No. 557
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
January 05, 2021

The Merry Wives of Boston.

Such is Boston morality and such is woman's fidelity.
January 5, 2021
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There is something about the transitory, enigmatic nature of the following little story that charms me.  I always enjoy those moments when The Weird suddenly appears, slaps you in the face with a dead fish, and just as quickly and inexplicably vanishes for good.Our tale takes place on a pleasant English Sunday, May 5, 1924.  A young woman named Betty Bone went on the bicycle ride of 15
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Strange Company - 9/21/2026
  [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
"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
 A Song Written in Memory ofThe St. George Murder.(excerpt) In St. George, Me., as you shall hear,It proves to be the fatal year -That Mrs. Meservey, in the prime of life.By a murderer's hand has lost her life....Nathan Hart is the murderer's name,Father and husband think of the shame,Did he forget all woman kind,Seek like a beast some prey to find?...God in His written book doth say, 
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Murder By Gaslight - 9/19/2026
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
The Girls Biffed Each Other | New Years in the Wings.

The Merry Wives of Boston.

Harry-Lee

One night the whole party were assembled in the room of Mrs. H. Sparkling champagne was before them, of which they partook freely. Mrs. H. proposed to decide by lot whose bed Harry should share, while Harry insisted that Mrs. H's bed was large enough for four and promised to do equal justice to all.

The mirth grew fast and furious, and each one was trying by the liberal display of her to personal charms to win the lucky Harry for herself alone, when the door opened and the landlady entered in nightcap and gown, horrified at their untimely revelry, and aghast at the sight which met her eyes.

Harry was cheated out of his night's enjoyment, for he was compelled to leave the house instantly, and the recreant wives packed up their trunks and left the next morning, like Alexander, to seek new worlds to conquer.—Such is Boston morality and such is woman's fidelity.


New England Police Gazette, October 5, 1861.

Won on the Midway

 

A World’s Fair Tyrolese beauty captures the love and caresses of an alleged faithless husband and is discovered by his wife. 

The beauty show on the Midway at the World’s Fair, Chicago, now has another matrimonial scalp hanging on it bejeweled belt. Tied securely to the end of the aforesaid scalp is Arthur St. Clair Bailey. In her bill for separate maintenance filed in the Circuit Court, Arthur’s wife says she has often witnessed, in agonizing shame, the arm of her husband encircling the form of the fair Tyrolese beauty. “Alleged” Tyrolese beauty, the wife calls her, and she consumed the Midway beer under the name of Gisella Grossman. Bailey, it seems helps manage the beauty show and when he went there his wife, Alice, protested with scalding tears running down her cheeks. She knew that Albert could not withstand the shy glances of the “beauts.” For a time Alice stayed home and conducted their store at 533 West Madison Street.

But When Arthur didn’t come home nights any more she grew suspicious. By doing a little detective work herself, she discovered that Gisella’s room was next to her husband’s and the latter had so darkened the girl/s apartments that no eye could peep in.

Being persistent, however, she succeeded in obtaining a view of the defendant, when on his lap in loving embrace sat Gisella. And such kisses and caresses! It made the poor wife think of her honeymoon. Several times she had seen these awful things, and then like a sensible woman sought relief in the courts. Neither does Mrs. Baily propose to allow her spouse full freedom, for instead of suing for divorce she seeks one of those judgments where a man has to put up for his wife’s good times and can’t marry again. Further than this, the wife says her husband owns real estate and is about to sell it and go to California with Gisella. Accordingly, a writ of ne exeat is prayed to prevent him from leaving the State. The bill also states that the defendant has spent all the profit of the store in buying presents for his love and among them is an expensive diamond ring.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, November 18, 1893.