"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
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
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 […]
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: […]
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
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
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 […]
She backed Harrison, and had to wheel Henry Singer in a barrow, at Atlantic City, N. J. [more]
Mrs. Otto Snyder, the wife of the proprietor of the National Hotel, Atlantic City, N. J., a strong advocate of the re-election of President Harrison, wager upon her favorite’s election with Henry Singer that in the event of his defeat she would ride him in a wheelbarrow the distance of a block. She gave odds by his promising to pay for supper for six.
She paid the wager the other day. The oddity of the bet on her side drew a crowd of several hundred people about the hotel, who inspected the decorated vehicle with much curiosity.
Knowing that Mrs. Snyder was a woman who weighed considerably above 200 pounds, bets were made that shoe would not fulfil her contract. To the surprise of all she appeared at 8 o’clock, quickly caught the handles of the barrow and rushed the one-wheeled vehicle to the corner of New York avenue and returned amid the plaudits of the crowd. The horns and whistles screeched n accompaniment, and at the end of the ride a cheer was given for the pluck of the woman. Several other elections bets of a similar character were discharged, one being accompanied by a fife and drum corps.
Reprinted from National Police Gazette, November 26, 1892.
"We follow vice and folly where a police officer dare not show his head, as the small, but intrepid weasel pursues vermin in paths which the licensed cat or dog cannot enter."
The Sunday Flash 1841