No. 381
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
September 04, 2017

Whipped for Alleged Slander.

Actress Dorothy Morton cowhided in Heucks’ Theatre, Cincinnati, by irate chorus girls.
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September 4, 2017
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Tag: Bank Robbery

A Transparent Rigg.

Benjamin, of that name, vainly attempts to break a bank in female disguise at Palmerston, Ontario.

8/2/2022

Burglary Tools.

2/11/2013

A Slippery and Subtle Knave – The Bank Sneak.

7/31/2012
KATE ARMSTRONG
alias: DILLON, MARY ANN DOWD, SANDERS
PICKPOCKET, SHOPLIFTER

The Welsh Servant

The 1883 book “Shropshire Folk-lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings” included a story about what we today would call a “poltergeist” which appeared to center around an enigmatic farm servant.  While the tale purports to be true, at this distance of time it is impossible to say how much of it is fact, and how much is legend.  Still, it’s such a quaintly charming little curiosity that I wanted to
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Strange Company - 8/24/2026

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
Amen.

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

The Attleboro Sensation.

(Illustrated Police News, April 3, 1886.)Agnes Anastasia Long moved out of her parents’ home in East Attleboro, Massachusetts, in April 1882. With her many male suiters, she was considered the black sheep of the family. Her father had enough of her bad behavior and, according to the Boston Herald, “refused to permit her to darken the threshold of his humble home.”She took a job at Streeter
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/22/2026
On the Russians.

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
The Enlargement of Woman's Sphere. | The Latest Invention.

Whipped for Alleged Slander.

Whipped for Slander

Actress Dorothy Morton cowhided in Heucks’ Theatre, Cincinnati, by irate chorus girls. [more]

For some weeks Dorothy Morton has been filling Susie Kirwin’s place in the Wilbur Opera Troupe, now playing at Harris’s Theatre, Cincinnati, O.

The other afternoon Miss Morton threw up her contract, asserting that overwork was ruining her voice. In an interview, she severely reflected on several chorus girls and their relations with Manager Wilbur. Three of the, Fannie Lyons, Edith Daniels and Maud Daniels, armed themselves with rawhides and went in search of Miss Morton. They found her at Heucks’s Theatre.

Miss Lyons pulled a rawhide and began raining blows on Miss Morton. Mr. Rowe, Miss Morton’s husband heard her screams and rushed from the box office in time to see the girls going at a Nancy Hanks gait down Vine Street.

Warrants were issued for the three girls, who were arrested and gave bonds for their appearance for trial.

Reprinted from National Police Gazette, November 19,1892.

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