the boy who vanished off the porch and left a city obsessed
A four year old vanished from his Philadelphia stoop in 1874 and the whole country went wild, forever changing how people thought about ransom and childhood.Read More 
The Ham That Caused a Huffy Scandal
A provincial butcher, a lifted ham, and a courtroom that preferred paperwork over common sense - ghastly, marvellous, and utterly human.Read More 
The Orange Parade That Tore Manhattan
July 12 1871, an Orange Order march exploded into street warfare and New York learned how thin civility could be.Read More 
The Man Who Paid to Bury a Giant (and People Paid to Stare)
A tobacconist tricked late 1860s America with a fake petrified giant and everyone cashed in like it was a theme park.Read More 
They Turned Trafalgar Into A Punch-Up
A demonstration in 1887 that started like a mooch and ended with policemen swinging sticks everywhere - absolute scenes, me.Read More 
The Skeleton Army That Tore Up Worthing
A seaside town, mock bands, and a mob that treated hymn-singing like a provocation.Read More 
When the Fenians Tried to Make Trains Disappear (Almost)
A ludicrously earnest campaign of tiny explosions, grand politics and one extraordinary public hiss of panic that left magistrates baffled and the populace rather cross.Read More 
When the Dead Rabbits Lost It in Five Points
I keep thinking about July 1857 when two gangs turned a holiday into pure chaotic theatre and the whole city had to intervene.Read More 
Kate Townsend's Saloon and the Very Bad Night
She ran a saloon where brass flowed, cards lied, and the wrong sort of attention turned a lively room into a crime scene.Read More 
A Stepchild, A Stream, and Excessive Ceremony
A domestic murder that involved a drowned little girl, a house in a muddle, and a trial that treated common sense like an inconvenient teaspoon.Read More 