No. 649
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
April 23, 2024

George Dixon’s Victory over Australian Billy.

February 26, 2013
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"Detroit Free Press," November 4, 1962, via Newspapers.comIn 1961, a 28-year-old auto worker named Bill Adams, along with his wife Lillian and their five children, moved into a seemingly perfectly normal rental house on Detroit’s Martin Street.  They soon earnestly wished they had found a different place to live.  Before long, the young family found themselves in the middle of what has
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Strange Company - 4/22/2024
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 2/12/2024
Imagine being a first-time guest to one of Alice and Cornelius Vanderbilt’s Gilded Age balls or dinner parties, held at their spectacular new mansion on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. As you pass through the front doors of the house, completed in 1883, you’re received in view of this stunning ornate mantelpiece. At the time, […]
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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: […]
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Early American Crime - 12/17/2021
The marriage of Charles and Eva Herman had been on the rocks for several years. Their loud and violent fights were so common that neighbors took little notice of their shouting row on November 1, 1885. A few days later, they found Eva lying on the floor with her throat cut from ear to ear. After a night in jail, Charles confessed to the murder. I thought his wife was unfaithful, and he killed her
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Murder By Gaslight - 4/20/2024
CHIEF OF CONSThe Morning Times(Cripple Creek, Colorado)February 15, 1896Courtesy of Mitch Morrissey ig Ed Burns robs a dying man?      Mitch Morrissey, a Facebook friend and historian for the Denver District Attorney’s Office, found and published an interesting newspaper piece on "Big Ed" Burns, one of the most notorious characters in the West. Burns was a confidence man and
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 4/2/2024
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
The Pawn-Ticket Game. | Burglary Tools.

George Dixon’s Victory over Australian Billy.

George Dixon

Dixon’s Right Lands on Murphy’s Body.

The Colored Wonder Defeats the Australian Champion in Six Rounds in New York, Jan. 22. [more]

Murphy the other night was quick and decisive. The long-legged foreigner made a showing in the first couple of rounds which was well calculated to give adherents of the colored wonder some uneasiness, but after that there was no doubt—beyond the usual chance factor—about the result. The “Little Torpedo,” as Harry Weldon calls him, proved to be a “verry cunnin’ gent.” When he found himself lacking the ability to force the pace himself, and he found himself unable do go, the terrible volley of left-handed punches whcih were being shot into his face, neck and body, with rare discernment and discretion he gracefully took advantage of the first opportunity that was afforded him to “turn it up.” That was the opinion of Referee Roche and hundreds of others who sat up close to ringside and had a position to see in minute detail everything that was going on. In the third round he looked as if he didn’t want to go any further, but Dixon, who expressed a determination to give him a good walloping in return for past offenses, “pulled a hit” to enable Murphy to steady himself. The affair was too one-sided to deserve any extended reference.

Dixon’s defeat of Murphy makes it more apparent than ever that the former should be given another chance at Erne. When he met the latter recently he was not conditioned and in no shape to fight. He has remedied his faults, corrected his habits and settled down to hard work. He never was in better condition than the other night. Had he looked as carefully to his preparations for the Erne affair, the latter never could have earned a decision over him.

The two are matched again, however, to fight at Dan Stuart’s carnival or wherever the best inducments can be obtained. If under Stuart’s auspices it will be a finish affair, but if under a social club the duration of the bout will be only five rounds.


Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, February 6, 1897