Category:
Police and Other Law Enforcement

The Bull Bowl

As the season for College Bowl games arrives, let us always fondly recall the "Bull Bowl: Pigs vs. Freaks."

Full account here.









Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 18, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Police and Other Law Enforcement, Rivalries, Feuds and Grudges, Sports, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1970s

The Blonde And Her Companion

Back in the 1950s, the FBI used "a curvaceous blue-eyed blonde, wearing a form-fitting sweater" to help train its agents to improve their powers of observation. The lesson was that if they spent too much time looking at her, they might miss other important details, such as her companion, "public enemy No. 11."

Reminds me of the "woman in the red dress" featured in the agent-training-program scene in The Matrix. I wonder if the Wachowskis had heard of the "blonde and her companion" test.

San Bernardino County Sun - Dec 4, 1955



Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 26, 2022 - Comments (8)
Category: Police and Other Law Enforcement, 1950s, Eyes and Vision

Follies of the Madmen #537

Police brutality!



Source.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jul 11, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Hygiene, Police and Other Law Enforcement, Advertising, 1930s

Sergeant Sunshine



Scott French, The Complete Guide to the Street Drug Game (1976):

One of the heroes of the Hashbury days was Sergeant Sunshine, a San Francisco cop who became upset at a system where you could easily buy a gun but get arrested for smoking a harmless vegetable. On April 14, 1968, Sgt. Richard Bergess demonstrated his feelings by lighting up a joint on the courthouse steps. Hippies threw a carpet of flowers before the cop, who was promptly arrested by agents in the crowd. Needless to say, this was Sgt. Bergess' last day with the San Francisco police.

He served six months in jail, and subsequently became a plumber.

Posted By: Alex - Sun May 22, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Drugs, Smoking and Tobacco, Police and Other Law Enforcement, 1960s

The Ordinances of Lancaster, South Carolina, 1903

We've all seen those features that dig up "Crazy Laws Still on the Books." But how did such ordinances ever first get established? By big and small towns trying to regulate every human behavior they could think of.

Here are a few choice samples from a randomly chosen place!

Source: The Lancaster News (Lancaster, South Carolina) 16 May 1903



No public marble playing



No annoying churchgoers



No hookers



No tramps, cardsharps or fortune tellers



No dirks or slingshots



No outward-opening gates



Must ring bicycle bell



No piles of public poop



No bad oysters



To their credit, the officials imposed lots of rules on the cops as well. These are just a few.



Posted By: Paul - Wed Jan 19, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Government, Police and Other Law Enforcement, Regionalism, 1900s

High Spirits

A unique defense.

Source: Daily News (New York, New York) 08 Mar 1943, Mon Page 219

Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 17, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Eccentrics, Police and Other Law Enforcement, Religion, Mental Health and Insanity

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Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.

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