No. 667
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
September 9, 2024

Eloped with a Convict.

The wife of deputy sheriff Sands of Little Falls, Minn., releases a convict, scoots to Dakota.
October 31, 2016
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"New York Daily News, May 9, 1982, via Newspapers.comCases of murder-by-poison have a particularly eerie quality, due to the often phantom nature of the killer.  Another example of the unseen murder is the following mystery, where death was delivered by unsuspecting mail carriers.Joan Kipp led a quiet suburban life in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York.  Her husband Howard owned a
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Strange Company - 9/9/2024
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 Chinese restaurant on the ground floor has shut its doors. Some apartment windows are blocked by wood boards. Graffiti mars the space below the roofline. The tenement at 1205 First Avenue, at the corner of 65th Street, seems empty and abandoned. And the faded ads that once faced traffic heading uptown are in an […]
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Ephemeral New York - 9/9/2024
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
Maggie Thompson, a pretty eight-year-old girl living on Merchant Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, mysteriously disappeared on May 9, 1889. She was coming from school, just two blocks away, but she never reached her home. Detectives, police constables, and private citizens searched the neighborhood to no avail. They found no trace of Maggie.In early June, Joseph Shovell, who lived seven doors away from
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Murder By Gaslight - 9/7/2024
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
Crazed by Politics. | Our Private Poet.

Eloped with a Convict.

Eloped with a convict

The wife of deputy sheriff Sands of Little Falls, Minn., releases a convict, scoots to Dakota and is arrested.

A reward has been offered by Sheriff Rasicot, of Little Falls, Minn., for the capture of John Mitchell, the convicted highwayman, who was released from jail by Mrs. John P. Sands, wife of the deputy sheriff of little Falls, Minn., who then eloped with the convict. Mrs. Sands was arrested at Castleton, North Dakota, where she confessed that she was infatuated with Mitchell.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, November 2, 1889.