No. 479
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
July 08, 2020
alias: DOCTOR SMYTH, HARRISON
Via Newspapers.com
Who doesn’t love a good Demon Cat story? The “Harrisburg Telegraph,” July 30, 1902:
Lancaster, July 30. Mrs. Augustus Stiffel, wife of an ironworker, says she is bewitched and lays the blame for her condition on a big black cat.
According to her story, the cat, which is as large as a good-sized dog, with eyes like balls of fire, visits her house nearly every night, and
More...
Strange Company - 7/8/2020
(Click image to enlarge)
HE SHOOTING OF HARRY
"SHOTGUN" SMITH.
Denver's unsolved murder: Number #10
On June 23, 1893, Harry "Shotgun" Smith (no relation) went on a drinking binge and made the deadly mistake of visiting the Tivoli Club and provoking a fight with Bascomb Smith, the younger brother of bad man "Soapy" Smith. Bascomb walked away unscathed. Harry Smith was not
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 6/23/2020
On this date in 1986, Malaysia hanged Australian nationals Brian Chambers and Kevin Barlow for trafficking heroin. The two men were nabbed together at the Penang island airport with 179 grams of heroin in their packs. While Chambers was an experienced drug courier, Barlow was a rookie; reportedly, his visible nervousness in the airport gave […]
More...
Executed Today - 7/7/2020
It was a perfect weekend to journey out to Tyngsborough to get a glimpse of what was left of the …
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 6/13/2020
Mamie Kelly
Fourteen-year-old Mamie Kelly of San Francisco, had a crush on the boy next door, nineteen-year-old Aleck Goldenson. Though Aleck was the kind of boy who appeals to teenaged girls—an artist and a bit of a hoodlum—her family had no use for him at all. In spite of this, Mamie took every opportunity be near him. Aleck first enjoyed her attention, then tolerated it, then actively
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 7/4/2020
New York once had lots of neighborhood doughnut places, and this stamp-size shop on Avenue U in Sheepshead Bay keeps the tradition alive. Also known as Shaikh’s Place, Donut Shoppe still has the original sign installed by the shop’s first owner decades ago. The shop has diversified over the years, adding to the menu tacos, […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 7/6/2020
[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 Family […]
More...
