No. 424
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
March 22, 2019
On this date in 1540, the legendary outlaw Hans Kohlhase — a crime victim turned revengeful crime lord — executed* in Berlin. It’s a classic case of stubborn cusses escalating a minor property dispute. En route to the Leipzig fair in 1532, Kohlhase (English Wikipedia entry | German) was stopped by a Saxon nobleman who […]
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ExecutedToday.com - 3/22/2019
I’m not sure when the low-rise buildings at the southwest corner of Mulberry and Grand Streets were torn down. But if there’s any upside to the bulldozing of another old New York corner, it’s that we now have an amazing side view of the Federal-style house at 149 Mulberry. The view is almost a portal […]
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Ephemeral New York - 3/17/2019
Welcome to the first Link Dump of Spring 2019!
Time for Strange Company HQ's spring cleaning!
Where the hell did we get the phrase, "red herring?"
How a child's murder became folklore.
Yes, they're still trying to find Jack the Ripper.
And, of course, Amelia Earhart.
This week in Russian Weird: nothing to see here, just mysterious black insects taking over.
There's a town in
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Strange Company - 3/22/2019
[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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Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
Perry Harrington and his wife, Maria, were spending a quiet evening at their farmhouse in Geneva, Ohio, on December 18, 1884, when the door burst open, and a masked man boldly entered the house. He pointed a cocked revolver at Mr. Harrington and demanded his money or his life. Seeing that he and his wife were at the mercy of the intruder, Harrington went into an adjoining bedroom to get his
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Murder by Gaslight - 3/16/2019
alias: ENGLISH FRANK HILTON, PADDY, PICKPOCKET
Horseshoe Saloon
circa 1900-1910
(Click image to enlarge)
LOODY FIGHT IN A SALOON
More details of the October 1, 1897 Horseshoe Saloon brawl.
Up until this post, the details of this saloon free-for-all, what had actually occurred, and why, have been largely unknown. An article dated October 2, 1897 in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer gives a much better picture of the
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 3/21/2019
So- did Lizzie have a sweetheart? It would seem one Curtis I. Piece had high but unrequited hopes of winning …
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