No. 69
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 21, 2012

It Was Another Kind of Cat.

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February 21, 2012
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JOSEPH COOK
alias: GEO HAVILL, HARRY THORN
SNEAK, FORGER

The Invisible Intruders and the Strange Death of Sigrid Barginde

"The Olympian," July 27, 1981, via Newspapers.comIn the movie “Wait Until Dark,” Audrey Hepburn played a blind woman terrorized by sinister strangers searching her apartment.  The film showed that there is a unique psychological horror in knowing danger lurks around you, but you are unable to see it.  That same fear is central to the following crime case--only in this real-life story,
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Strange Company - 9/28/2026

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

James Dougherty's Obsession.

Mary Anderson was an acclaimed international stage actress in the late 1800s. Among her many fans was a young Brooklyn man named James M. Dougherty.  He worked as a telegraph lineman and studied science in his spare time. He dabbled in a little of everything until, after watching one of her plays, he became obsessed with Miss Anderson. His love for Mary Anderson became his sole
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Murder By Gaslight - 9/26/2026
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
Their Name a Misnomer. | A New Gag.

It Was Another Kind of Cat.

Elevator boy

Washington, D.C., December 1885 - An elderly guset of Willard's Hotel, Washington, mistakes the elevator boy for a chambermaid.[more]

Fooled by an Elevator Boy

One of the elderly guests of Willard’s Hotel, Washington, lately solicited a pretty chambermaid to sew some buttons on his pants. This service she declined, but promised to send another girl who would perform the task. The girls, for reasons best known to themselves, “put up a job” on the ancient individual, dressed Joe, the elevator boy, in female attire, and dispatched him to the guest’s apartment. The room being dark, the elderly gentleman, failing to detect the sham, advanced his gallantry so far as to hug and kiss and other wise attempt to caress the supposed maid. The affair coming to Mr. Staples’ knowledge he summarily “bounced” the elevator boy, who in turn had Mr. Staples arrested for assault.

Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, December 11, 1885.

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