No. 711
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
August 5, 2025

Clubbed by a Wronged Wife.

April 22, 2014
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1930s Romania may not have been a paradise for most people, but for a young Bucharest actress named Tita Cristescu, life was pretty darned good.  She was well-connected (her father, Gheorghe Cristescu, was a prominent figure in Romanian politics,) she had a successful theatrical career, and was pretty enough to be named “Miss Romania” of 1933.  Tita was engaged to be married to Hotta
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Strange Company - 8/4/2025
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
There’s so much exquisite natural and structural beauty grabbing your attention in Central Park that you probably don’t give the transverse roads much thought. You know the transverse roads. Part of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s 1858 Greensward plan for the park, these four serpentine roads at 65th, 79th, 85th, and 97th Streets are […]
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Ephemeral New York - 8/4/2025
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
 Read the full story here: The Walworth Patricide.
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/2/2025
Stop by this week as we explore what happened the week before the murders, Emma and Lizzie’s getaway to Fairhaven and New Bedford, and new imagery which will help to tell the story. The pears are almost ripe, August 4th is coming fast, and thoughts begin to turn to that house on Second Street once again. Follow us at https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts/ !
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/26/2025
  [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
A Human Vampire. | Sights and Sounds of Spring.

Clubbed by a Wronged Wife.

Clubbed by Wronged Wife

A Kentucky Wife Administers a Very Severe Punishment to her Husband and his Paramour. [more]

For some time the wife of Mr. Clay Henry, a well-known resident of Corinth , Ky., has suspected him of infidelity, and has several times been informed of his frequenting Madame Bricey’s resort. This, however, Mrs. Henry refused to believe untie the other day, when she went out on a still hunt, and proved to her own satisfaction that the rumors were true. Immediately after his Sunday dinner Henry arose from the table, saying he was going into the country for a drive with a friend. Mrs. Henry tried to persuade her husband to spend his Sunday at home, but he was obstinate and left the house. Mrs. Henry suspected that he had gone to some resort, and along toward evening started out to find him.

Proceeding to Madame Bricey’s house she saw a girl inmate hanging out of a window. Mrs. Henry asked the girl if Mr. Henry was in the house, and the soiled dove replied that he was not. This did not satisfy Mrs. Henry. She slipped around the house and coming to a side entrance peeped in. There she saw her husband and Mrs. Bricey occupying the same bed. Mrs. Henry rushed in and seizing a stout stick of wood began to rain blows upon her wayward husband and his companion in sin. With the fury of a tigress the wronged wife beat both offenders until they sprang from the bed and rushed from the house.

Mrs. Henry gave pursuit to her husband, but he could run faster and soon escaped. He has not been seen since, and has fled for parts unknown. Mrs. Bricey returned to her resort as soon as the coast was clear. She was considerably bruised up about the face and arms, and will show signs of the clubbing she received. As Mrs. Henry and her club devoted more time to Mr. Henry than Mrs. Bricey, it is certain that he is pretty badly damaged. It is thought Henry went to Cincinnati, and will remained there until the excitement blows over.


Reprinted from the National Police Gazette, October 14, 1893