Brides were stripped of U.S. citizenship at the altar

Brides were stripped of U.S. citizenship at the altar

Author: www.offbeatoregon.com (finn @ offbeatoregon.com) December 19, 2025 Duration: 9:14
Women who'd married German men suddenly learned they'd been legally (and very unconstitutionally) made stateless, and were forced to register as 'enemy aliens'; those who'd married Chinese men fared even worse. (Statewide; 1910s, 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1312e-germans-in-oregon-enemy-aliens.html)

The Offbeat Oregon History Podcast is a daily service from the Offbeat Oregon History newspaper column. Each weekday morning, a strange-but-true story from Oregon's history from the archives of the column is uploaded. An exploding whale, a few shockingly scary cults, a 19th-century serial killer, several very naughty ladies, a handful of solid-brass con artists and some of the dumbest bad guys in the history of the universe. Source citations are included with the text version on the Web site at https://offbeatoregon.com.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

Offbeat Oregon History podcast
Podcast Episodes
Dispute over Indians’
land lasted for 101 years (Part 1 of 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 6:56
IF THERE IS an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest active land dispute, it has to belong to the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Indians in central Oregon. But maybe it wouldn’t count for the r…
Bungling ex-crimps book-ended shanghaiing era [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:18
Bunco Kelley was out of prison, Mysterious Billy Smith was at loose ends, and Jumbo Riley was looking for something to do ... somehow, they ended up at a table at Erickson's Saloon with the Jost brothers, talking about g…
Plan to stop shanghaiing: Give Sullivan a monopoly [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:35
Oregon's Sailors' Boardinghouse Commission seemed completely uninterested in any enforcement activity other than ordering Larry Sullivan's competitors to leave the business. Naturally, those competitors fought back as be…
World boxing champ by day, shanghaier by night [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:39
After Jim Turk's death, former pro prizefighter Larry Sullivan virtually owned the shanghaiing business in Portland ... but there was one competitor he couldn't seem to shake: 'Mysterious Billy' Smith, boxing's Welterwei…
How ‘FBI’s Most Wanted’ gangster was busted [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 7:54
The mild-mannered drywall contractor turned out to be a notorious gangster after an article in the Morning Oregonian published his mugshots; he was wanted for the murder of three family members. (Beaverton, Washington Co…
‘Hold-up session’ featured big drunken house party [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 12:23
The fix was in -- all the legislators who needed to be bribed had been paid off -- so John Mitchell felt comfortable 'fessing up to his plans to double-cross Jonathan Bourne and his "Friends of Silver." But Bourne had a…
‘Oregon’s Outback’ a real moonshiner’s paradise [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 7:03
Central and Eastern Oregon was “Oregon's liquor cabinet” during Prohibition; its wide open spaces and tight-knit communities made busting bootleggers uncommonly difficult there. (For text and pictures, see https://offbea…
Bing cherry has its roots on the Oregon Trail [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:47
WHEN CHERRY SEASON rolls around, there’s never much doubt about what varieties you’ll find in your local grocery store. They’ll usually have some white or blush cherries, typically Royal Anne or Rainier; but most of them…