No. 132
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
January 15, 2013

Vive Le Sport!

January 15, 2013
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Via Newspapers.comGhosts get notoriously snippy when earthly affairs are not arranged to their satisfaction, as this news item from the “Chester Chronicle,” January 16, 1858, will illustrate:Within one mile of Llangollen station, at a place called the Fron, there have been some strange and singular scenes. Some months ago a person named Joseph Hughes died very suddenly on his way to chapel.
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Strange Company - 9/16/2026
  [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
One Week Only!On sale for 99 cents!So Far from Home:The Pearl Bryan Murder"Yes. they drove far from the city,To a place so far from home,There they left her body lyingHeadless and all stained with blood" Buy for 99 centsSale ends Sept. 21More Information
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Murder By Gaslight - 9/15/2026
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
Insane Criminal Escapes. | The Sympsychograph.

Vive Le Sport!

Vive le Sport A Panoramic View of the Leading Athletic Entertainments and Incidents of the Week.

1.—The Panic on the Grand Stand, Sheepshead Bay. 2.—Defending the Umpire. 3. – Duncan C. Ross Threatened by Canadian Cowards. 4.— The End of a Match at the Bicycle Tournament. 5. – Shafer Slugs His Shadow. 6.— Professor McClellan. 7.— Professor Watson.


Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, October 4, 1884.