No. 203
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 13, 2014

Fatal Soda Fountain Explosion.

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May 13, 2014
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JOSEPH GORMAN
alias: BROWN, CLIFFORD
PICKPOCKET

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.comThe following story goes in that bulging file known as “restless ghosts of murder victims.”  The “Ithaca Journal,” August 12, 1922:Painesville, Ohio, Aug. 12--A "ghost" which farmers living near Paines Hollow say has been haunting them for seven years, is "at rest" today. It disappeared several days ago with the burial of the body of Henry Lipenstick, found in an abandoned
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Strange Company - 8/26/2026

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 Attleboro Sensation.

(Illustrated Police News, April 3, 1886.)Agnes Anastasia Long moved out of her parents’ home in East Attleboro, Massachusetts, in April 1882. With her many male suiters, she was considered the black sheep of the family. Her father had enough of her bad behavior and, according to the Boston Herald, “refused to permit her to darken the threshold of his humble home.”She took a job at Streeter
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/22/2026
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
Decoration Day and its Memories. | A Pointer.

Fatal Soda Fountain Explosion.

Killed by soda water

Killed by Soda Water.
Louis Sorrocco, an Italian, is instantly killed at Pittsburg, PA., by the explosion of a soda fountain. 

A special from Pittsburgh, Pa., Oct. 10, says: Louis Sorrocco, an Italian, was instantly killed this afternoon by the explosion of a soda fountain. He was employed at Louis Cella’s soda water manufactory, on Grand street, and was engaged in charging the fountain with gas when the explosion occurred. Cella was standing beside him as was knocked down, but not seriously injured. The building, a one-story structure, was badly damaged.

Reprinted from "Fatal Soda Fountain Explosion." The National Police Gazette 29 Oct 1887.

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