No. 661
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
July 27, 2024

Trixie Got the Best of It.

Two Little Gem Theatre, Buffalo, N. Y., Soubrettes have a scrap on account of a man.
October 8, 2011
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 "The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan MandijnWelcome to this week's Link Dump!We tip our hat to you!The eldest daughter of Thomas More.That time when tornado ruins became a tourist attraction.In the "Bad Jobs" category, I'd have to put "Removing bodies from Mount Everest" near or at the top of the list.A bizarre family tragedy.A day spent photographing grave monuments.A mysterious Mayan
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Strange Company - 7/26/2024
Included in yesterday’s trip to Fall River was a stop at Miss Lizzie’s Coffee shop and a visit to the cellar to see the scene of the tragic demise of the second Mrs. Lawdwick Borden and two of the three little children in 1848. I have been writing about this sad tale since 2010 and had made a previous trip to the cellar some years ago but was unable to get to the spot where the incident occured to get a clear photograph.  The tale of Eliza Borden is a very sad, but not uncommon story of post partum depression with a heartrending end. You feel this as you stand in the dark space behind the chimney where Eliza ended her life with a straight razor after dropping 6 month old Holder and his 3 year old sister Eliza Ann into the cellar cistern. Over the years I have found other similar cases, often involving wells and cisterns, and drownings of children followed by suicides of the mothers. These photos show the chimney, cistern pipe, back wall, dirt and brick floor, original floorboards forming the cellar ceiling and what appears to be an original door. To be in the place where this happened is a sobering experience. My thanks to Joe Pereira for allowing us to see and record the place where this sad occurrence unfolded in 1848. R.I.P. Holder, Eliza and Eliza Ann Borden. Visit our Articles section above for more on this story. The coffee shop has won its suit to retain its name and has plans to expand into the shop next door and extend its menu in the near future.
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 2/12/2024
The low-rise, mostly commercial stretch of Brooklyn’s 18th Avenue running through Bensonhurst has a historic feel. That’s due in part to the circa-1829 New Utrecht Reformed Church and replica Liberty Pole facing the avenue. But a pocket park a few blocks away at 18th Avenue and 82nd Street contains an even more curious artifact from […]
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Ephemeral New York - 7/22/2024
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: […]
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Early American Crime - 12/17/2021
 On Saturday, January 25, 1879, George Rowell returned home to Montville, Maine, from a trip to Bath, eighteen miles away. He lived in the house owned by John and Salina McFarland, a married couple in their seventies. Rowell, 40, married their son’s widowed wife, Abby, who had a 14-year-daughter, Cora McFarland. She also had an infant son with Rowell. All six lived together in the Montville
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Murder By Gaslight - 7/20/2024
CHIEF OF CONSThe Morning Times(Cripple Creek, Colorado)February 15, 1896Courtesy of Mitch Morrissey ig Ed Burns robs a dying man?      Mitch Morrissey, a Facebook friend and historian for the Denver District Attorney’s Office, found and published an interesting newspaper piece on "Big Ed" Burns, one of the most notorious characters in the West. Burns was a confidence man and
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 4/2/2024
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
He Hit the Pipe | Map of the Square and Stationary Earth.

Trixie Got the Best of It.

TrixieBuffalo, New York, November, 1893 - Two Little Gem Theatre, Buffalo, N. Y., Soubrettes have a scrap on account of a man.

Pretty little Nora Nedihart and Trixie Morris were recently in a Buffalo, N. Y. Police court in sore trouble, and the cause was a man—as usual.

Nora and Trixie do song and dance turns in John Golden's Gem saloon on Broadway.

Nora wore a veil that concealed, as she said, "two lovely black eyes," produced by wicked Trixie.

It all happened on account of a German who went into the wine room of the Gem theatre a few nights ago, when the orchestra was crashing out love songs and the fairies were looking their most witching in short dresses. He was attracted by Nora's languishing eyes—not then in mourning.

"Trixie." said Nora, telling her story, "tried to queer me, and, as she couldn't catch my man, she pasted me, judge.”

"She tried to hit me with a chair ," said Trixie, "I warded off the blow and she fell, and the chair fell on her."

"Ten dollars fine, Trixie," said Judge King. "Pay it or I'll make it thirty days in the workhouse. And you, Nora." said he, "you go home and behave yourself or I'll send you to the Good Shepherd's home."

Then Proprietor John Golden stepped up to the clerk and paid the tax.


Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, November 25, 1893