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Jocelin Harwood: ‘A Degenerate Plant from a Good Tree’
The image of a highwayman in the public imagination, as seen in innumerable novels and films, is a courteous, gallant gentleman of the road, perhaps a victim of injustice, a heroic equestrian seeking to outwit his usually corrupt opponents as the shadow of the gallows hangs over him. Jocelin Harwood, born in the village of… Continue reading
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The (Brief) Disappearance of Marjorie Hartzell
Marjorie Hartzell On Wednesday, 9 April 1919, Marjorie Hartzell, a fifteen-year-old student, disappeared while walking to class at New Trier High School in the village of Winnetka, Illinois. At about 8.30 am, Marjorie was following two of her friends as they reached the Hubbard Woods station when the ’southbound electric car’ that would ferry them… Continue reading
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The Blue Light Lady of Fort Hays
As the war between the Indigenous tribes and the men labouring on the Transcontinental Railroad continued to simmer away in the area around the Smoky Hills Trail, a second, more pernicious foe was beginning to make its presence felt. An article published in the Wednesday, 4 September 1867, issue of The Urbana Union reported that… Continue reading
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‘A More Mournful Cortege Was Never Seen’ : The Williamson Murders
The Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh), Friday 2 April 1858 With the hyperbole common to Victorian-era newspapers, the Tuesday, 6 April 1858 edition of the Edinburgh newspaper The Caledonian Mercury published an item that had first been reported in the John o’Groats Journal ‘inhabitants…were startled by the announcement that during the previous night the house of one… Continue reading
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The Waunllwyd Ghost
As reported in London’s Sunday Dispatch on 9 February 1936 From Our Own Correspondent Ebbw Vale (Monmouth), Saturday. For two days I have been trying to track down the Waunllwyd Ghost, the most peculiar spook that ever haunted house or earth. It has set the whole village of Waunllwyd talking, emptied a house, and attracted… Continue reading
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‘A Brother Brigand of the Mountains’
James Butler’Wild Bill’ Hickok By unattributed – Heritage Auctions, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33582655 The following article was published in the Telegraph Courier of Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Thursday, 24 August 1876. Trial and Acquittal of the Murderer of Wild Bill-a Characteristic Picture of Frontier Life-Colorado Charley Gives Wild Bill a Good send off-The Finest Funeral the Country… Continue reading
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Fort Hays, 1867
Chicago Tribune Saturday, 21 September 1867 Originally constructed in 1865 and named Fort Fletcher, Fort Hays occupied three sites on the Kansas Plains. The original Fort Fletcher was located south of the confluence of Big Creek and the North Fork of Big Creek in Western Kansas. Fort Fletcher was intended to protect the Butterfield Overland… Continue reading
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‘A Crackbrained Fellow”
I discovered this article in the Saturday, 24 May 1856, edition of the Southern Morning Herald, a newspaper published in Goulburn, New South Wales. FRIGHTFUL MURDERS BY A MANIAC The Newhaven (U.S.) Journal gives full particulars of a most frightful case of double murder at Woodbridge (Connecticut). It appears that a crackbrained fellow named Sanford,… Continue reading
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The Fate of the Emily Harris
The Vancouver Island-built steamer Emily Harris made a brief appearance in a previous post. In 1864, the craft had carried three labourers who had been engaged in the construction of a road through the Cariboo goldfields in the Colony of British Columbia, from Nanaimo to Victoria, after they had survived an attack on their camp… Continue reading
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‘Cold as a Hammer’: Gunfight at Myers’ Ravine
By Unknown author – http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-oldwest/Venard%20Gunfight.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12367272 Towards the end of April 1866, Samuel Henry of Moore’s Flat, California, was driving his wagon up Yuba Hill when he was stopped by two pistol-wielding robbers who ordered him down from his ‘sulky’. The two men carried out a systematic search of Henry’s wagon, finding only… Continue reading
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