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Spokane Conductor Said His Body Parts Were Stolen Before Court Declared Him Insane
Albert D. Finch was a familiar figure in Spokane, where he worked as a conductor for the Great Northern Railway. When the 58-year-old husband and…
15-Year-Old Girl Hid in Virginia Woods and Eluded Searchers for Days
For several days in the summer of 1926, authorities searched the woods near Falling Creek for a 15-year-old girl dressed only in a bathing suit….
Sweden Ordered Citizens to Learn Swimming to Reduce Drowning Deaths
In 1926, Sweden reportedly launched an ambitious campaign to turn the entire country into a nation of swimmers, or, as one American newspaper dramatically put…
New York’s “Quiet” Fourth of July Was Filled With Explosions and Bloodshed
New York celebrated Independence Day in 1926 with packed beaches, exploding fireworks, stray bullets, and at least one violent confrontation between police and revelers. An…
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…
