No. 329
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
October 17, 2016
A Scene not on the Bills.
Actor Ricardo’s bluff jump from the stage to the audience at the Grand Opera House, Columbus, Ohio.
October 17, 2016
alias: BIGLOW, DARRIGAN, LITTLE LOUISA
PICKPOCKET, SHOPLIFTER
Via Newspapers.comThis is for all of us who tend to think most small children are a bit demonic. The “New York Herald,” December 2, 1888:To the north and west of this city, about fifteen miles away, dividing this county from Cumberland and Franklin counties, is a ridge of mountains. In some of the mountain valleys the people are in a state of deep ignorance, seeing little of the outer world
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Strange Company - 11/4/2026
[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
"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 National Police Gazette, October 2, 1886.)A little before 3 o’clock, on the afternoon of September 9, 1886, Henry H. Meyer rushed into the police station in Memphis, Tennessee, and said, “I have just killed a man, and I want to give myself up.”Captain Hackett took down the information and had the man locked up, then hurried to the address he had given to see for himself what had happened. In
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Murder By Gaslight - 10/31/2026
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
A scene not down on the bills took place recently at the Grand Opera House, Columbus, O., during the performance of Hanlon’s “New Fantasma.” In the last act Mr. Roccardi, one of the performers makes an attempt to jump from the stage into the audience. By means of a wire attached to his body he is raised by a pulley and jerked back by men behind the scenes. While attempting the act this night the wire broke while Roccardi was in the air, and, clearing the heads of members of the orchestra, he landed among the occupants of the first two rows in the parquet chairs, causing a shout of horror to go up from the audience. No one was seriously hurt, Roccardi escaping with a sprained ankle.The Bloody Century 2
Takes the reader back to 19th-century America in all its gory glory.
