No. 224
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
October 14, 2014

The Green-Eyed Monster.

October 14, 2014
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"Tulsa World," September 9, 1976, via Newspapers.comIn the 1970s, Kenneth D. Bacon was the presiding judge of the Oklahoma State Court of Appeals.  He was also a skilled amateur pilot.  In short, he was an intelligent, competent, and extremely level-headed sort, one of the last people you would expect to provide Strange Company material.  However, Bacon claimed that on a
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Strange Company - 5/4/2026
"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 upside to a constantly changing city is the sudden resurfacing of a faded store sign. Case in point: the outline of the “Cards-U-Like” Hallmark store on First Avenue between 75th and 76th Streets. I’m placing it in the late 1970s because of the cute cursive letters, and the earliest newspaper ads I could find […]
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Ephemeral New York - 5/4/2026
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
(New York Evening Journal, March 18, 1898)Around 1 a.m. on September 2, 1896, Samuel Meyers ran out of the tenement at 202 East 29th Street, screaming, “Murder! Murder! Police! Police!” Patrolman Tyler heard his cries and ran to the spot. “My wife is murdered!” said Meyers, “Somebody has killed my wife. She’s dead.” Tyler and another officer followed Meyers to a second-floor apartment.
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Murder By Gaslight - 5/2/2026
Whatever you believe about the guilt or innocence of Lizzie Borden, I have always believed film makers do a great injustice to the story by not beginning at the beginning- the death on March 26, 1863 of the first Mrs. Borden. In the dying moments of Sarah Morse, Emma takes on the weight of the care of her little sister, not yet three years old. Emma herself was just 12 on March 1st. Emma has seen her mother suffer for a long time, seen her pain and loss of little Alice Esther. Emma is old enough
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 3/26/2026
  [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
His Peep Ends Disastrously. | A Madman in the Pulpit.

The Green-Eyed Monster.

jealous old lady

A Jealous old lady wanders into strange apartments in a hotel, and under mistaken impressions treats the inmates to a morning bath; New York City.[

An Old Lady’s Mistake and an Early Morning Bath.

Jealousy often leads the one afflicted with it to many strange actions and queer mistakes. An old lady from the western part of the state was stopping with her husband at one of the leading hotels in this city during the past week, and managed to create a scene which caused a great deal of laughter. She went downstairs early in the morning to her breakfast, leaving her better half still in the arms of Morpheus. Not being accustomed to the hotel, on her return she mistook another room for her own. Great was her consternation to find a couple in bed. Jealousy fired her up at once; and, going into the hall, she grabbed a watering pipe which had been left there by one of the servants, and turned it on full force at the sleeping pair. It woke them, and when they rose in their attempt to escape the old lady, a mistake became apparent at once. She had struck the wrong room. Profuse apologies and dry garments settled the affair.

 


National Police Gazette, October 23, 1880.