Friends, I have discovered buried treasure.
It’s true! Recently I acquired the original duty ledger of Buffalo’s Eighth Police Precinct from 1889-1890—a serious rarity—and, even better, I dug it up without making Swiss cheese of poor old Oak Island. Check it out:
When I located this (rather substantial) first-person document in an antiquarian bookseller shop in the UK, you may imagine my delight. After much (im)patient waiting for the Royal Mail, at last the tome arrived. I lugged my prize home from the post office, set it on my desk, and had taken only a moment to fix myself a cup of coffee—when upon returning I found that Penelope Brighton (aka ‘Unquestioned Supreme Authority’) had already commandeered it.
I know better than to disturb a relaxed feline, so more (im)patient waiting followed, until at last I could dig in . . .
What is contained in this huge book (it must weigh twenty pounds) is pretty amazing stuff, and especially so since 1889 was the year of a very sensational Buffalo crime—the hatchet murder of Matilda Ziegler by her alleged common-law husband, peddler William F. Kemmler. Kemmler has the dubious distinction of being the first person put to death in the electric chair (in August 1890). The event is famous not only as a first of its kind, but also for the gruesome ‘slow-cook’ method used to electrocute Kemmler…