No. 864
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 06, 2026

Pluck and Presence of Mind.

A Quick-witted and Strong-armed School Girl Saves her Young Lover from a Terrible Death at North Platte, Nebraska.
May 6, 2026
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"Owensboro Messenger," January 29, 1911, via Newspapers.comEarly in 1910, American newspapers breathlessly carried the story of what appeared to be a particularly shocking double homicide.  This account comes from the "Republican News Item" for January 6:The mystery of the death of Miss Grace Elosser, of Cumberland, Md., and Charles E. Twigg, of Keyser, W. Va. her fiance, appears as deep as
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Strange Company - 6/22/2026
"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
You’re forgiven if you assumed 58 Joralemon Street was just another beautifully restored Greek Revival row house in Brooklyn Heights. Built in 1847, it resembles many of the elegant single-family houses on the block, with its red brick facade, long windows, and brownstone trim around the entryway. But take a closer look, and you’ll notice […]
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Ephemeral New York - 6/22/2026
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
 In 1863, Theodore B. Weber, then a businessman in Burlington, Iowa, was attracted to Mrs. Adelaide (Ada) Bennert, a woman sixteen years his junior. His passion “soon ripened into criminal intimacy,” and although both were married, they began a romantic affair. When Mr. Bennert learned of his wife’s infidelity, he left her in disgust. Weber moved to Chicago to join his brother’s
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Murder By Gaslight - 6/20/2026
Be sure to stop by our Facebook page tomorrow for a Prosecution Marathon of witnesses. Here are the witnesses for Wednesday, June 14th, Day 9 Rufus Hilliard, City Marshal, Mayor John Coughlin, Mrs. Hannah Gifford (seamstress and dressmaker), Anna Borden ( wealthy socialite who was on Lizzie’s grand tour of Europe, distantly related to Lizzie), Lucy Collett (watching the office of Dr. Chagnon day of the murder), Thomas Bowles ( handyman who once rented a room from Addie Churchill and was wa
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 6/13/2026
  [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
Sights and Sounds of Spring. | A Woman Rescued from the Jaws of a Catamount.

Pluck and Presence of Mind.

Plucky

A Quick-witted and Strong-armed School Girl Saves her Young Lover from a Terrible Death at North Platte, Nebraska.

A few days ago, an exciting incident occurred at one of the public schools in Platte. Nebraska, the particulars of which, as we learn them, are as follows: At the school in question, among the other pupils are a youth of seventeen and his lover a miss of "sweet sixteen," who are dead in love with each other. On the day alluded to the pair were alone in the third story of the building talking soft nonsense generally and leaning out of one of the windows, with arms around each other, when suddenly the youth projected his body a trifle too far, the centre of gravity overcame the base and he started—very much against his will—on his downward career to the bosom of mother earth. As he began to slip out, and his horror stricken lady-love felt him receding from her fond clasp around his waist, her presence of mind came to her, and like a flash she grasped him by one leg as he slid from the window.

Luckily for her, and still more so for him, she is a young lady of rare muscular development, and on this occasion her strong of arm and lung stood the pair in good need, for with the former she held on like grim death, and the latter was quickly called in play to summon assistance, which came speedily, and the young man was rescued from his perilous position. After being safely landed in the room again the pension on her nerves relaxed, the reaction was too powerful, and the beautiful preserver fainted away. She was conveyed to her home and soon entirely recovered, since which time the young heroine has received the hearty and well-merited congratulations of the entire community. It is safe to wager that she will make an excellent wife, and we advise that youth to guard well the priceless treasure of the love she has bestowed upon him.


Illustrated Police News, May 20, 1874.