No. 635
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
December 2, 2023

Whipped for Alleged Slander.

Actress Dorothy Morton cowhided in Heucks’ Theatre, Cincinnati, by irate chorus girls.
September 4, 2017
...
...

 "The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan MandijnWelcome to the first Link Dump of December!The Strange Company HQ staffers are already starting on the Christmas parties.The "Shankhill Butchers."The history of Christmas puddings.In which we learn that Napoleon had planned to spend his retirement in New Orleans.  Oops.Vintage Christmas gift ideas.The adventures of a Victorian sailor boy.A
More...
Strange Company - 12/1/2023
`
Soapy Smith in Leadville, ColoradoJuly 21, 1880Soapy and partner, rear, between carriagesCourtesy Kyle Rosene collection(Click image to enlarge) Soapy Smith's stereo-view photographLeadville, Colorado, July 21, 1880Where was it taken?WHERE IN LEADVILLE WAS THIS TAKEN?(Click image to enlarge)     Those who have read Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel may
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 9/14/2023
On a busy day in 1951, a hot dog vendor found himself captive to a hawker of cheap jewelry who set up shop across from his rickety food cart decorated with American flags. Horses still worked the side streets of the city. Stray dogs waited for food scraps to fall to the pavement. TV antennas […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 11/27/2023
An article I recently wrote for the British online magazine, New Politic, is now available online. The article, “The Criminal Origins of the United States of America,” is about British convict transportation to America, which took place between the years 1718 and 1775, and is the subject of my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: […]
More...
Early American Crime - 12/17/2021
The morning of February 5, 1895, Dr. John E Rader was found murdered in the house of Mrs. Catherine McQuinn in Jackson, Kentucky. Catherine told police they were drinking whiskey with her paramour Tom Smith and when Tom passed out, Dr. Rader assaulted her. She shot him in self-defense. Catherine could have committed the murder; she was a rough, course woman with a bad reputation. But the
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 12/2/2023
On October 16, 1900, the Fall River Daily Herald reported an incident at Maplecroft. Lizzie took a tumble from a step ladder while adjusting a picture on the wall. Dr. Stephen Masury Gordon set the broken wrist. Dr. Gordon lived at 165 Rock St. and was a Harvard graduate. One has to wonder why Lizzie did not have one of the servants or her handy man doing the chore. Dr. Gordon
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 10/12/2023
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 engaged as a carrier of wine, because he and his brother, with the help of […]
More...
Executed Today - 11/13/2020
The Enlargement of Woman's Sphere. | The Latest Invention.

Whipped for Alleged Slander.

Whipped for Slander

Actress Dorothy Morton cowhided in Heucks’ Theatre, Cincinnati, by irate chorus girls. [more]

For some weeks Dorothy Morton has been filling Susie Kirwin’s place in the Wilbur Opera Troupe, now playing at Harris’s Theatre, Cincinnati, O.

The other afternoon Miss Morton threw up her contract, asserting that overwork was ruining her voice. In an interview, she severely reflected on several chorus girls and their relations with Manager Wilbur. Three of the, Fannie Lyons, Edith Daniels and Maud Daniels, armed themselves with rawhides and went in search of Miss Morton. They found her at Heucks’s Theatre.

Miss Lyons pulled a rawhide and began raining blows on Miss Morton. Mr. Rowe, Miss Morton’s husband heard her screams and rushed from the box office in time to see the girls going at a Nancy Hanks gait down Vine Street.

Warrants were issued for the three girls, who were arrested and gave bonds for their appearance for trial.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, November 19,1892.