No. 121
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
December 10, 2012

Done Up by Dizzy Blondes.

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December 10, 2012
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Tag: Thomas Byrnes

Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes.

3/4/2012

The Sawdust Game

The "sawdust game," was a confidence scam that only swindled those who deserved to be swindled.

1/10/2012

The Bunco Game

The term “bunco” has come to mean to any type of swindle, but in the 19th century it usually referred to a confidence game involving crooked gambling.

5/17/2011

Bank Heist

The Audacity of a Professional Thief.

4/3/2011
GEORGE N ELWOOD
alias: GENTLEMAN GEORGE
MASKED BURGLAR

The Pilot's Return

During the 1950s, Martin Caidin was the official historian for America’s Fifth Air Force during his stint in A-2 military intelligence.  In that capacity, he had full access to military combat files.  In his book “Ghosts of the Air,” he described a story he found in one of those files that was reported from air force operations in North Africa during WWII--a story that he admitted was “
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Strange Company - 6/29/2026

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.

This controversial Union Square flagpole was created to honor America’s 150th birthday in 1926

The 1876 Centennial was an all-out party in Gotham—fireworks, military parades, musical performances, and thousands of American flags and bunting draped over the windows of city buildings, houses, and hotels. But the Sesquicentennial, or America’s 150th birthday? By comparison, it was much more low-key. The big national celebration took place at Philadelphia’s Sesquicentennial International Exposition. […]
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Ephemeral New York - 6/29/2026

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

Charles and Lizzie.

 Charles Kaiser conspired with Lizzie DeKalb to murder his wife for insurance. When the plot was uncovered and the murderers tried, both claimed that they acted under the hypnotic power of James Clemmer, the insurance agent who conceived the plan.Read the full story here: The Kaiser Conspiracy.
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Murder By Gaslight - 6/27/2026
On the Russians.

June 14, 1893 Big Day In Court

Be sure to stop by our Facebook page tomorrow for a Prosecution Marathon of witnesses. Here are the witnesses for Wednesday, June 14th, Day 9 Rufus Hilliard, City Marshal, Mayor John Coughlin, Mrs. Hannah Gifford (seamstress and dressmaker), Anna Borden ( wealthy socialite who was on Lizzie’s grand tour of Europe, distantly related to Lizzie), Lucy Collett (watching the office of Dr. Chagnon day of the murder), Thomas Bowles ( handyman who once rented a room from Addie Churchill and was wa
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 6/13/2026

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
| Can Crack a Chandelier Globe Every Time.

Done Up by Dizzy Blondes.

Dizzy Blondes

A special from Canajoharie, Sept 26, says: Duncan Clark, manager of Clark’s Female Minstrels, will probably not visit the Mohawk valley again very soon. He was arrested in Utica for conducting an immoral show, in Herkimer and Little Falls he found the opera house for which his agent had contracted barred against him and this morning was severely pounded by members of his company at the Palatine Bridge depot. He endeavored to leave some of the troupe without paying them , and the result was the men and women, seven in number, attacked him in the depot and pounded him most unmercifully. The troupe boarded a train for Johnstown, but only got as far as Fonda, where another free fight was indulged in. Clark’s chief assailants were Lew Reynolds, Wm. Gallagher, A. M. Devere and several women. It is said Clark was cut with a sword by one of the women. At Fonda the troupe were all placed under arrest. Clark is reported dangerously hurt. He is well known in New York theatrical circles.

National Police Gazette, October 15, 1887.

 

 

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