No. 70
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 28, 2012

Their Name a Misnomer.

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February 28, 2012
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Tag: Stock Broker

"Large Days" of the Larkers.

Around the Clock with a Wall Street Youth.

10/7/2025

Shot Down in His Office

Ruined and Despondent Ronald Kennedy, a Philadelphia speculator, kills broker Charles H. Page, and then commits suicide.

8/8/2011

Hazing at the Stock Board

How the battering-ram process is applied by the bulls and bears to while away the idle hours of the dull season.

5/8/2011
JOSEPH BOND
alias: PAPER COLLAR JOE
BANCO STEERER

The Ghost Sausage of Devon

This brief, but delightfully offbeat “ghost story” (for lack of a better term) was related by author, paranormal researcher, and photographer J.P.J. Chapman:Many years ago my late father-in-law rented a large farm near Bampton in North Devon.  The farm buildings and the dwelling house were situated half way up a steep hill overlooking the River Exe.  During a warm summer it was quite
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Strange Company - 5/18/2026

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.

Themes of optimism and oppression as seen in two luminous views of the Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge is celebrating its 143rd birthday on May 24, the day Gilded Age New Yorkers could finally walk across this wondrous span and celebrate the uniting of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Over close to a century and a half, the Brooklyn Bridge has taken the honor of the city’s most painted and photographed structure. […]
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Ephemeral New York - 5/18/2026

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

Maggie Crowley.

Maggie Crowley.(New York Journal, March 16, 1898.)On March 15, 1898, a woman was found strangled to death in the courtyard of a New York City tenement.  She was the seventh strangulation victim in the Tenderloin district over the previous four years. What made this case different was that even before the victim was identified, the police had a suspect in custody. Some believed he was
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Murder By Gaslight - 5/16/2026
On the Russians.

Remembering Sarah Morse Borden

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

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
Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes. | It Was Another Kind of Cat.

Their Name a Misnomer.

MisnomerAvon, Mass., Oct. 1891 - Clarence Makepeace shot and killed in a row with his hot-tempered wife in their home in Avon, Mass.

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One morning recently Clarence Makepeace of Avon, Mass., got up about 6 o’clock and asked his wife Annie, to prepare the breakfast. She demurred, and angry words followed. Makepeace threw a lamp at his wife who ran to her room followed by her husband. As he enntered the door the woman grabbed a gun and fired at him, shooting off one side of his fade. Mrs. Makepeace made no attempt to escape but stood over her husband weeping and wailing. Makepeace died from his injuries and the woman was arrested charged with his death.
Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, October 17, 1891.

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