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A House Divided.
Tensions in the Ware household outside of Berlin, New Jersey, were near the breaking point. On August 16, 1870 they snapped, when a dispute over a milk pan turned mother against daughter, brother...
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Alabama Lynching.
Little Murders(From The Davenport Daily Leader, Davenport, Iowa, January 1, 1893)Alabama Lynching. Two Murders Strung Up by a Mob.Not given a chance for prayer. Unlike Most Southern Lynchings the...
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August Detlaf.
Little Murders:From Defenders and Offenders:August Detlaf.John Phillips and Skip Larking of Chicago, Ills., were shot and instantly killed on the evening of July 29, 1888, by August Detlaf, who is a...
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The Talbotts.
Dr. Perry H. Talbott was among the most prominent citizens of Nodaway County, Missouri. In addition to being a skilled physician, Talbott was state legislator, a writer and a newspaper editor. He was a...
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Three Iowa Murders.
Little MurdersHere are three little Iowa murders from the same edition of The Marion Sentinel:(From The Marion Sentinel, Merion, Iowa, December 9, 1897)Mrs. Behrens Found Guilty. Davenport Woman...
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“…cut off in her youthful bloom”
In August of 1810, four little girls picking berries at the foot of a precipice near Uniontown, Pennsylvania, discovered the broken body of a beautiful young woman. She was identified as Polly...
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August Hetzke.
Little Murders:From Defenders and Offenders:August Hetzke.This individual was convicted in Chicago, Ills., of murder in the first degree, he having beaten his little step-son to death. He was always...
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Miss Fails in Court
Little MurdersThis looks like a good one. I'll keep searching for more information.(From Waterloo Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, December 15, 1897)Miss Fails in Court Murder in Second DegreeThat is her...
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A Contract with the Devil.
On April 16, 1897, cashier Joseph A. Stickney was murdered during a daring daylight robbery of the Great Falls National Bank in Somersworth, New Hampshire. The frenzied investigation that followed,...
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A Brutal murder.
Little Murders(From Sedalia Daily Democrat, Sedalia, Missouri, October 15, 1876)A Brutal murder. A Quarrel Between Colored Secret Societies Results in a Hanging Scrape.St Louis, Oct. 12—A special to...
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How to Abolish Murder.
In 1869 H. H. Bingham, agent of the Michigan State Prison, issued a pamphlet analyzing the effect of Michigan’s abolition of the death penalty some twenty-two years earlier. In place of hanging,...
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The Massachusetts Borgia.
The Order of Pilgrim Fathers was a Massachusetts social group whose chief purpose was to provide cheap life insurance for working-class men and women. In the summer of 1886 they became suspicious of...
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"Murdered by a Maniac” Guest Post by James Schmidt
I am pleased to welcome guest blogger, James M. Schmidt to Murder by Gaslight. James writes about the American Civil War is the author of several books, including Galveston and the Civil War: An Island...
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William Agnew.
Little Murders:From Defenders and Offenders:William Agnew.Of all the cold blooded villains, this is one of the worst. Wm. Agnew lived in Palyra, N. Y. He went home with his wife one night from a ball,...
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The Black-McKaig Homicide.
As children, Harry and Myra Black were playmates with William McKaig, but as adults McKaig did not view the Blacks as his equals—the McKaigs were wealthy, the Blacks were not. As events transpired,...
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The Murder of Chong Ong.
Little Murders (From New York Herald-Tribune, New York, New York, November 21, 1885)The Murder of Chong Ong. A Cuban Charged with the Crime.Arrested on the Testimony of a Boy who Saw the Chinaman...
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The Hart-Meservey Murder.
The winter of 1877 Captain Luther Meservey went to sea leaving his wife Sarah alone in their home in the village of Tenant’s Harbor, Maine. When Sarah was found strangled in her own home, the people of...
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Thomas Riley.
Little Murders:From Defenders and Offenders:Thomas Riley."At an early hour on Sunday, Dec. 12, 1886, Robert Coleman was murdered by Thomas Riley, at Greensburg, Pa. Riley worked in the Crab Tree Mines...
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Insurance Murders.
Life insurance has always provided incentive to murder. Depending on the state of their relationship, the beneficiary may come to view the insured as more valuable dead than alive. In the nineteenth...
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The Woman in Black.
A prominent California legislator was sitting with his wife and son on board the Oakland-San Francisco ferryboat El Capitain the evening of November 3, 1870. They did not notice the woman, dressed...
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