No. 689
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 10, 2025

Another Fool with a Gun.

Mattie Salter killed by her brother, who didn’t know it was loaded, Sandersville, Ga.
February 18, 2019
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Tag: Family

In Consequence of the New Liquor Law.

In consequence of the new liquor law, this is the ingenious manner in which a worthy teuton friend of ours takes his family out for their Sunday rambles.

4/9/2018

The Wedding Postponed.

11/27/2017

New Jersey’s Great Wash Day.

Farmers with their wives and buxom daughters enjoy their annual bath in old ocean, at Spring Lake Beach, N. J.

8/18/2015

The Drama of Life,

9/1/2014
 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
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Strange Company - 2/7/2025
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.
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 2/12/2024
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 […]
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Ephemeral New York - 2/3/2025
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: […]
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Early American Crime - 12/17/2021
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
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Murder By Gaslight - 2/8/2025
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
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 1/29/2025
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
Fashion's Fillies. | The Rejected Valentine.

Another Fool with a Gun.

Fool With a Gun

Mattie Salter killed by her brother, who didn’t know it was loaded, Sandersville, Ga.

Miss Mattie Salter died recently at her home, two miles east of Sandersville, Ga. From the effects of a rifle ball fired by her brother. John Salter had come in to dinner, bringing a loaded rifle, which he laid on a bed. After finishing dinner, he picked up the rifle, pointed it at his sister, who was in an adjoining room, told her to look out and pulled the trigger.

The ball entered behind the ear and lodged in her head. She suffered intense pain and for several days had been in an unconscious condition. Her vitality was remarkable, considering the serious ness of the wound. Salter stated that he did not know the rifle was cocked. No coroner’s inquest was held, as her death was caused by accident and the act of her brother was simply carelessness.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, December 9, 1893.