Category: History
Pennsylvania “Corpse” Sat Up and Asked for Breakfast
In the early 1900s, death was not always as certain as it seemed. Doctors had fewer tools, homes often served as sickrooms, and the line…
Police Clubs Fell on Lawrence Textile Strikers
In the fall of 1912, the textile city of Lawrence, Massachusetts, was still raw from one of the most famous labor uprisings in American history:…
“Dead” Aberdeen Logger Returned to Work
Logging was never gentle work. In the early 1900s, a lumberjack’s day could mean felling massive trees, trimming branches with sharp axes, hauling timber over…
San Rafael Powder Factory Explosion Kills Four
A thunderous blast rolled across Point San Pedro on June 17, 1899, so loud that some who heard it first mistook the sound for a…
She Risked Her Life to Rescue Old Glory
A crowd gathered beneath the old Chicago post office, staring upward in alarm as a young woman made her way across the icy, sloping roof….
Missouri Woman Dies of Fright After Corpse Sits Up
In Joplin, Missouri, word spread of a death so strange and gruesome that it seems almost impossible: a young woman reportedly died of fright while…
Los Angeles Policeman Robbed a Wells Fargo Wagon
A Los Angeles robbery that seemed daring enough on its own became even stranger when the culprit turned out to be one of the city’s…
The Night Raiders Who Gassed Chickens and Hogs
There are ordinary farm thefts, and then there are crimes so strange they sound as though they were lifted from the pages of a wartime…
Minnesota Farmer Cuts His Own Hand Free from Corn Picker
In the early days of mechanized farming, corn pickers made harvest work faster, but they also brought terrible new dangers into the fields. Moving rollers,…
Luray Farmer Wakes to Find a Rat Gnawed Off His Hair
Some old newspaper stories are strange because they involve crime, scandal, or disaster. Others are strange because they leave us with one unforgettable image: a…
