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2 Men Drowned in Mississippi River While Their Wives Watched
What began as a summer picnic on a Mississippi River sandbar in 1925 ended in tragedy when a swimmer was caught in the current and…
California Miner Rescued After 57 Hours Trapped Underground
For 57 hours, Robert Hill remained trapped inside the darkness of a collapsed California mine tunnel while rescuers worked to reach him back in 1925….
Man and 2 Horses Killed by Lightning Near New Salem
As a violent electrical storm swept across the farmland northwest of New Salem in 1914, Ernest Bohnke hurried to get two frightened horses into the…
Teen Fugitive Swam From Randalls Island and Escaped on a Trolley
In 1903, seventeen-year-old Gentle had already slipped past the guards, crossed a mile of institution grounds, and reached the northern end of Randalls Island before…
Young Painter Falls to His Death Inside Greenville Power House
Twenty-three-year-old Noah Webster Smith was painting the ceiling of a Greenville power house when an ordinary afternoon’s work ended in tragedy in 1924. Smith was…
Don’t Poison Baby
At the beginning of the twentieth century, exhausted parents could purchase “soothing syrups,” cordials, and drops intended to quiet a crying baby or help a…
Train Struck 7-Year-Old Brooklyn Boy and Hurled Him 100 Feet
Seven-year-old Willie Linsky was playing near his Brooklyn home in 1908 when something on the opposite side of the railroad tracks caught his attention. The…
New York Lamplighter Beaten to Death After Refusing to Join Strike
When Mount Vernon lamplighter Gregoria De Silvo refused to join a strike in the summer of 1908, he continued reporting for work as usual. That…
4-Year-Old Boy Hopped a Freight Train and Rode Into North Dakota
When a four-year-old boy vanished from his home in Lemmon, South Dakota, back in 1914, his widowed mother searched for him until nightfall. What she…
Ironwood Man “Skinned Alive” By Lightning Bolt
When Tony Kmieck failed to return from a Saturday night fishing trip in 1925, his companions began searching the shores of Iron Lake. They found…
