Recent Posts
Wedding Dance Custom Ends in Brawl and Bride Gets Black Eye
The wedding celebration began with music, dancing, and an old social custom. It ended with broken heads, a riot call, seven arrests, and a bride…
Parents Feared Missing Teen Girls Ran Away With the Circus
When two teenage girls vanished from Washington, D.C., their parents feared the lure of the circus had carried them away. Seventeen-year-old Edith Holmes and fifteen-year-old…
Man Pardoned 30 Years After Escaping Prison Over a $2 Pig
William Pearson’s crime had been small, but the shadow of it followed him for thirty years. In 1876, when he was just 18 years old,…
Mystery Animal in Pennsylvania Woods Sparked Kangaroo Rumors
Something strange was said to be roaming the wooded hills near Pleasant Run, Pennsylvania, and nobody seemed able to get a good enough look at…
Quick-Thinking Engineer Prevents Passenger Train Disaster
For a few terrifying moments on the Lake Shore tracks, it looked as if a passenger train was about to plunge into disaster. The westbound…
Mother Watches Baby Die in Her Arms During Heat Wave
The summer heat had already done its damage by the time Susan Dodi reached the doctor’s office with her baby in her arms. Her six-month-old…
Teen Locked in Freight Car by Jokers Found Frozen and Starving
What began as a cruel joke nearly cost a teenage boy his life. Seventeen-year-old James Fry was locked inside a freight car at Peru, Indiana,…
Navy Retires Fish Names for Submarines as Octopus Becomes C1
Before she became the C1, she was the Octopus. Resting in dry dock at the New York Navy Yard in 1912, the submarine was waiting…
Sick Children Were Once Tapped With a Blacksmith’s Hammer to Cure Them
For centuries, the village forge was a place of transformation. Cold metal entered the building and emerged as tools, weapons, horseshoes, and household objects. To…
Loaded Evidence Gun Fired in Philadelphia Courtroom, Shooting Reporter
A Philadelphia courtroom was waiting for the judge to take the bench when a revolver suddenly fired inside City Hall. Court reporter Leon Alexander had…
