According to a press release issued by DEC, on the early morning hours of April 21st, NYS Environmental Conservation Officer (ECO) Pabes responded to a report of multiple anglers keeping excess and undersized striped bass in the village of Great Neck, Long Island. [Read more…] about Spring Striped Bass Detail Nets Poachers
Crime and Justice
The Killing of Schoharie Deputy Sheriff Huddleston in 1818
On the ninth of October 1818, William Huddleston, a resident of Lawyersville and a deputy sheriff of Schoharie County, rode out to the farm of John van Alstine. Van Alstine had run over and injured a child the previous summer.
Huddleston intended to collect several judgments from Van Alstine arising from the injury to the child and secure some of Van Alstine’s property as collateral against various outstanding judgments. Van Alstine picked up a wooden bar and clubbed the deputy sheriff to death. The killing was, as the ghost says in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “a murder most foul.” [Read more…] about The Killing of Schoharie Deputy Sheriff Huddleston in 1818
Four Nymphs, a Satyr and Manhattan’s Ladies’ Mile
Until the mid-1860s the Fifth Avenue area around Madison Square was Manhattan’s “aristocratic” heart. Its brownstone mansions were occupied by the city’s elite. The gradual incursion of commerce into this residential haven started with high-class hotels.
In 1864 Hoffmann House was one of the first to open its doors. Owned by Cassius H. Read, it was located on the corner of 25th Street & Broadway and contained tree hundred rooms with all the latest conveniences. The establishment proudly advertised its lavish furnishings, carefully chosen artworks, and refined French (Parisian) cuisine. At a time that hotel living was becoming a fashionable alternative to owning a family mansion for wealthy New Yorkers, Hoffmann House was recommended as the most comfortable and homelike residence in the metropolis.
During the 1880s the hotel’s “grand salon” became one of New York’s “secretive” attractions for a very specific reason. [Read more…] about Four Nymphs, a Satyr and Manhattan’s Ladies’ Mile
Public’s Assistance Sought With Jefferson County Deer Poaching
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is asking the public for information about a deer poaching incident that occurred on April 25th, 2022, in the area of Pillar Point in the town of Brownville, Jefferson County, between midnight and 5 am. [Read more…] about Public’s Assistance Sought With Jefferson County Deer Poaching
Several Anglers Ticketed in Warren County Sweep
On the morning of April 15th, Lieutenant Higgins and NYS Environmental Conservation Officer (ECO) Brassard patrolled a small trout pond in Queensbury and discovered several anglers catching freshly stocked trout without incident. However, some anglers also possessed out-of-season chain pickerel. In addition, two fishermen had failed to buy a fishing license, resulting in tickets to the offenders.
It was one of several incidents where anglers were ticketed for illegal fishing in Warren County. [Read more…] about Several Anglers Ticketed in Warren County Sweep
Horrific Homicides & Long Island Judge Thomas Stark
Thomas M. Stark served as a judge in Suffolk County and New York State beginning in the early 1960s.
During his career he presided over a number of important cases but the one that loomed largest was the murder of the DeFeo family at their home in Amityville by their son Ronald in 1974. Stark’s daughter Ellen remembers hearing about the case over dinner while the rest of the world remembers it as the Amityville Horror case. [Read more…] about Horrific Homicides & Long Island Judge Thomas Stark
1899 And The Making Of New York City
On August 31st, 1901, Polish-American anarchist Leon Czolgosz booked a room in Nowak’s Hotel at 1078 Broadway.
Six days later he made a trip to Buffalo, site of the Pan-American Exposition where President William McKinley was due to speak. He shot him from close range. [Read more…] about 1899 And The Making Of New York City
North Country Prisons Talk On ‘Empire State Engagements’
On this episode of Empire State Engagements, Dr. Clarence Jefferson Hall, Jr., talks about his book A Prison in the Woods: Environment and Incarceration in New York’s North Country (UMass Press, 2020). [Read more…] about North Country Prisons Talk On ‘Empire State Engagements’
Clifton Park’s Ties to Lincoln’s Assassination
April 14th marked the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln‘s assassination by John Wilkes Booth in 1865. This tragic event, like the later assassination of John F. Kennedy, had a tremendous impact on the nation.
There was a period of twenty days of mourning from the time Lincoln was shot to the time he arrived by train for burial at his home in Springfield, Illinois. The first of his twelve funerals was held in Washington, then his funeral procession began by train across the land to Illinois, stopping at major cities for additional funerals. It was the mightiest outpouring of national grief the world had yet seen. [Read more…] about Clifton Park’s Ties to Lincoln’s Assassination
Two Arrested After Bank Robbery in Adirondacks
According to a press release issued by New York State Police, at about noon on March 26th, State Police in Mayfield, Fulton County, NY responded to a report of a robbery in progress at the NBT Bank on Bridge Street in the Village of Northville.
Two male suspects fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of currency prior to the arrival of law enforcement. According to Police, no weapon was observed but the presence of one was implied. No one was injured during the incident. [Read more…] about Two Arrested After Bank Robbery in Adirondacks