No. 64
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
January 17, 2012

A Characteristic Present

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January 17, 2012
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Tag: Atlantic City

Mrs. Snyder Pays Her Bet.

She backed Harrison, and had to wheel Henry Singer in a barrow, at Atlantic City, N. J.

11/21/2016

She Was Bug Crazy.

5/22/2012
JOSEPH COOK
alias: GEO HAVILL, HARRY THORN
SNEAK, FORGER

The Invisible Intruders and the Strange Death of Sigrid Barginde

"The Olympian," July 27, 1981, via Newspapers.comIn the movie “Wait Until Dark,” Audrey Hepburn played a blind woman terrorized by sinister strangers searching her apartment.  The film showed that there is a unique psychological horror in knowing danger lurks around you, but you are unable to see it.  That same fear is central to the following crime case--only in this real-life story,
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Strange Company - 9/28/2026

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

James Dougherty's Obsession.

Mary Anderson was an acclaimed international stage actress in the late 1800s. Among her many fans was a young Brooklyn man named James M. Dougherty.  He worked as a telegraph lineman and studied science in his spare time. He dabbled in a little of everything until, after watching one of her plays, he became obsessed with Miss Anderson. His love for Mary Anderson became his sole
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Murder By Gaslight - 9/26/2026
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
A Plucky Elberon, N. J., Girl | The Sawdust Game

A Characteristic Present

Buffalo Bills Present

Wasington, D.C., October 1886 - Buffalo Bill bestows a Mexican bronco pony on the youthful son of Secretary Lamar, Washington, D.C. [more]

The unusual sight of a cowboy in full costume, wearing a sombrero, and a Mexican bronco pony, was afforded the officials at Washington of Post Office and Interior Departments the other afternoon. The bronco was a present to young Mr. Lamar, son of Secretary Lamar. Buffalo Bill had sent the bronco pony with his compliments, and for awhile the story got abroad that it was a wedding gift to Secretary Lamar, but this was denied. The cowboy, after he dismounted, went into the Interior Department and presented the pony, and they took it around to the department stable.

Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, October 21, 1886.

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