No. 712
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
August 13, 2025
alias: BAKER, BILLY BURKE
SNEAK, BURGLAR
Via Newspapers.comHere’s an early version of those “aliens killed my livestock” stories. (Just keep in mind that when old newspapers trotted out the "told by a person of unimpeachable veracity" card, that usually meant, "buyer beware.") The “St. Louis Globe Democrat,” April 27, 1897:Special Dispatch to the Globe. TOPEKA, KAN., April 26.-Millions have laughed at the Kansas air-ship,
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Strange Company - 8/13/2025
Soapy Smith STAR NotebookPage 20 - Original copy1884Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge)
oapy Smith's early empire growth in Denver.Operating the prize package soap sell racket in 1884.
This is page 20, the continuation of page 19, and dated May 6 - May 29, 1884, as well as the continuation of pages 18-19, the beginning of Soapy Smith's criminal empire building in Denver, Colorado.&
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 6/1/2025
Why the Greek goddess of sacred poetry and music stands tucked behind a fence on the Upper East Side
As anyone who has ever taken a walk through a city park knows, New York is rich with beautiful bronze statues. Typically they grace a public space, often on a decorative pedestal or base and in a setting that underscores their importance (or their importance at the time the statue was completed). Then there are […]
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Ephemeral New York - 8/11/2025
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
On the morning of March 22, 1881, 60-year-old Alby C. Thompson was found in the Thames Hotel on Market Street in Norwich, Connecticut, suffering from a “paralytic fit.” It was a bad part of town, known for crime and prostitution, and it was assumed that Thompson was the victim of a robbery. He was taken to his home.Three days later, blood oozed from his ears, and doctors discovered that Thompson
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/9/2025
Stop by this week as we explore what happened the week before the murders, Emma and Lizzie’s getaway to Fairhaven and New Bedford, and new imagery which will help to tell the story. The pears are almost ripe, August 4th is coming fast, and thoughts begin to turn to that house on Second Street once again. Follow us at https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts/ !
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/26/2025
[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
A few days ago, a band of cowboys arrived in Fort Collins, Col. About the time the boys dropped into town, there also landed there a fresh young dude from the East, who gave his name as Clarence De Puy. Clarry, as the cow-puncers called the dude, wore a shiny silk hat. This, one of the rangers knocked from its owner’s head to the ground. The gang then amused themselves by firing bullets through it until it resembled a sieve. Clarry left town on the next outgoing train, bareheaded.The Bloody Century 2
Takes the reader back to 19th-century America in all its gory glory.
