No. 862
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
April 21, 2026

Their Daily Bath.

Girls Enjoying Their Daily Bath - An Inducement For Young Men to Go West.
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April 21, 2026
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EDW'D FAIRBROTHER
alias: DOCTOR ST CLAIR, DR EDW'D S WEST
HOTEL, BOARDING-HOUSE THIEF

The Plum Tree Hanging

I’ve noticed that in recent years, Halloween decorations have grown increasingly macabre.  In my neighborhood, at least, grinning Jack o’lanterns and innocuous ghosts are being replaced by ghoulish skeletons (both human and animal,) gravestones, knife-wielding devils, and various other ugly monstrosities.  Last year, a house near me put in their yard such a revolting handmade display of
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Strange Company - 10/26/2026

Convicts to Maryland, 1773 by Peter Dickson

  [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
Amen.

Artifact #93: Soapy's son, hires attorney to stop the slurring of his father's name.

"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 Three Hangings, Lycoming County.

This week, we feature a guest post by Don Everett Smith Jr., author of The Goffle Road Murders of Passaic County (History Press, 2011).   In a previous post on Murder by Gaslight, “Revisiting the Goffle Road Murders,” Don presented an excerpt from his book. This week’s post, “The Three Hangings, Lycoming County,” examines the 1880 murder of Andrew Miller in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania
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Murder By Gaslight - 10/24/2026
On the Russians.

1617: A miller of Manberna, the hangman’s last

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
A Woman Rescued from the Jaws of a Catamount. | Bloody Duel over a Woman.

Their Daily Bath.

Daily-Bath

Lafayette, Ind., Girls Enjoying their Daily Bath in the River—An Inducement for Young Men to Go West.

The Lafayette (Ind.) papers are complaining in right earnest because troops of girls go swimming in conspicuous places in the river near that town. Many people suppose the paragraph is probably merely a device of Lafayette newspapers to draw the attention of clergymen on vacations and other pleasure seekers to the charms of Lafayette as a watering place, but the journalist do not exaggerate the matter at all, as we are reliably informed that any fair day, scores of beautiful maidens enjoy a bath, regardless of the comment of the admiring crowds who watch their movements from the shore.

Illustrated Police News, August 8, 1873.

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