Local News.

Ephemeral New York, via my occasional home, BHB, investigates the origins of Love Lane. Sure, the quiet street just off Montague may once have been the site of furious romance, a pawed bodice, etc., and, more recently, Björk, but I prefer to remember its darker history.

For example, 1872:

John Van Syckel was charged and tried for poisoning his wife. The Times called him a "rough, worthless character" and noted that, as she lay dying, Mrs. Van Syckel wrote her husband out of her will, "leaving Mr. Van Syckel without a penny."

Six months after Mrs. Van Syckel's death, the trial came to an end:

After which, Mr. Van Syckel, reported The Times, "locked in his counsel's arm, walked out of the court-room a free man."