No. 397
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
November 27, 2017

The Wedding Postponed.

November 27, 2017
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 Welcome to this week's Link Dump, where we wish our fellow Americans a happy 250th birthday!The unveiling of the Victoria Cross.A handy reminder that Robin Hood was no hero.One really freaking long tennis match.The motivations of Richard, Duke of York."Somebody's father" at the battle of Gettysburg.Why we call it a "honeymoon."The dog who loved trains.Now that all other problems on Earth
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Strange Company - 7/3/2026
"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
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
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
(New Haven Independent) Taylor Ward sings "Found Drifting with the Tide" (excerpt), the tragic ballad of Jennie Cramer's murder.“Found Drifting with the Tide” was a song written by A. C. Willis, "Dedicated to the memory of Jennie Cramer," who was murdered in 1881.When the body of beautiful young Jennie Cramer was found on a sandbar
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Murder By Gaslight - 7/4/2026
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
  [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
Won on the Midway. | Turkey Shooting.

The Wedding Postponed.

Wedding PostponedMichael O’Toole of Edgewood, Maryland, goes for his bride but gets bullets and hot water instead.[more]

Michael O’Toole, a section hand on the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, was brought to the Baltimore City Hospital recently, suffering from several pistol wounds. O’Toole had been shot in the left shoulder and in the hip, and was suffering intensely from his wounds. He stated that he lived at Edgewood, about thirteen miles from Baltimore, and was engaged to be married to Kate Callahan, who lived a short distance from his home. He visited the girl and made arrangements to be married at Abington but Rev. Father Sartoria. Charles Callahan, a brother of his betrothed, warned him off the place, and when O’Toole called for the girl, Charles again appeared. Bitter words passed, both produced revolvers and began blazing away. Callahan slipped behind a tree, and from this point of vantage hit O’Toole twice. Callahan is said to have escaped unhurt. To add to O’Toole’s ill luck Mrs. Callahan dashed a pail of water over him and his face is scalded.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, January 4, 1890.