No. 678
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 14, 2023

His Wife Danced the Coochee-Coochee.

She and her friends had been drinking wine, and they gave the sedate hubby an unexpected treat when he arrived at his home in St. Louis Mo.
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February 14, 2023
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KATE ARMSTRONG
alias: DILLON, MARY ANN DOWD, SANDERS
PICKPOCKET, SHOPLIFTER

Weekend Link Dump

 Welcome to the Link Dump, where this week, our Strange Company HQ staffers give a shout-out to Clarence, Iowa!Well, why not.  I'm sure it's a charming place.Where the hell is the Pedro Mountain Mummy?The tomb of King Midas' father.Graham Greene in Mexico.A look at supernatural smells.A German liner goes to war.A woman accused of murdering her sister.A mysterious object named Phoebe is
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Strange Company - 8/21/2026

Convicts to Maryland, 1773 by Peter Dickson

  [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
Amen.

Artifact #93: Soapy's son, hires attorney to stop the slurring of his father's name.

"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

The Attleboro Sensation.

(Illustrated Police News, April 3, 1886.)Agnes Anastasia Long moved out of her parents’ home in East Attleboro, Massachusetts, in April 1882. With her many male suiters, she was considered the black sheep of the family. Her father had enough of her bad behavior and, according to the Boston Herald, “refused to permit her to darken the threshold of his humble home.”She took a job at Streeter
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/22/2026
On the Russians.

1617: A miller of Manberna, the hangman’s last

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
Expensive Blowing in Congress. | A New Shoplifting Dodge.

His Wife Danced the Coochee-Coochee.

Hoochee-coochee

A staid citizen of St. Louis, Mo., was arrested in that city the other day, charged with beating his wife. He was taken to the police court, and three he made a remarkable statement. He said that when he came home the other night he found a jolly party in his house celebrating. They had been drinking wine and were about half full. As he opened the door he saw his wife and another woman dancing the coochee-cooche in what he said was a most disgusting manner. He said he didn’t mind her drinking but he did object to the dance. He admits that his rage at his wife’s performance carried him to the extreme of chastising her with a club, but pointed, without any pride, to some bumps and cuts on his own head, as he said, “and my wife is no slouch herself in a pugilistic way.”

National Police Gazette, December 19, 1896.

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