No. 701
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
June 27, 2023

Watched her Lovers Fight.

A bloody battle over a pretty woman between two Gold Hill, Idaho, stock raisers.
June 27, 2023
...
...

There is something about the transitory, enigmatic nature of the following little story that charms me.  I always enjoy those moments when The Weird suddenly appears, slaps you in the face with a dead fish, and just as quickly and inexplicably vanishes for good.Our tale takes place on a pleasant English Sunday, May 5, 1924.  A young woman named Betty Bone went on the bicycle ride of 15
More...
Strange Company - 9/21/2026
  [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 […]
More...
Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
"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
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
 A Song Written in Memory ofThe St. George Murder.(excerpt) In St. George, Me., as you shall hear,It proves to be the fatal year -That Mrs. Meservey, in the prime of life.By a murderer's hand has lost her life....Nathan Hart is the murderer's name,Father and husband think of the shame,Did he forget all woman kind,Seek like a beast some prey to find?...God in His written book doth say, 
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 9/19/2026
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
More...
Executed Today - 11/13/2020
The Glorious 4th. | When the Crowned Heads Do Their Own Fighting -

Watched her Lovers Fight.

Watched her Lovers FightA bloody battle over a pretty woman between two Gold Hill, Idaho, stock raisers.

George Barker and Henry Paxton, well-to-do stock raisers, near Gold Hill, Idaho, loved Maggie Brandt, a charming widow. She promised to marry both her lovers. They decided to settle the matter by a duel. They fought with knives and Barker fell with a terrible wound in his throat. Maggie, who witnessed the battle, threw herself in the arms of the victor, who cut her nose off and put out her eyes with a slash of his knife.


National Police Gazette, November 12, 1892.