Posts Tagged ‘William Neely’

When E. W. Dickenson, clerk of the superior court, went into his yard last Friday morning he was surprised and somewhat frightened when he discovered a stick of dynamite beneath one of his windows. About three yards of fuse was attached to the dynamite and the end was partially burned . . . —San Diego Union, April 7, 1909

It was a close call. Someone had tried to blow up the house of Edgar Dickenson at 3674 A Street. The popular deputy county clerk and attache at the county courthouse could not recall anyone with cause to hurt him or his family. But he did remember a strange business transaction regarding a cow.

Continued in A Man of Peculiar Temperament.

Art gallery in the Carnegie Library.

As a target for art thieves, the Public Library would seem an unlikely place. Nevertheless, janitor Robert Butler had an unwelcome surprise when he opened the doors of the library on Friday morning, February 5, 1909. As Butler climbed the stairs to the art gallery on the second floor, he was shocked by the sight of empty picture frames strewn along the baseboards. Fifteen oil paintings on loan from prominent local artists had disappeared. . .

The story of the Carnegie Library Art Heist.

Harry Houdini in a familiar theatre pose.

A vaudeville act that is without its equal in the world today has been secured for the Grand theater . . . Harry Houdini, the noted handcuff and jail breaker, will give exhibitions of his skill here.  –San Diego Union, Oct. 5, 1907

In the fall of 1907, Harry Houdini, soon to be known as the world’s greatest magician and escape artist, came to San Diego to display his skills before crowded theater audiences . . .

The story of Houdini in San Diego.