You have to read it to believe it.
The suave dandy’s mugshot card after his arrest in 1913. (Author’s collection) Silver-tongued Joseph Berger, a tailor by trade, made a living running swindles on the unsuspecting throughout northern California. The suave dandy used his good-looks, smooth-talking, … Continued
Prison mugshot card of Bessie Leigh from an original in the Dark Corners of History archives. Her name was Bessie Leigh. She was young (twenty-six), vivacious, curvaceous, and lonely. What she might have neglected to mention was that she also had … Continued
Sometimes, an object from the past contains the power to summon, like a séance, a long-forgotten event. In the case of the steamship Umbria, the spiritual medium is a postcard from New York, which conjures the memory of a ship … Continued
On the night of Thursday, September 13, 1904, Mrs. Adelia C.B. Sweeting—a native of Jackson, Michigan, making the voyage aboard the Western States from Buffalo to Detroit—was jarred awake from a deep slumber by a squeezing sensation around her throat. … Continued
Part 2 Leave it to Beaver Love and Weidenmann took James Odell’s statement to the second floor cell where Pearl sat on a cot. Pearl’s mouth dropped open when Love read James Odell’s confession. Pearl insisted the crime was … Continued
Part 1 “Did you wrong her?” As the taxicab neared a desolated spot in the forests on the outskirts of Rochester, New York, twenty-three-year-old Edward Kneip felt his heart throbbing. He twisted his wrists, but the handcuffs binding his … Continued
With his bowler hat and three-day beard, George Ebeling certainly looked the part of a wild-west desperado, and over the previous two and a half years, he did his best to play the role as well. Unfortunately, train robbery just wasn’t … Continued
Christ died on a Friday, and for years, convicted felons expiated their “sins” on “Hangman’s Friday.” For John E. Schuyler, however, Friday would prove to be his lucky day. On occasion in the history of capital punishment, some condemned … Continued