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George Moore (the living skeleton) vs. Fred Howe (the fat man), two circus performers, 1897. Very scarce sources out there so here is the best I could piece together: Howe’s father was a carpenter in Pennsylvania and a young Fred started to learn the same trade, but he soon became too heavy. At the age of eighteen he joined the Forepaugh Circus as a “tat boy,” and there met his present sparring partner. SHOP NOW ON AMAZON Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku (The X from Outer Space; Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell; The Living Skeleton; Genocide) (The Criterion Collection) [DVD] George Moore was born in Helena, Montana, where his father had a little dry goods shop. He had a desire to see the world and so when the first big circus came to Helena and the manager offered him an arrangement to exhibit himself as the “living skeleton,” he signed immediately. Howe and Moore became friends and would spar in private just for fun. The manager saw them squaring off one day and he i...

John F. Morgan was the last man hanged publicly in West Virginia, on Dec. 16, 1897 John F. Morgan was the last man hanged publicly in West Virginia, on Dec. 16, 1897, after he was convicted of murdering Chloe Greene and two of her three children in the Grass Lick area of Jackson County. The execution drew more than 5,000 spectators, including a New York Sun special reporter assigned to cover the spectacle. The chain of events that led to the hanging began less than six weeks earlier on Nov. 3, 1897. Morgan, an orphan who had lived 5 years with the Greene family and stayed the night with them, was armed that morning with a hatchet. One by one he attacked his victims, delivering fatal blows to Mrs. Greene, Jimmy Greene and Matilda Pfost. Another daughter, Alice Pfost, was attacked but survived. It was she who alerted neighbors to the crime. Morgan was arrested within hours and incarcerated in Ripley. He was indicted on Nov. 4, tried and convicted the following day, and sente...