His Second Term.
MARYSVILLE, Oct. 22, — Antonio Ferasci was today sentenced to ten years in San Quentin for burglary. Ferasci served a term for the same crime from Sonoma County in 1899 under the name Peter Ferasha.
— Los Angeles Times, October 23, 1900
Despite the report from the L. A. Times, it was actually Antonio Ferasci’s third sojourn in a California prison.
Born in Switzerland around 1860 to Bernardo and Pasquala Ferasci, by the age of 24 Antonio had immigrated to Canada. He married Cecelia McLean Kelly, a 22-year-old, half-Indian woman who had not previously been married, in a Roman Catholic ceremony on December 18, 1884 in Granville, British Columbia. The marriage was not a success, and Cecelia Kelly, described as a single woman, was an inmate in the Penetanguishene “asylum for the insane” by 1911. She died there, aged 56, of arteriosclerosis on December 16, 1918, and was buried in the hospital cemetery.
On June 23, 1898, 38-year-old Antonio, described as a laborer, was sentenced to one year in San Quentin Prison for grand larceny. The crime was committed in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles. He was released on April 23, 1899, after ten months served.
Six months later, on October 17, 1899, he was sentenced, under the alias Peter Ferasha, to a year in Folsom Prison for 2nd degree burglary committed in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco. “Peter” claimed he worked as a dairyman before his conviction. He may have been connected with the Union Creamery Company, a dairy business started in San Luis Obispo by Swiss brothers named Louis and Angelo Ferasci in 1895. If so, the brothers were no doubt not pleased to share a surname and possibly bloodlines with a convicted criminal.
Apparently officials didn’t realize that Antonio had been to prison in 1898. If they had known he was a repeat offender it’s likely would have gotten a longer sentence. Instead he again served ten months and was discharged on August 17, 1900.
Antonio, two times an ex-con by 1900, was not finished yet with crime or its consequences.
Two months after his release from Folsom, he was convicted of 2nd degree burglary committed in Marysville, a city in Yuba County, north of Sacramento. He listed his job as “stone fitter” at the time of his arrest. This time officials were wise to his previous two-term record, so he was given a ten-year sentence to San Quentin. He served six and a half years and was released on April 24, 1907.
The third time worked the charm! It’s impossible to know whether or not he reformed, but Antonio never went to prison again, at least not in California.
Featured photos: Antonio Ferasci mugshot photos taken by a professional photographer in Marysville, California, in October 1900. From a glass negative in the collection of the author.
Other photos from the California State Archives, Sacramento.
Captured and Exposed 
What a wonderful face! So marvellous to see so many images of one man. (I feel a bit guilty revelling in these images when they were taken due to his recidivism, but change over time is one of the most interesting things about head and shoulder shots.)
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I agree and I think he had such an interesting face.
The face, as it changes over time, is fascinating to me too! That’s part of what your project is about, isn’t it?
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Yep, for the pics of me and also whenever I can find pics of other people, too. I have just mounted three pb pics of a German man in his thirties, fifties and old age. (Guessing the ages). They are fabulous as the only part of him the changes is his face. He is wearing very similar suits and ties in each one. Long series are great, but even short ones can tell a story. 😃
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