No. 168
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
April 28, 2014

A Human Vampire.

April 28, 2014
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A journal dedicated to stamp-collecting seems like an unlikely place to find a prime slice of The Weird, but that just goes to show that life is full of surprises.  In 1928, “The Stamp Lover” carried an article by one C.H.R. Andrews titled “The Red Dragon Stamps” that is, frankly, not quite like anything I’ve ever heard of.  I’m a bit surprised that Andrews’ story seemed to languish in
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Strange Company - 9/15/2025
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
Deep roots anchor P.J. Clarke’s, the restaurant and bar occupying a Civil War–era brick building with its top two floors sheered off at Third Avenue and 55th Street. Converted into a tavern in 1884 when Irish laborers held a large presence in the developing neighborhood, the building was bought by Irish immigrant Patrick “Paddy” J. […]
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Ephemeral New York - 9/15/2025
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
A Pointer. | Clubbed by a Wronged Wife.

A Human Vampire.

Human Vampire

A Woman’s Fiendish Assault upon a Neighbor, Which May Result in Murder, in Columbus, O. [more]

A frightful assault, which may develop into a murder was committed by a woman in the southeastern part of Columbus, Ohio, recently. Living at No. 459 Parsons avenue is Frank Richter, a contracting teamster, with his wife and several children.

Among their nearest neighbors are James Claprood and wife. Claprood is a laborer and lives just across from the Richter home. On Monday Mrs. Richter heard that Mrs. Claprood had been slandering her and, accompanied by several other women of the neighborhood, went to Mrs. Claprood’s home for the purpose of demanding a retraction. Mrs. Claprood, armed with a large pair of tailor’s sheers, drove them from her house. Following them into the street she sprang upon Mrs. Richter like a tigress, and imbedded her teeth in Mrs. Richter’s face. She chewed Mrs. Richter’s left cheek into a jelly and then grabbing the poor woman’s right cheek mutilated it in a similar manner. Not satisfied with this barbarous treatment, Mrs. Claprood sucked the blood of her victim from first one cheek and then the other, as voraciously as a wild beast of the field.

The poor victim’s screams were heart-rending, but so ravenously did Mrs. Claprood in her frenzied rage bite and tear the flesh and suck the blood of her victim that the other women seemed paralyzed by the horrible spectacle and were powerless to rescue her.

Mrs. Richter finally made a desperate effort to escape, and, grabbing her assailant by the throat, tried to force her off. Mrs. Claprood then loosened her teeth from Mrs. Richter’s blood besmirched cheek and sank them into the screaming woman’s hands. In the meantime she grabbed a handful of Mrs. Richter’s hair and tor it out by the roots. Finally Mrs. Richter, exhausted form loss of blood, sank into unconsciousness.

Mrs. Claprrod arrived home at this juncture, and with difficulty tore his wife from her prey. Mrs. Richter is in a critical condition, and it is feared where will die. Mrs. Claprood is under arrest.


Reprinted from the National Police Gazette, December 9, 1893