Vintage Photos, Genealogy & Crime Stories
There's a shrewdness in her eyes. And what about her mouth, with its barely up-turned corners, as if she's just finished telling the photographer a joke and is waiting to see if he gets it. Her body language is relaxed, despite that high-collared, stiffly pleated shirtwaist she's got on. From the collection of the author. … Continue reading Arresting Attire
I had been planning to write a blog post about Harris Lyons for awhile, but I hadn't gotten around to it when I received a message on Ancestry about him. My correspondent noticed that I had saved a number of newspaper articles about him and wondered if I was a relative. I told her I … Continue reading Double Trouble, Or the Case of Two Mugshots
The idea of throwing a couple jail because they're living together sounds like a throwback to the Victorian era. But for many years in Michigan there was a law on the books prohibiting "lewd and lascivious cohabitation." If a man and woman were discovered to be living together without the "benefit of marriage," their lives … Continue reading Lewd and Lascivious Cohabitation
Mug shots have been in the news a lot lately, thanks to Donald Trump, the first American president to pose in front of a police camera. It got me thinking: What was the first mug shot ever taken? According to multiple online sources, a photo taken in Birmingham, England was among the first mug shot … Continue reading The First Mug Shot
When Florence Brown got home from the dance, her husband Jack met her at the door. He was either pleased to see her or as angry as a wasp, depending on whose story you want to believe. Jack left the dance early. Why? Reasons varied. Either his feet were hurting from a burn he'd gotten … Continue reading Gun Play
A few months ago I bought 15 rare photos from an established Oakland ephemera dealer who sells vintage mugshots. Here’s what he knew about the photos: “These came in the large collection I purchased of San Francisco police mug shots over twenty years ago. A man in his 90s sold them to the owner of the … Continue reading San Francisco’s Secret Sex Workers
In the summer of 1929, Lillian Douglas was partying with friends at a private apartment in Chicago when the police showed up, looking for two guys: Earl Reed and Winfield “Windy” Seeman. The cops claimed Reed, a career criminal wanted for murder in St. Louis, had been driven to Chicago by Seeman in his Nash … Continue reading The Apartment
In my previous post I discussed an 1890s era mugshot in which two photographs were taken of the same man and combined to create a composite photo. I couldn't find out much about the man in the photos, however one thing is certain: he cooperated with having his photo taken. That was not always the … Continue reading The Struggle
I purchased this photo because I’d never seen another one like it. It was made in 1892 at the Woolfall & Welcome photography studio in Pittsfield, a city near the western edge of Massachusetts. For those of you who’ve grown up in the era of electronic images, the photo was not easy create. To start, … Continue reading Two for the Price of One
I’ve pretty much stopped buying vintage mugshots on eBay because there’s almost nothing of interest for sale, but recently two photos popped up that captured my eye. They were CDVs of two young African American males, both of whom had been arrested in 1895 for “housebraking,” according to the backs of the cards. The photos … Continue reading “Housebraking”
Pearl Clifton had a serious love of drink, along with a tendency to be reckless, which her taste for booze didn’t help. On the night of February 27, 1897, her world came crashing down when she was arrested after her ill-fated attempt to burn down her house at 250 Normal Avenue in Buffalo, New York. … Continue reading Older Than the Hills in Crime
It was the kind of hot night in July when tempers easily flare. That night William "Babe" Quinn tangled with William McBee over a ten cent can of beer in an alley behind a meat packing house in Kansas City, Kansas. Babe’s knife ended up in William’s side. He fled the scene. William was taken … Continue reading The Forgotten Man
Captured and Exposed 