No. 155
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
January 27, 2014

A Memphis Badger Game.

January 27, 2014
...
...

 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
More...
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/ !
More...
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 […]
More...
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
More...
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
More...
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
More...
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 […]
More...
Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
Society Unveiled. | Robbed of Her Tresses.

A Memphis Badger Game.

Memphis Badger Game

A Memphis Badger Game.
Lillie King and her husband try to work James Yonge for a sucker to the tune of $5,000.

[more]James Yonge, a wealthy Memphis, Tenn. man, was out for a walk the other day when he struck up a flirtation with Mrs. Lillie King, the young and pretty wife of a newspaper carrier. Later he received a note from the fair Lillie, asking him to call at her residence the next evening a certain hour, when her husband would be out. He did so, and the night being warm, removed some of his clothing, Mrs. King doing likewise. At this moment the woman’s husband stepped from a closet, armed with a revolver, and threatened to wipe out in blood the stain upon his honor. Finally King said he would postpone the gore-spilling act provided Yonge handed over $5,000. Not having the ready cash the entrapped man gave his notes for that amount but worded them in such a way that they were valueless. When King’s lawyer presented the notes for collection Yonge demanded that they be returned to him or he would prosecute both lawyer and King for blackmail. Yonge received the notes.

 


Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, October 24, 1892.