19th century criminals

[donroc]

An interesting collection of mostly petty criminals.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2159085/Fascinating-records-67-000-19th-century-criminals-published-online-time.html

[Phidippides]

It's interesting to see that some of them had the mirror next to them so that a profile view could be captured.  I guess this saved money so that two photos did not have to be taken.  Also interesting is that the police felt it important to get a look at the hands of the criminals.

[scout1067]

One of the commenters on the story says they showed their hands to document missing fingers or other distinguishing marks on their hands.  It makes sense I guess.

[donroc]

And the 34 year old woman -- evidence of the hard life.

[Phidippides]

More Victorian thieves, but younger.

Fagin's children: Mugshots of Victorian thieves as young as 11 who were sentenced to hard labour for stealing clothes and metal

[scout1067]

These are good pictures from the Victorian era:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2165807/Carnival-sideshow-freaks-19th-century-New-York.html?ICO=most_read_module

The girl with four legs is the strangest.

[Phidippides]

Those are pretty strange photos.  You really have to hope that they were treated kindly despite their odd conditions.  It has to be rather depressing having people pay to see you and gawk.

[scout1067]

I am sure they were treated horribly by modern standards, but decently by those of their times. They did what they had to do to survive, there was no dole in 19th Century America.

[Phidippides]

I suppose that the silver lining was that they were paid and fed rather than left to their own on the streets, and that they were able to go out in the world to some degree rather than being locked up in some room.