No. 703
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
June 2, 2025

Cheating the Liquor Laws.

The ingenious patent which has been got up for use in prohibition states.
January 6, 2015
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James KiddIt is an undeniable, if slightly depressing, fact that the vast majority of humans go through life in an anonymous, unremarkable way and exit this world without leaving more than the most temporary of footprints.  However, now and then one finds an individual who is completely forgotten for long after their death, only to make a mark on history in some thoroughly Strange
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Strange Company - 6/2/2025
Wouldn’t you love to have interviewed Lizzie’s physician, Dr. Nomus S. Paige from Taunton, the jail doctor, ? He found her to be of sane mind and we can now confirm that he had Lizzie moved to the Wright’s quarters while she was so ill after her arraignment with bronchitis, tonsilitis and a heavy cold. We learn that she was not returned to her cell as he did not wish a relapse so close to her trial. Dr. Paige was a Dartmouth man, class of 1861. I have yet to produce a photo of him but stay tuned! His house is still standing at 74 Winthrop St, corner of Walnut in Taunton. He was married twice, with 2 children by his second wife Elizabeth Honora “Nora” Colby and they had 2 children,Katherine and Russell who both married and had families. Many of the Paiges are buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Taunton. Dr. Paige died in April of 1919- I bet he had plenty of stories to tell about his famous patient in 1893!! He was a popular Taunton doctor at Morton Hospital and had a distinguished career. Dr. Paige refuted the story that Lizzie was losing her mind being incarcerated at the jail, a story which was appearing in national newspapers just before the trial. Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Taunton, courtesy of Find A Grave. 74 Winthrop St., corner of Walnut, home of Dr. Paige, courtesy of Google Maps Obituary for Dr. Paige, Boston Globe April 17, 1919
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 5/24/2025
Which of New York City’s 15 daily newspapers ran this illustration referencing the General Slocum disaster isn’t clear. And exactly when it was published is unknown to me as well. But it might have appeared after the completion of a federal investigation pinpointing the cause of the tragedy, which happened on the morning of June […]
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Ephemeral New York - 6/2/2025
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
 A young woman entered the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C. on the afternoon of January 30, 1865. She went to the office of the Comptroller of the Currency and opened the door just enough to peek in and see the clerks at work. After locating the man she sought, she closed the door and waited in the hall for his workday to end.The man, A.J. Burroughs (Adoniram Judson, sometimes reported
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Murder By Gaslight - 5/31/2025
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
  [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
| No Dudes Wanted.

Cheating the Liquor Laws.

Cheating Liquor Laws

The ingenious patent which has been got up for use in prohibition states. 

Some curious patents are taken out at the Patent Office. One last week—“cover for liquor flask”—would never be fully appreciated by its title. It is a design of a book, about two and a half inches thick. At the bottom end of the book is an opening for the insertion of the flask, the opening being afterwards neatly closet with a sprint, the surface of which is marbleized lie a book end of leaves. At the top all seems correct and regular, but the pressure of the thumb throws open a circular hole at the same time raise the neck of the hitherto hidden vessel about two inches within easy range of the mouth.


National Police Gazette, January 9, 1886.