No. 373
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
July 24, 2017

A Skeleton King with a Silver Crown.

The strange relic of departed greatness found in a Livingston (Ala.) cave by a youthful explorer.
July 24, 2017
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There is something about the transitory, enigmatic nature of the following little story that charms me.  I always enjoy those moments when The Weird suddenly appears, slaps you in the face with a dead fish, and just as quickly and inexplicably vanishes for good.Our tale takes place on a pleasant English Sunday, May 5, 1924.  A young woman named Betty Bone went on the bicycle ride of 15
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Strange Company - 9/21/2026
  [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
"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
 A Song Written in Memory ofThe St. George Murder.(excerpt) In St. George, Me., as you shall hear,It proves to be the fatal year -That Mrs. Meservey, in the prime of life.By a murderer's hand has lost her life....Nathan Hart is the murderer's name,Father and husband think of the shame,Did he forget all woman kind,Seek like a beast some prey to find?...God in His written book doth say, 
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Murder By Gaslight - 9/19/2026
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
Wicked Victorian Boston. | Midsummer Madness.

A Skeleton King with a Silver Crown.

Strange Relic

The strange relic of departed greatness found in a Livingston (Ala.) cave by a youthful explorer. [more]

Mr. Morgan Lynn, of Livingston, Ala., has in his possession some Indian relics of peculiar interest. They were found by Master Willie Powe, near Horn’s Bridge, over the Sucarnatchie, and consisted of a silver crown about six and a half inches in diameter and two inches wide at the widest part; two silver ornaments, circular in form, and two inches in diameter, and a number of beads. These ornaments were found with—we might say on the person of—a well preserved skeleton. The crown still encircled the skull, and the other ornaments residue upon the chest, having evidently been work about the neck. On the front of the crown is etched the figure of a moose, and on each side of it the figure of a wolf. They are evidently the product of skilled workmen, and from certain letters and figures inscribed on the inner surfaces of the crown we infer that it was of English manufacture. The place on which these relics were found has been settled not less than half a century.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, November 20, 1888.