Hampton Hirscham, Cornellius Joseph Keevil, William Thomas O'Brien and James O'Brien, on July 20, 1921 at the Central Police Station, Sydney. The fourwere arrested for robbing the home of a bookie. Thomas O'Brien wasn't prosecuted, but the other three were and received sentences of 15 months each. This picture is one of about 2,500 mugshots taken by the New South Wales Police Department photographers between 1910 and 1930, and now part of an exhibit in the Sydney Livining Museums. Curator Peter Doyle said the photos suggested that compared with the usual mug shots, the cops in New South Wales allowed the subjects to pose themselves, concocting a "potent alchemy of inborn disposition, personal history, learned habits and idiosyncrasies, chosen personal style (haircut, clothing, accessories) and physical characteristics." The full exhibit can be seen at the Sydney Living Museums site.
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Valerie Lowe, on Feb. 15, 1922. Lowe and Joseph Messenger were arrested in 1921 for stealing boots and overcoats from an army warehouse. The next year, when this photograph were taken, they were charged with breaking and entering someone's hose. The charges were eventually dropped, but the pair were arrested again later that year for stealing a saddle and bridle.
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Crichton on Feb. 21, 1924. Crichton, 23, and another woman, Nancy Cowman, 19, were charged, along with three others, with "conspiring together to procure a miscarriage" on a third woman.
sydneylivingmuseums.com.au
May 1, 1925. Moore was listed in the Special Photographs as an "Opium dealer./ Operates with large quantities of faked opium and cocaine./ A wharf labourer; associates with water front thieves and drug traders."
Criminal record number 596LB, Sept. 11, 1923. State Reformatory for Women, Long Bay. Young had a problem with alcohol and frequently found herself homeless.
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William Joseph Evans on May 26, 1921. Evans was identified in a newspaper under the headline, "Sweet Swindle/ Impudent Insurance Impostor/ Evans' Easy Way of Ekeing Out an Existence/ How Trusting Folk were Left Lamenting/ Cheeky Crook Caged Comfortably." He often posed as an insurance salesman and charge people three pounds (a hefty sum back then) for a medical exam that never transpired.
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Alice Adeline Cooke, of criminal record number 565LB, on Dec. 30, 1922. By the time she was 24, Cooke had acquired a number of aliases and at least two husbands. The police described her as "rather good looking," a hiabitual thief and convicted bigamist.
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Ronald Frederick Schmidt, on June 13, 1921. Unfortunately, no further information is known about this young fellow.
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Alfred Ladewig, date unknown. The records say of him: "Alfred Ladewig, alias Wallace, and John Walker, alias Atkins, charged on provisional warrant with stealing by trick the sum of £204, at Brisbane (Q), the property of Alfred Walter Thomlinson have been arrested by Detective-constables Matthews and Jones, and Special-constable Bladen, Sydney Police. Both remanded to Brisbane."
sydneylivingmuseums.com.au
William Munro, on Sept. 17, 1924. "Munro is listed in the NSW Police Gazette, 1924 as charged, along with Harris Hunter, with receiving stolen goods to the value of 536 pounds 4 shillings and 1 penny, the property of Snow's department store."
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Ettie Sultana, criminal record number 558LB, on Nov. 17, 1922. Sultana had multiple convictions for prostitution, theft, drunkenness, and "swearing and vagrancy." She was sentenced to six months of hard labor.
sydneylivingmuseums.com.au
Pearl McFadden, criminal record number 742LB, on Oct. 31, 1928. Also convicted of prostitution and sentenced to six months of hard labor.
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P. Malcolm, criminal record number 764LB, on June 12, 1929. No further information.
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Posed in front of the police station's toilets on July 14, 1921, Frederick Edward Davies was a "sneak thief," meaning he sneaked into theatres and picture shows. New South Wales cops held sneak thieves in very low regard, perhaps explaining why he was posed in front of toilets.
sydneylivingmuseums.com.au
Resembling a country school teacher, Muriel Goldsmith, shown in this Oct. 29, 1915, photo, was actually a prolific thief with a string of aliases.
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Annie Gunderson, Sept. 20, 1922, was charged with stealing a fur coat stealing a fur coat from a Sydney department store called Winn's Limited. It's unknown if the fur she's wearing is the stolen coat.
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Alice Fisher, on May 23, 1919. When this photograph was taken, she was serving eight months for larceny.
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Walter Smith, Dec. 15, 1924, was "charged with breaking and entering the dwelling-house of Edward Mulligan and stealing blinds &c value 20 pounds (part recovered)," and with "stealing clothing, value 26 pounds (recovered) in the dwelling house of Ernest Leslie Mortimer."
Warnkin and Beutler, on Oct. 18, 1920. There's not much information about Beutler, except for the notation of "wilful and obscene exposure." Warnkin is more sinister, however, and was charged with "attempting to carnally know a girl eight years old."
