No. 776
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
October 29, 2024

Pedal Advertising.

How two Dizzy Girls Advertised Their Charms and Political Faith.
More...
October 29, 2024
...
...

JOSEPH GORMAN
alias: BROWN, CLIFFORD
PICKPOCKET

The Welsh Servant

The 1883 book “Shropshire Folk-lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings” included a story about what we today would call a “poltergeist” which appeared to center around an enigmatic farm servant.  While the tale purports to be true, at this distance of time it is impossible to say how much of it is fact, and how much is legend.  Still, it’s such a quaintly charming little curiosity that I wanted to
More...
Strange Company - 8/24/2026

Convicts to Maryland, 1773 by Peter Dickson

  [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 […]
More...
Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
Amen.

Artifact #93: Soapy's son, hires attorney to stop the slurring of his father's name.

"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
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025

The Attleboro Sensation.

(Illustrated Police News, April 3, 1886.)Agnes Anastasia Long moved out of her parents’ home in East Attleboro, Massachusetts, in April 1882. With her many male suiters, she was considered the black sheep of the family. Her father had enough of her bad behavior and, according to the Boston Herald, “refused to permit her to darken the threshold of his humble home.”She took a job at Streeter
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 8/22/2026
On the Russians.

1617: A miller of Manberna, the hangman’s last

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 →
More...
Executed Today - 11/13/2020
A Pair of Colorado Dianas. | Gamblers and Their Games.

Pedal Advertising.

Pedal Advertising

How two Dizzy Girls Advertised Their Charms and Political Faith.

It has been said that the American people are the most original in the world in the invention of new styles of advertising. And facts will go far to prove this assertion. During a recent political demonstration in this city, a couple of Cyprians took advantage of the crowd to advertise their political faith and charms in a quite original way. During the passage of the processions, they stuck their pedal extremities from the window of the residence and held a rival banner of each of the candidates now before the people for president. Their little device for notoriety was successful from every point of view.

National Police Gazette, October 9, 1880.

Turn to Page 1