found other similar cases, often involving wells and cisterns, and drownings of children followed by suicides of the mothers. These photos show the chimney, cistern pipe, back wall, dirt and brick floor, original floorboards forming the cellar ceiling and what appears to be an original door. To be in the place where this happened is a sobering experience. My thanks to Joe Pereira for allowing us to see and record the place where this sad occurrence unfolded in 1848. R.I.P. Holder, Eliza and Eliza Ann Borden. Visit our Articles section above for more on this story. The coffee shop has won its suit to retain its name and has plans to expand into the shop next door and extend its menu in the near future.
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 2/12/2024
 Welcome to this Friday's Link Dump!Our hosts for this week are some Caledonian visitors.Bad company in 1950s Los Angeles.The life and work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.The failed attempt to get Canada to fight for the colonies in the American Revolution.Early newspaper reporting about the Loch Ness Monster.The origins of England's common law rule.Napoleon's traveling bookcase.Legends of the
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Strange Company - 5/16/2025
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
  Bertha Levy entered the house at 111 Prince Street, Manhattan, just before 10:00 a.m. on January 18, 1880. She was a hairdresser, and she had an appointment with Annie Downey, who lived on the second floor. No one responded to her knocks, and the door was locked. The owner of the house did not have a key to the room. Fearing the worst, they summoned the police; the Eighth Precinct Station
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Murder By Gaslight - 5/17/2025
Soapy Smith STAR NotebookPage 19 - Original copy1884Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge) oapy Smith begins an empire in Denver.Operating the prize package soap sell racket in 1884.This is page 19, the continuation of page 18, and dated April 14 - May 5, 1884, the continuation of deciphering Soapy Smith's "star" notebook from the Geri Murphy's collection. A complete introduction to
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 4/3/2025
  [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
Puck's Banana-Skin Manual. | Map of the Square and Stationary Earth.

That Settled It.

That settled it

A Chicago man wants a divorce because his wife sings Salvation hymns, gains his suit by having her give an exhibition of her vocal powers in court.

A Chicago man wanted a divorce because his wife persisted in singing Salvation hymns. The Court just laughed at him, and he would have lost his case had not his lawyer summoned the wife to the witness stand and started her singing. At the end of the fifth verse the Court threw up the sponge, and the divorce was granted.

The lawyer and the husband for the first time drank in the strains with delight, but the vocal entertainment was too much for the judge and jury.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, November 17, 1883.