Vintage Photos, Genealogy & Crime Stories
Pearl Clifton had a serious love of drink, along with a tendency to be reckless, which her taste for booze didn’t help. On the night of February 27, 1897, her world came crashing down when she was arrested after her ill-fated attempt to burn down her house at 250 Normal Avenue in Buffalo, New York. … Continue reading Older Than the Hills in Crime
A fire broke out in a multi-family apartment building at 114 Wyckoff Street in Brooklyn on the night of December 10, 1907. The building was located in the heart of what was then one of the borough’s most populous tenement districts. Heat from blaze damaged the water pipes, causing water to drip through the floor … Continue reading Firebug
Jacob Kowalsky was in the grips of the green-eyed monster in July 1908. An Austrian immigrant who worked as a carpenter, Jacob was upset with John Smith, a young man who once boarded in his Bayside home. When John lived with the Kowalskys, he made the mistake of flirting with Jacob’s wife. Bayside, a community … Continue reading Rival Burning
Christmas 1907 was not shaping up to be a merry one for Pauline Lyons. The 26-year-old Texas woman was sentenced, just before the holiday, to spend the next eight years in San Quentin State Prison. To add insult to injury, this was her third trip inside. However no one would suspect that she was anything … Continue reading Her Radiant Smile
Captured and Exposed 