No. 82
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 08, 2012

Saloons and Houses of Ill-Fame.

Buffalo, New York, May 1893.
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May 8, 2012
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JOSEPH GORMAN
alias: BROWN, CLIFFORD
PICKPOCKET

Weekend Link Dump

 Welcome to this week's Link Dump!Just watch out for Strange Company HQ's resident flirt.How the California Gold Rush birthed the modern world.The sound of King Tut's trumpets.I suppose the moral here is, if you're going to commit murder, make sure that the victim is someone nobody will mourn."Enigmatic tablets" from the Bronze Age.How a kitten joined an Ohio construction crew.19th century
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Strange Company - 8/28/2026

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

John and Eva.

 When John Keys and Eva Dickenson were married in Cincinnati on August 21, 1890, they told their relatives that they planned to honeymoon on the Atlantic coast, but John had another plan. He purchased an Ohio River shanty-boat and planned a slow trip downriver to St. Louis. It would not be their last deception; in fact, what transpired on that fateful journey would remain forever shrouded in
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/29/2026
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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She Was Bug Crazy. | Comstockery.

Saloons and Houses of Ill-Fame.

houses of ill repute

Buffalo, New York, May 1893 – Though it would seem to be a conflict of interest, The Christian Homestead Association produced this map of the Canal District in 1893, showing the locations of 75 houses of ill-fame, 108 saloons, 19 “free theatre saloons” and 76 more mundane retail establishments. The Erie Canal, which brought growth and prosperity to Buffalo, also brought neighborhoods like this one, and the clientele to keep them thriving. It is uncertain exactly why the CHA would create a map like this, but it must have been helpful to someone.

Source:

Grosvenor Rare Book Room

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