Breaking Glass: Clarence Glass and the Maybray Gang (1910)
Behind the dapper visage and the styling bowler hat is the cool-as-a-cucumber con-man Clarence Glass, AKA Charles Glass. And until his arrest in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on March 22, 1910, he played a key role in a gang of grifters … Continued
Blue Words in Kentucky, $1 Each! (1834)
Judging by his “Report of Fines”—dated 5 January 1835—the Fall of 1834 was certainly a busy season for Thomas Crawley, Justice of the Peace in frontier Kentucky. Crawley hailed from Adair, Kentucky, and as the primary lawman in the area, … Continued
Knockout: the Strange Saga of Harry Lewis, Pugilist (1906)
The wind howled on the evening of Thursday, November 15, 1906, but the temperature inside the Grand Rapids Auditorium was balmy as a standing-room-only crowd huddled together while they watched the main event: a scheduled ten rounds between two heavy-hitters … Continued
“I saw three men hung the day before yesterday…” (1864)
Private Joseph P. Robinson sat under an oak tree and wiped the sweat beads from his forehead with the back of his sleeve. The humidity was unbearable. He laid out a sheet of paper, dipped his fountain pen into … Continued
GRAND THEFT EQUINE! (1877)
That ole black horse just ain’t where he’s supposed to be… …as Dan Powers, a livery stable operator of Jackson, Michigan, discovered after lending his horse and rig to a “Frank Cook,” who subsequently hoofed it out of town. Powers … Continued