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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Just to show that life is full of unexpected turns, on June 18, 1178, a group of medieval English monks threw a fine puzzle in the laps of astronomers that lingers to this day.On that day, shortly after sunset, five monks at the abbey of the Christ Church of Canterbury (on the site of Canterbury Cathedral,) noticed that something very odd was happening in the sky.  Gervase, who was
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
The first things I noticed about 2029 First Avenue were the decorative lintels above the second floor windows. Attractively styled for window lintels on upper First Avenue, I figured this stubby holdout wedged beside two brick buildings between East 104th and 105th Streets must have been a former stable. I imagined that those roll-down window […]
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Executed Today - 11/13/2020
The Confession of Mary Cole, 1813.Cornelius and Mary Cole lived in a farmhouse in Sussex County, New Jersey, with their two children and Mary’s widowed mother, Agnes Teaurs. Cornelius bought the property from Agnes in exchange for an annuity of $50 per year for the rest of her life. Mary and her husband did not live happily with Agnes. According to Mary, her mother was always very hard on her,
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Murder By Gaslight - 7/11/2026
Join us on our Facebook page as we begin counting down the days to August 4th and all of the events leading up to the day. https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/7/2026
  [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
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.