No. 363
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 29, 2017

Disguising Nature.

Society’s male darlings “making up” their faces for the purpose of “looking pretty” to their addlepa
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May 29, 2017
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Tag: Murder

A Hidden Skeleton.

Barton Russel and his wife discover the skeleton of missing Charlie Young near Moorsburg, Hawkins Co., Tennessee.

10/26/2015

Killed and Eaten by Hogs.

9/15/2014

Copper.

8/20/2012

Killed By Cowardly Anarchists.

4/3/2012

Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes.

3/4/2012

Their Name a Misnomer.

2/28/2012

Driven by Delusion

Henry Goodwin entered the office of his partner, Albert Swan, pulled out a revolver and shot him.

11/14/2011

Anxious For a Funeral

10/23/2011

Caroline Burned!

9/19/2011

Shot Down in His Office

Ruined and Despondent Ronald Kennedy, a Philadelphia speculator, kills broker Charles H. Page, and then commits suicide.

8/8/2011
GEORGE N ELWOOD
alias: GENTLEMAN GEORGE
MASKED BURGLAR

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.comThis unnerving account of the mysterious deaths of two sisters appeared in the “Patriot News,” March 24, 1968:A soft sigh, a stare of horror, a piercing scream and death that as yet is unexplained…that was the fate of Beverly Stephens and her sister, Patricia, who died in almost identical circumstances five years apart. Neither girl uttered a word before she died. Neither gave
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Strange Company - 7/1/2026

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.

This controversial Union Square flagpole was created to honor America’s 150th birthday in 1926

The 1876 Centennial was an all-out party in Gotham—fireworks, military parades, musical performances, and thousands of American flags and bunting draped over the windows of city buildings, houses, and hotels. But the Sesquicentennial, or America’s 150th birthday? By comparison, it was much more low-key. The big national celebration took place at Philadelphia’s Sesquicentennial International Exposition. […]
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Ephemeral New York - 6/29/2026

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

Charles and Lizzie.

 Charles Kaiser conspired with Lizzie DeKalb to murder his wife for insurance. When the plot was uncovered and the murderers tried, both claimed that they acted under the hypnotic power of James Clemmer, the insurance agent who conceived the plan.Read the full story here: The Kaiser Conspiracy.
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Murder By Gaslight - 6/27/2026
On the Russians.

June 14, 1893 Big Day In Court

Be sure to stop by our Facebook page tomorrow for a Prosecution Marathon of witnesses. Here are the witnesses for Wednesday, June 14th, Day 9 Rufus Hilliard, City Marshal, Mayor John Coughlin, Mrs. Hannah Gifford (seamstress and dressmaker), Anna Borden ( wealthy socialite who was on Lizzie’s grand tour of Europe, distantly related to Lizzie), Lucy Collett (watching the office of Dr. Chagnon day of the murder), Thomas Bowles ( handyman who once rented a room from Addie Churchill and was wa
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 6/13/2026

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
Tennis. | What a New York Girl Did.

Disguising Nature.

Disguising Nature

Society’s male darlings “making up” their faces for the purpose of “looking pretty” to their addlepated female counterparts; Saratoga, N. Y. [more]

Fashionable: And new we are told some of the fashionable young men at Saratoga and other watering places not only powder their faces, but that they actually paint. That they wear corsets has long been admitted. How far this aping of femininity is to extend it is hard to say; but we hope the young men will stop it before they actually become mothers.

Reprinted from National Police Gazette, September 25, 1880.

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