No. 57
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
December 06, 2011

She Played Kissy Kissy

December 6, 2011
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Tag: Hoax

Willie Craig Was a Girl.

But what a lovely sensation she created among the Henderson, Tenn. sweet girls and susceptible boys before her sex was discovered.

5/11/2015

Was Her Story a Fake?

Miss Alice Jackman, a St. Louis heiress, claims to have been abducted a second time.

3/2/2015

Aboriginal Footprints.

11/17/2014

Undercover Lunatic.

5/26/2013

The Advent of Spiritualism.

A simple schoolgirl prank spawned a new belief with millions of followers.

9/4/2012

McGinty Survives!

10/30/2011

The Cardiff Giant

Cardiff, New York, October 16, 1869.

4/10/2011

“Daredevil” Steve Brodie

2/17/2011
Via Newspapers.comTenants have been evicted by their landlords for many reasons, but I’m guessing “Your dead relative is lowering my property values” doesn’t crop up very often.  The “Detroit Free Press,” December 29, 1929:Berlin, Dec. 28.(U. P.)--There is a landlord in Berlin who absolutely refuses to let tenants bring ghosts with them into his apartments. He has gone to court to ask for
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Strange Company - 4/8/2026
"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
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
I wonder what the proprietor of the Speedway Livery & Boarding Stables would have thought about his handsome brick building transforming from a home for pricey horses to a pricey home for people? This four-story, Romanesque-style stable at 457 West 150th Street was no ordinary boarding place for teams of working drays. The name of […]
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Ephemeral New York - 4/6/2026
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
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Executed Today - 11/13/2020
New York Journal, March 18, 1898. When the news of London’s 1888 Whitechapel Murders, attributed to “Jack the Ripper,” crossed the Atlantic, Americans were instantly fascinated. The vision of a dark, elusive killer, mutilating women without motive, was morbidly titillating, and the name Jack the Ripper fired the popular imagination. In the nascent age of yellow journalism, no one was more
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Murder By Gaslight - 4/4/2026
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
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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 […]
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Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
Another Voice for Cleveland. | New York Society Classified.

She Played Kissy Kissy

Kissy Kissy

Chicago, Illinois, November 1889 - A Chicago dudine goes around town embracing fellows and making them feel like comitting suicide. [more]

Blanche Nelson, a Handsome, gorgeously dressed young woman, was brought before Justiete C. J, White, in Chicago, the other morning for trial. The charge against her was plain '"disorderly conduct."

"What's the case against this girl?" asked the Court.

"Kissing."

"1 don't kuow that this is any crime," said the Court, reflectively. 'Tell me the story."

It appeared from ihe evidence that the affectionate young creature, while slightly under the influence of wine, created a scene at the corner of Halstead and Madison street, by kissing all the good-looking young men she could catch. Very little outcry on the part of the victims was made, and everything went well until a solemn, middle-aged man, having the appearance and garb of a clergyman, came along. The girl seized him. He appeared anything but reconciled to her caresses. As the middle-aged geutleman struggled to free himself from Blanche's embraces, a crowd gathered, and a policeman hove in sight. The patrol wagon was summoned. Inside of ten minutes Miss Blanche was behind prison bars. The girl's defence was none of the best, and she was fined $5 and costs.


Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, November 2, 1889