Recent Posts
He lives in Savoy, and in that part of it where it was considered one of the privileges of civilization to carry revolvers
— Abiathar Winn Preston (1823-1899), defense attorney
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The Case That Broke Benson Munyan
Continued from Part Four Detective Benson Munyan continued pounding the beat of the Northwest district for close to six years after collaring Herbert Blanchard. The 1890s saw Munyan called out… Read more ⇢
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Munyan’s Murderers
“For if I hadn’t killed him, he would have killed me,” Coy later said. “The question was who would get the ax first and who was the drunkest.” Read more ⇢
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Benson Munyan’s Collars
Continued from Part Two Less than a dozen of the photographs in Benson Munyan’s collection of mug shots are of criminals Munyan actually logged himself, crimes of finance and of… Read more ⇢
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Benson Munyan’s Cabinet of Criminality
Continued from Part One Detective Benson Munyan of Haydenville, the man who arrested my cousin Herbert M. Blanchard in 1891 for the crime of polygamy, had Herbert’s photograph taken for… Read more ⇢
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Benson Munyan, Collector of Rogues
Benson Munyan, the man who would lead Herbert M. Blanchard to his ultimate date with justice, was born in the village of Leeds in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1837, the son… Read more ⇢
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A Deer Hill Story
In the late 1920s, Wilbur Julius Starks (1862-1944), the custodian of the Deer Hill Reservation in Cummington, Mass., penned or dictated a series of columns for the Springfield Daily Republican,… Read more ⇢
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and just like that.
Really, truly amazing things are happening with this manuscript. Just four days ago, I had a sense where this story was going, what I needed to find out, what I… Read more ⇢
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The Edwins Meacham
As I have been learning about Herbert Blanchard, his family, and his world, I have found myself in a constant struggle against the rabbit hole. The battle starts in places… Read more ⇢
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I am Delivered a Swerve
The 1874 Recorder notice is the earliest newspaper clipping I can find about Herbert M. Blanchard, my first cousin, three times removed. In between that clipping and a later, final… Read more ⇢
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The report of my execution was an exaggeration.
In the spring of 1874, the friends of Herbert M. Blanchard posted an announcement in the Greenfield Recorder to reassure the public that, contrary to rumor, Blanchard had not been… Read more ⇢
The Many Wives of Herbert Blanchard 