No. 419
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
March 24, 2019
March 24 is the feast date of Saint Pigmenius, the patron saint of pigmen. In the hagiography, Pigmenius was a Christian scholar who numbered among the instructors of the young royal relative destined to switch back to paganism and become reviled of Christians as the Emperor Julian the Apostate. Fleeing the new order, Pigmenius headed […]
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ExecutedToday.com - 3/24/2019
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
Believed to be Bascomb Smith
Drawing of Bascomb upper right
No provenance for photo
Jeff Smith collection
(Click image to enlarge)
here art thou Bascomb?
The following newspaper clipping is copied from the Seattle Post-intelligencer, December 4, 1899.
———
BASCOM SMITH IN JAIL.
———
Accused of Shooting at an Enemy on the Public Street.
Bascom Smith, a brother
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 3/23/2019
[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
Patrick S. Donovan, better known as “Snip,” began drinking champagne after the first race at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, New Jersey, on August 6, 1893. The wine continued to flow as he watched the day’s races and Donovan appeared to be in a jovial mood, but he may have been trying to drown his sorrows. “Snip” Donovan was a successful and well-known horse trainer, but he had recently been
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Murder by Gaslight - 3/23/2019
alias: ENGLISH FRANK HILTON, PADDY, PICKPOCKET
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
So- did Lizzie have a sweetheart? It would seem one Curtis I. Piece had high but unrequited hopes of winning …
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