No. 711
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
July 30, 2025

The White Porpoise.

We give in our present number a correct sketch of one of the largest specimens of the Porpoise that
March 16, 2015
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Via Newspapers.comThis--for lack of a better word, let us say, “unusual”--lawsuit was described in the “Dayton Herald,” September 4, 1883:A few days ago the infant daughter of Mrs. Sarah Kockert died of some ailment, probably marasmus, as the body of the child wasted away or "shriveled up," as its parents say when they claim it was bewitched. A so-called witch doctor was called in during its
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Strange Company - 7/30/2025
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
You can practically feel the clattering rush of the elevated train roaring above Third Avenue in this dramatic 1930s painting by Bernard Gussow, a Russia-born artist who was raised on the Lower East Side. The amber train, twilight skies, and green and pink tints to the storefronts give rich pops of color to what could […]
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Ephemeral New York - 7/28/2025
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
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, March 28, 1868.George Stotler went to Jacob Eisnagle’s house in Anderson, Indiana, on the afternoon of March 7, 1868. He wanted to borrow a horse so he could ride to a Masonic funeral. Eisnagle’s sons, William, age 18, and Issac, 16, told him he couldn’t borrow the horse because they planned to use it that day. This made Stotler angry and, before
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Murder By Gaslight - 7/26/2025
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
| The Reign of Outlawry.

The White Porpoise.

The White Porpoise

White Porpoise, caught in the river Saginaw, by Capt. Leyfield, of the Patapsoot. 

We give in our present number a correct sketch of one of the largest specimens of the Porpoise that has ever been seen. It was sketched by our artist as it laid on pier No 13. Its measurement is about twenty-five feet in length, and weighs two thousand eight hundred and sixty pounds. It was caught by Captain Leyfield, of the Patapsoot, in the Saginaw river, and was brought on here by him as a curiosity fit to astonish even a New Yorker.

It is supposed, from its immense size, and the decayed condition of its teeth, to be nearly two hundred years old, which supposition is borne out by the fact that it has become perfectly white. The Porpoise is of the mammalia genus, and is one of the must universal of fishes, being found in every sea. It is somewhat singular, consider the large quantity of blubber found in these creatures, that no regular fishery has been established to convert them into oil. We understand that it is the intention of the owner to exhibit it in the Palace Garden

It is now at the store of Mr. Rowe, 15 Albany street.


Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, February 4, 1860.