No. 647
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
January 02, 2024

The Can Can in Denver.

Elevating the Fantastic Toe.
January 2, 2024
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 Welcome to this week's Link Dump!Just don't forget to smile for the Strange Company HQ's security camera!The Great Candy Panic.The mystery of the babies in the church cellar.The comfort of a nice tombstone.A cave is challenging theories about the history of farming.Africa's oldest known mummy.The history behind "Little Miss Muffet."The changing image of George Washington's mother.The
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Strange Company - 9/12/2025
Stop by this week as we explore what happened the week before the murders, Emma and Lizzie’s getaway to Fairhaven and New Bedford, and new imagery which will help to tell the story. The pears are almost ripe, August 4th is coming fast, and thoughts begin to turn to that house on Second Street once again. Follow us at https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts/ !
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/26/2025
All across metropolitan New York are prominent, powerful monuments honoring those who died in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Thousands visit the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, where the Twin Towers once stood. A ferry ride away is the Staten Island September 11 Memorial. The Tiles for America installation can be found across the […]
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Ephemeral New York - 9/8/2025
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
Around 1:30 a.m. on February 5, 1881, police were summoned to 109 Poplar Street in St. Louis to investigate gunshots. Inside, they found a scene of bloody carnage. At the top of a staircase, a woman lay on her back, the blood from three gunshot wounds slowly dripping down the steps. Sprawled across the bottom steps in a pool of blood lay the corpse of a man with a single wound to the head. It was
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Murder By Gaslight - 9/13/2025
Soapy Smith STAR NotebookPage 22 - Original copy 1884Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge) ADDENDUM: Published September 12, 2025(At bottom of page) oapy Smith's "STAR" notebook, 1883-84, St. Louis, San Francisco, Soapy arrested: Pages #22-23      This post is on page 22 and 23 of the "STAR" notebook. I am combining these two pages as they only account for a total of
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 8/27/2025
  [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
Crowds Watch the Bicycle Race. | New Years in the Wings.

The Can Can in Denver.

Can-Can

DENVER, Col , Sept. 4.—In this beautiful city of the West the devil is fast gaining ground. Drunkenness and prostitution are becoming alarmingly prevalent, and if not checked will make Denver on a par with the worst cities of the Union in vice. The neighborhood of Halliday Street is the stronghold of sin. The stranger, no matter where he comes from, if his tendencies are evil, gravitates toward this locality as naturally as a duck takes to the water. On this street are located the fashionable palaces of sin, the most notorious of which is presided over by Madam Minnie Clifford, who takes pride in saying that she is the only Madam in Denver in whose house the infamous dance known as the "Can Can" is performed. She openly boasts that her best 3 patrons are married men, many of them bald-headed and grey, who frequently remain till three o'clock in the morning. She has seven soiled doves, whose· names are: Della Thompson, Ida Charleston, Marian Custer, Ada Courtney, Lillie Thorp, May Crocker, India Florence. All of these women perform the "can can" nightly for the delectation of Madam Clifford's patrons. The premiere of the dance is the last named, a young girl with a history. She states that she was born in Washington, D.C., and became the victim of man's perfidy four years ago, and shortly after went to Philadelphia, and entered a fashionable bagnio, presided over by Madam Annie Winters, 1216 Locust Street.

She remained there six months, and came to Denver three years ago, and has since resided at her present abode. She never appears in the "can can" without wearing at least $2,000 worth of diamonds.

Those who have seen these dances say that they excel in lewdness anything ever witnessed in this city. They are orgies which would delight the basest tastes. The accompanying sketch will afford a slight idea of the scene.


National Police Gazette, September 18, 1880.