A Burglar Caught by a Skeleton & Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press (36 page)

A Row in a Show

At Shrewsbury Police Court on Thursday a case of assault which arose between two of the performers at Wombwell’s Menagerie was heard.

The complainant was Nina Behnke, or ‘Madame Polonoski, the Bearded Lady,’ and the defendant Mary Edwards, the snake charmer. There was a visit to the town of Wombwell’s Menagerie of wild beasts and other curiosities.

Among the latter was the complainant, who was gifted by nature with a beard. The defendant was a snake charmer. The two ladies were on the stage on Monday night, and in leaving it the complainant accidentally brushed against the dress of the defendant, who thereupon struck the complainant in the face with the head of one of the snakes which she had about her.

Subsequently the defendant, who had hold of a frying-pan, went up to the complainant and assaulted her, knocking her down, giving her two black eyes, and cutting her face and mouth.

The defendant said she was not a pugilist, but a snake charmer. When on the platform she had a chain in one hand, a snake in the other, and two other snakes around her neck. The complainant pushed her and struck her, and also caught hold of one of the snakes, which caused the animal to coil itself tightly around her neck.

The Bench dismissed the case, and ordered each of the ladies to pay her own costs.

The Midland Daily Telegraph
, Coventry, March 12, 1892

Extraordinary Affair

One of the most extraordinary and revolting circumstances has just come to light at a place called Pheasant Hill, two miles from Castlebar.

It seems that a pensioner named Egar and his wife resided for some years past in a lonesome part of the above locality, and the fact of the husband not having made his appearance out of doors for a few weeks caused several inquiries to be made as to his whereabouts.

To each inquiry the wife replied that he was ill and confined to bed, so that he could not be seen.

On Saturday evening, however, one of the neighbours suspecting that all was not right, went to the house, and was told as usual by the wife that her husband was asleep and could not be disturbed. The man, however, insisted on seeing him asleep or awake.

Observing the perseverance and the determination of this man to see her husband, the wife confessed that her husband was dead, and, on going to his room, a frightful spectacle presented itself.

Lying on the floor, covered with mud and ‘scraws’ was the body of the man, in such a state of decomposition as to make it appear he had been dead for at least three weeks.

The police were at once communicated with, and have now charge of the body pending a coroner’s inquiry. The reason assigned for this strange conduct on the part of the woman is, that the quarter’s pension of her husband would come due on Monday, and by concealing the death of her husband she might succeed in defrauding the authorities by receiving the amount of his pension.

The Wrexham Advertiser
, July 16, 1864

Remarkable Story

A remarkable instance of a dream coming true is reported from St Louis. A woman named Mary Thornton has been detained in custody for a month, charged with the murder of her husband.

She requested to see one of the judges a week ago, and told him that she had dreamed that a man named George Ray murdered her husband, and at the same time gave the Judge full details of the tragedy as seen in her vision.

Ray was not then suspected, but the judge caused a search to be made for him. The man was found on Thursday and charged with the murder, the details, as the woman had given them, being recited to him. Ray was astonished and confessed. The woman was released.

The Worcestershire Chronicle
, August 26, 1899

Extraordinary Scene in a Police Court

The utmost consternation was caused among the prisoners at the Birmingham Police Court, on Wednesday morning, by the sudden appearance of a bear in their midst.

Bruin made his entrance from the cells below, and as he thrust his head above the stairs one of the occupants of the dock made a desperate effort to leap over the front in his fright.

For the moment the whole court was surprised at the unusual visitant, but the astonishment gave place to roars of laughter when Bruin’s presence was explained.

It appeared that some zealous constable found the animal that morning performing under the direction of two Frenchmen, and at once took all three into custody.

The dockkeeper, being ignorant of the remarkable capture, stood dumbfounded as the ungainly brute made its startling entry into the court, and while its owners retreated to the back of the court the animal reared itself above the railings of the dock, exhibiting a formidable front to the magistrates, and causing a general scramble from its vicinity.

The policeman charged the Frenchmen with causing an obstruction in the streets, but the magistrates laughed at the complaint, and discharged the remarkable ‘trio’ on the men promising to leave the town.

As they left the court the bear was made to descend the staircase on its hind legs amid roars of laughter from the spectators.

The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser
, April 29, 1882

A Thief Detected by a Parrot

A thief was detected in a singular manner in Gloucester on Tuesday. Mrs Fisher, flour-dealer, of Northgate Street, while in the parlour adjoining her shop, was startled by a parrot which she keeps in her shop loudly calling ‘Shop, Fisher, shop,’ and hastened to see what was the matter.

Not perceiving any person there, however, she was about to return again to the parlour, when the parrot again commenced screaming and repeating its former words. Mrs Fisher thereupon conceiving that there must be some cause for the extraordinary cries of the bird, walked round the shop, and on the inside of the counter, close to the till, she discovered a little urchin, about eight years old, crouching down to escape notice.

He had opened the till, and had 4½d in coppers in his hands, which he had stolen from it.

The Cornwall Royal Gazette
, June 16, 1848

Burglar Caught by a Skeleton

A burglar in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, was recently caught in a remarkable manner. Breaking into a closed and unoccupied office of a physician of that town, the burglar opened a closet (while his companion with a dark lantern was in another part of the room), and, feeling for clothing at about the height of closet hooks generally, got his hands between the jaws of a skeleton, which being adjusted with a coil spring and kept open with a thread, closed suddenly on the intruding hand by the breaking of the thread.

A sudden thought striking the burglar of his being caught by a skeleton in the doctor’s closet, so terrified him that he uttered a faint shriek, and when his companion turned the lantern toward him and he beheld himself in the grim and ghastly jaws of Death himself, he became so overpowered by fear that he fainted, fell insensible to the floor, pulling the skeleton down upon him, and making so much noise that his companion fled immediately, and the doctor, alarmed at the noise and confusion, hastened into the office and secured the terror-stricken burglar still held by the skeleton.

The Dundee Courier and Argus
, February 26, 1874