Welcome to this week's Link Dump!Let's get this show on the road!Who the hell was Madame Montour?What the hell is the Baltic Sea Anomaly?The mystery of some ancient seated burials.The lineage of Harold Godwinson.The unsolved murder which inspired a journalism award.The U.S. Army's largest urban battle.The clergyman and the poltergeist.New research on the authors of the Bible texts.Secret
Included in yesterday’s trip to Fall River was a stop at Miss Lizzie’s Coffee shop and a visit to the cellar to see the scene of the tragic demise of the second Mrs. Lawdwick Borden and two of the three little children in 1848. I have been writing about this sad tale since 2010 and had made a previous trip to the cellar some years ago but was unable to get to the spot where the incident occured to get a clear photograph. The tale of Eliza Borden is a very sad, but not uncommon story of post partum depression with a heartrending end. You feel this as you stand in the dark space behind the chimney where Eliza ended her life with a straight razor after dropping 6 month old Holder and his 3 year old sister Eliza Ann into the cellar cistern. Over the years I have found other similar cases, often involving wells and cisterns, and drownings of children followed by suicides of the mothers. These photos show the chimney, cistern pipe, back wall, dirt and brick floor, original floorboards forming the cellar ceiling and what appears to be an original door. To be in the place where this happened is a sobering experience. My thanks to Joe Pereira for allowing us to see and record the place where this sad occurrence unfolded in 1848. R.I.P. Holder, Eliza and Eliza Ann Borden. Visit our Articles section above for more on this story. The coffee shop has won its suit to retain its name and has plans to expand into the shop next door and extend its menu in the near future.
Without La Delice Pastry Shop’s swinging 1960s store sign—a visual feast of blue and red, curlycue cursive, and capital letters—the southwest corner of Third Avenue and 27th Street would be just another stretch of Kips Bay. Though the sign looks very midcentury, La Delice (which translates from French as “the delight”) has actually been around […]
An article I recently wrote for the British online magazine, New Politic, is now available online. The article, “The Criminal Origins of the United States of America,†is about British convict transportation to America, which took place between the years 1718 and 1775, and is the subject of my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: […]
In the winter of 1877, Captain Luther Meservey went to sea, leaving his wife Sarah alone in their home in the village of Tenant’s Harbor, Maine. When Sarah was found strangled in her own home, the people of this small but close-knit community were terrified at the thought of a killer in their midst. Nathan Hart, a neighbor of the Meservey’s was tried and convicted on evidence so circumstantial
Soapy STAR notebookPage 15 - Original copy1883Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge)
OAPY SMITH IN DENVER, WISCONSIN AND MINNESOTA.This is page 15, dated July-September 1883, the continuation of deciphering Soapy Smith's "star" notebook from the Geri Murphy's collection. A complete introduction to this notebook can be seen on page 1. These notebook pages
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 →
Boston detectives arrest two stylishly-dressed women while in the act of the shoplifting game. [more]
Two stylish, middle-aged women entered Houghton A. Dutton’s store, Tremont street, Boston, Saturday, stopped at the fancy goods counter and began to examine the goods. Both women wore long, fashionable cloaks, ample enough to attract the attention of the salesgirls and floorwalkers. They were Christmas shopping, but not having the money to buy they chose to steal such articles as met their fancy. They were suspected and watched.
Every time the thieving shoppers stopped their watchers stopped as well, and finally, after half an hour had been spent in this hide-and-seek game, the women were detected purloining. A policeman arrested them. They gave their names as Mrs. Ellen Norton and her friend, Lydia Wales, both respectable residents of Holbrook, the former being the wife of a prosperous leather merchant. Under their wraps, and in their pockets, was stuff enough for Christmas presents for several large families, from a button-hook to a piece of fancy china. Mrs. Norton’s husband gave bail, and both women were fined $5.
Reprinted from National Police Gazette, December 29, 1888.
"We follow vice and folly where a police officer dare not show his head, as the small, but intrepid weasel pursues vermin in paths which the licensed cat or dog cannot enter."
The Sunday Flash 1841