No. 203
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 13, 2014

Fatal Soda Fountain Explosion.

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May 13, 2014
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Tag: Baseball

Threatening an Umpire.

President Byrne saves the bones of umpire Jimmy Clinton from a severe and undeserved pounding at Brooklyn, N. Y.

5/31/2022

Killed by a Baseball.

John Walters, of Richmond, Indiana becomes a victim of his love for the national game.

4/5/2016

Baseball Animals.

Cigarette cards, 1880s, 1890s

5/14/2013

A One Legged Baseball Club.

9/11/2012
JOHN HOPE
alias: WATSON
MANHATTAN BANK BURGLAR

Countdown to the Crime

Join us on our Facebook page as we begin counting down the days to August 4th and all of the events leading up to the day. https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/7/2026

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.

The Goat Head of Strumpshaw

"Norwich Evening News," February 3, 1970, via Newspapers.comIf you’re at all familiar with my Twitter/X or Facebook feeds, you know that I periodically share old newspaper reports about the seemingly endless varieties of mayhem carried out by goats.  (Why do I do this?  It’s just how I roll, I guess.)  So, you can imagine how delighted I was to learn of the following story, which
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Strange Company - 7/6/2026

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

Jennie Cramer's Tragic Ballad.

(New Haven Independent) Taylor Ward sings "Found Drifting with the Tide" (excerpt), the tragic ballad of Jennie Cramer's murder.“Found Drifting with the Tide” was a song written by A. C. Willis, "Dedicated to the memory of Jennie Cramer," who was murdered in 1881.When the body of beautiful young Jennie Cramer was found on a sandbar
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Murder By Gaslight - 7/4/2026
On the Russians.

What you’d be wearing to Rockaway Beach or Coney Island if you were a woman in the 1860s

Bare arms, visible ankles, a more relaxed waistline—the most fashionable “bathing dresses” of 1868 allowed a woman to strip off her day-to-day corsets, feather hats, and petticoats and luxuriate in the freedom of the seaside. This ad for what were also called “bathing costumes” came from Godey’s Lady’s Book, an influential periodical that helped shape […]
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Ephemeral New York - 7/6/2026

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
Decoration Day and its Memories. | A Pointer.

Fatal Soda Fountain Explosion.

Killed by soda water

Killed by Soda Water.
Louis Sorrocco, an Italian, is instantly killed at Pittsburg, PA., by the explosion of a soda fountain. 

A special from Pittsburgh, Pa., Oct. 10, says: Louis Sorrocco, an Italian, was instantly killed this afternoon by the explosion of a soda fountain. He was employed at Louis Cella’s soda water manufactory, on Grand street, and was engaged in charging the fountain with gas when the explosion occurred. Cella was standing beside him as was knocked down, but not seriously injured. The building, a one-story structure, was badly damaged.

Reprinted from "Fatal Soda Fountain Explosion." The National Police Gazette 29 Oct 1887.

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