No. 314
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
July 04, 2016

She Stole Her Lover’s Clothes.

A Cincinnati girl parades the streets in male attire and is yanked in for her temerity and immodesty
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July 4, 2016
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Tag: Duel

Desperate Duel.

Desperate Duel between Ladies of Rank, at Santa Cruz.

6/22/2021

A Duel on Horseback.

Two rivals for the affections for an Arkansas belle fight a desperate battle with knives and are horribly mangled, near Bear Creek.

10/30/2017

A Duel on Horseback.

Two rivals for the affections of an Arkansas belle fight a desperate battle with knives and are horribly mangled near Bear Creek.

5/2/2017

A Duel with Whips.

A Duel with Whips. Two hot-blooded Georgians fight till they are raw and their weapons give out and then call it a draw.

7/14/2015

Duel of the Divas.

The question of who was more beautiful, Lillian Russel or Lola Montez was settled by two cowpokes in the Nevada desert in the 1890s.

5/30/2011

The Drunkard's Looking Glass

4/24/2011
JOSEPH BOND
alias: PAPER COLLAR JOE
BANCO STEERER

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.comHere is yet another example of that popular supernatural staple, “a vision of murder.”  The “New Orleans States,” February 19, 1911:SYDNEY, Feb. 18. — A most mysterious story comes from Perth, West Australia. The mysterious disappearance of a girl named Ethel Harris led a representative of a Perth newspaper to make an investigation, which had sensational results.He
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Strange Company - 5/13/2026

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.

Why John Sloan painted this lush scene of a woman in Union Square battling the rain

John Sloan was a Village resident and something of a voyeur in the early 1900s, discreetly watching from his window or walking nearby streets in search of scenes to commit to canvas. He never lacked material, finding inspiration in the ordinary: a woman hanging laundry, men drinking in McSorley’s saloon, the elevated train snaking through […]
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Ephemeral New York - 5/11/2026

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

"Diamond Flossie" Murphy.

"Diamond Flossie" Murphy.(New York Journal, March 18, 1898.)Flossie Murphy was a flamboyant character, notorious in the demi-monde of New York City’s Tenderloin. She had a fondness for diamond jewelry, which she wore conspicuously, earning her the nickname, “Diamond Flossie.” But when she was found on the floor of her room on April 22, 1897, with a rope tied around her neck and all her jewelry
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Murder By Gaslight - 5/9/2026
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
Trying to Scare an Old Maid with a Wooden Dutchman. | A Wild Girl in a Connecticut Swamp.

She Stole Her Lover’s Clothes.

Stole Her Lover's Clothes

A Cincinnati girl parades the streets in male attire and is yanked in for her temerity and immodesty. [more]


Alice Rowley, a fly young girl of Cincinnati, met and invited Gideon Glen Williams, of the same city, to go to her rooms with her a few days ago. She then proposed that she put on Williams’ clothes and go out and masquerade. This Williams agreed to, provided she would return in a short time. This sweet Alice failed to do, as she was yanked to the station house when about to enter a theatre. At the station she told the sergeant that the owner of the toggery was at her room with nothing but an undershirt on waiting for her return. Williams sat by the stove for more than two hours before his clothes were brought to him from the House of Detention.

National Police Gazette, November 9, 1889

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