No. 70
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 28, 2012

Their Name a Misnomer.

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February 28, 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
Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes. | It Was Another Kind of Cat.

Their Name a Misnomer.

MisnomerAvon, Mass., Oct. 1891 - Clarence Makepeace shot and killed in a row with his hot-tempered wife in their home in Avon, Mass.

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One morning recently Clarence Makepeace of Avon, Mass., got up about 6 o’clock and asked his wife Annie, to prepare the breakfast. She demurred, and angry words followed. Makepeace threw a lamp at his wife who ran to her room followed by her husband. As he enntered the door the woman grabbed a gun and fired at him, shooting off one side of his fade. Mrs. Makepeace made no attempt to escape but stood over her husband weeping and wailing. Makepeace died from his injuries and the woman was arrested charged with his death.
Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, October 17, 1891.

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