Clipping from newspaper (The Corrector, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sag_Harbor,_New_York" class="extiw" title="w:Sag Harbor, New York">Sag Harbor, New York</a>, U.S., November 12, 1825)
<ul><li>The 1825 newspaper used a gallows humor "story" of a criminal whose last wish before being beheaded was to go <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nine-pin_bowling" class="extiw" title="w:nine-pin bowling">nine-pin bowling</a>, using his own severed head on his final roll, and taking delight in having achieved a strike.</li>
<li>U.S. newspaper source quotes "a late German newspaper" as source for the story.</li>
<li>"Bowl" sometimes means <i><b>ball</b></i> in modern parlance</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-pin_bowling" class="extiw" title="w:Nine-pin bowling">Nine-pin bowling</a> preceded modern ten-pin bowling</li></ul>
<i>The Corrector</i> (newspaper of Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, U.S., 1825)
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