Tag: Pennsylvania
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…
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…
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…
Homestead Electric Plant Disaster Killed 27-Year-Old Engineer
In 1895, the electric light plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania, had only just returned to service when disaster struck. After three weeks of repairs, the plant…
Pottsville Hunter Rescued Alive After Terrifying Mine Shaft Fall
A pheasant hunt near Pottsville turned into a nightmare when 22-year-old Joseph Schrader stepped into an old mine shaft and plunged 400 feet into the…
Pennsylvania Woman Tied Up, Covered in Molasses and Feathers by Four Women
In the early 1900s, “whitecap” attacks were acts of vigilante intimidation, often carried out by groups who believed they had the right to punish or…
Man and Unknown Woman Drown in Fairmount Park
In March 1907, a quiet stretch of the Schuylkill River became the scene of a grim mystery. A park guard in Fairmount Park saw a…
Wilkes-Barre Mayor Says Jazz and Frankfurters Are Ruining America
In the roaring twenties, few cultural trends spread faster or stirred more controversy than jazz. To its fans, the new music was exciting and full…
Scranton Hearing Reveals Fight Over Child Labor in the Mines
In the hard coal fields of Pennsylvania, where whole towns lived by the whistle of the mines, the question of a miner’s wage was never…
Pittsburgh Police Probe Mystery of Headless Body
The discovery of a headless body in a bath house along Pittsburgh’s Monongahela River left detectives with a grim puzzle and almost nothing to follow. …
