No. 482
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
August 03, 2020
Shot Down in His Office
Ruined and Despondent Ronald Kennedy, a Philadelphia speculator, kills broker Charles H. Page, and then commits suicide.
August 8, 2011
alias: EVANS, JIMMIE THE KID
This 2004 episode from Manx Radio gives us the story of John Kewish, hanged on this date in 1872 for killing his father with a pitchfork. Kewish is the last person ever executed on the Isle of Man — indeed even at his own time such a punishment was so passe that the local gallows-makers […]
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Executed Today - 8/1/2020
You have to admire the energy and endurance of those Victorian ladies. Even in the sweltering heat of a July …
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/24/2020
"The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan Mandijn
It's time for the Link Dump!
And tea is served!
Do you want to buy an Irish mansion inhabited by the Devil? Of course you do.If you want to lose what little faith in humanity you have left, contemplate the fact that somebody out there would spend $12,000 for a pizza that looks like something I wouldn't eat for free.Maurice the Rooster and "
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Strange Company - 7/31/2020
Soapy Smith in July 4th paradeSkagway, Alaska 1898Broadway and Fourth Ave.Note Soapy is on the left of center, behind Joe Brooks.Behind him is Brooks' Pack TrainWhere is the Skaguay Military Company?Where is the Fitzhugh Lee wagon?Courtesy ofKlondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
(Click image to enlarge)
ow Soapy Smith conned his way to be Grand Marshal of the 4th of July
With
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 7/10/2020
On January 6, 1873, Edward Stokes was sentenced to hang for the murder of financier and railroad magnate James Fisk. Stokes was well-connected politically and he awaited his appeal in a comfortably furnished cell in the Tombs with meals catered by Delmonicos.
Stokes was granted a new trial, was convicted of manslaughter and senteneced to six years in Sing Sing prison.
Read the full story here
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/1/2020
This is Broadway approaching Times Square in 1913. It’s hard to make out some of the store and theater signs in this postcard, but you can see the ad for the Hotel Normandie (once located on 38th Street) advertising itself as “absolutely fireproof”—a definite selling point at the time. What strikes me most in this […]
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Ephemeral New York - 7/27/2020
[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 […]
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