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‘Grim Death Came and Took a Step’ : Mike Mitchell
In the years before his death on 13 January 1862, Mike Mitchell had gained a degree of fame and popularity in California and the Pacific Northwest ‘as the best jig dancer ever on this coast.’ On Saturday, 11 January 1862, Mitchell returned to his Portland, Oregon, lodging house, apparently drunk. He got into an argument… Continue reading
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Joseph Moses and the Serpentine’s Missing Swans
In early 1811, members of the local community noticed that the swans that populated the Serpentine, a 40-acre lake in Hyde Park, London, were missing. A search of the area commenced, and soon the bodies of the swans were discovered on the banks of the Serpentine. The Bow Street Runners investigated the scene and, in… Continue reading
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‘If She is a Dead Woman, I Shall Die Happy’: Richard and Ann Griffin
In September 1810, Richard Griffin, a 29-year-old journeyman blacksmith, from Saffron Hill, London was indicted at the Old Bailey for the ‘wilful murder’ of his 34-year-wife Ann. Ann Griffin had been absent from her home for a day and a half when she encountered her husband Richard at Bartholomew’s Fair on 4 September. Richard had been… Continue reading
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The Assault on Fort Seybert, April 1758
The palisaded stockade known as Fort Seybert was built atop a bluff on the South Branch of the South Fork of the Potomac River, in present-day West Virginia. , by Jacob Seybert, soon after he purchased the 210-acre plot of land on which it was constructed in May 1755. The French and Indian War (The… Continue reading
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‘Blood in the Snow”: The Wolves of Turku
By User:Mas3cf – This file was derived from: Eurasian wolf.JPG, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95523086 Beginning in 1880, a series of wolf attacks brought terror to the countryside north of the city of Turku, in south-west Finland. Continuing into the latter part of the following year, reports suggest that 22 children were killed by a trio… Continue reading
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Dillie Welsh’s Four-Legged Saviour
The following collection of stories was published in Michigan’s Grand Rapid’s Press on Friday, 7 May 1886. Saved by a Calf A story comes from Alabama to the effect that Four-year-old Dillie Welsh, while playing with a pet calf, went to a well and peeped over the low curb. The calf caught her dress in… Continue reading
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The Ordeal of George Elmes
Leavenworth Daily Commercial, Thursday, 15 July 1875. In the summer of 1875, George Elmes, a German-born resident of Hays City, Kansas, ‘an honest, hard working fellow,’ loaded up a wagon with goods purchased from a sutler’s store and started on a trek from Hays City to Trinidad, New Mexico, where he planned to sell his… Continue reading
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Resurrectionists at Merrion Churchyard
By Hablot Knight Browne – https://archive.org/stream/chroniclesofcri01pelh#page/n317/mode/2up, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24087051 On a Thursday evening early in December 1828, several men, including four brothers named Ryan, gathered at the Merrion churchyard, Dublin, to watch over the grave of the brothers’ recently deceased sister. Around the same time that Miss Ryan was buried, Arthur Flaherty, a painter of… Continue reading
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Robert Thorley and the Footpad
On a Saturday afternoon in November 1812, Robert Thorley was riding from London to his home at nearby Petersham, along the Wandsworth road, when he noticed a woman dressed like a Quaker. Following the woman along the footpath was a man with an apron folded round him in the style of a carpenter. As Thorley… Continue reading
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Turnip Theft
Published in Jackson’s Oxford Journal, Saturday, 13 January 1855 Sarah Field and Elizabeth Langford, both of the parish of Saint Thomas, Oxford, were convicted of stealing turnip greens, the property of William Carey Faulkner, and were fined the sum of 7s. each, including costs. A week was allowed for payment. © Mark Young 2026 source… Continue reading
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Hellish Fiends, and Brutish Men 