No. 329
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
October 10, 2016

Watched her Lovers Fight.

A bloody battle over a pretty woman between two Gold Hill, Idaho, stock raisers.
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October 10, 2016
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Tag: Missouri

The Scandal Which Agitates St. Louis.

Astounding Revelations of a Low Cunning and Vile Curiosity in One of the Proprietors of the Grand Opera House.

7/23/2024

His Wife Danced the Coochee-Coochee.

She and her friends had been drinking wine, and they gave the sedate hubby an unexpected treat when he arrived at his home in St. Louis Mo.

2/14/2023

Kidnapped in Broad Daylight.

Miss Alice Jackson, of St. Louis, seized by three men who hurry her into a coach and drive away.

10/16/2017

A Bride’s Toggery.

An inquisitive male sees the contents of a bride

8/27/2013

Dan Creedon in Training.

6/4/2013
MICHAEL KURTZ
alias: MICHAEL SHEEHAN, SHEENY MIKE
BURGLAR

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.comHere's one for the Weird Wills file--with a boffo surprise ending!  The "Rockford Daily Republican," April 4, 1911:Buchanan, Mich., April 4 — Shortly before the death of Hodson Burton, five years ago, he talked into the horn of a phonograph and had the record preserved. It was placed in the hands of his lawyer, with the request that it be concealed in his safe. When
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Strange Company - 4/15/2026

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.

A birds-eye view of Riverside Park in 1934 shows how much this slender green space has changed

Conceived as a romantic English landscape garden and enhanced by sloping contours, rock outcroppings, and dramatic river views, Riverside Park began opening in stages in the 1870s. Since then, it’s undergone a lot of changes—and it helps to click into the image above to see them. For starters, the original Riverside Park only stretched from […]
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Ephemeral New York - 4/13/2026

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

Minnie Weldt.

New York Evening Journal, March 18, 1898.Helen Kahlert, a washerwoman, came home from work at 8:00 on the evening of Wednesday, May 30, 1894. After working all day at a home on Park Avenue in New York City, she climbed the stairs to the humble, second-floor apartment on East 61st Street that she shared with Minnie Weldt. To her surprise, the door was unlocked, and the apartment was dark. Minnie
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Murder By Gaslight - 4/11/2026
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
A Scene not on the Bills. | Another Steamboat Disaster.

Watched her Lovers Fight.

Watched her Lovers FightA bloody battle over a pretty woman between two Gold Hill, Idaho, stock raisers.

George Barker and Henry Paxton, well-to-do stock raisers, near Gold Hill, Idaho, loved Maggie Brandt, a charming widow. She promised to marry both her lovers. They decided to settle the matter by a duel. They fought with knives and Barker fell with a terrible wound in his throat. Maggie, who witnessed the battle, threw herself in the arms of the victor, who cut her nose off and put out her eyes with a slash of his knife.

National Police Gazette, November 12, 1892.

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