These were common charges seen for bookings during the later 1800s and early 1900s. Many people were arrested for petty thievery who were often just trying to feed their families.
Others were arrested for murder after killing those who owed them money (or those who may have owed them money). Many women were also arrested in this era for crimes such as “mayhem.”
It was hard to be a commoner and to survive in these times where honest work and money were often scarce. Many people had to resort to forms of deception and robbery in order to survive.
Let’s take a look at the large and small offenses that landed some of the following outlaws with a stay in jail.
1931, Jake Vohland was arrested for sneaking into a chicken house after a homemade alarm system setup by the owners alerted them to his trespassing.Goldie Williams, alias Mag Murphy, was arrested in Nebraska for vagrancy on Jan. 29, 1898. Alv Lytle was sentenced to 12-15 years in the Nebraska State Prison for bank robbery.An 11-year-old who stole a carFrank L. Dinsmore was arrested in Buffalo County, Nebraska, for the double murder of his wife and their boarding house landlord.Butch Cassidy’s mugshot from the Wyoming Territorial Prison in 1894Mary Shannon: sentenced to two years in the Nebraska State Prison for mayhem in May 1925. George Leonard was arrested for burglary on Dec. 23, 1901.Bertha Liebbeke was arrested for pickpocketingJ.P. Robinson was arrested in Nebraska in 1901 for running a scam in which he bought beers with Mexican dollars.Nora Courier, 22, was known to the police as “Red Nora.” She was arrested on March 31 of that year for stealing a horse.Mattie Brown was sent to the Nebraska State Prison on Sept. 25, 1917, for pick-pocketing. Frank Carter, known as the “Omaha Sniper,” was was convicted of killing two men, though he confessed to 43 other murders.Minnie Bradley was arrested for larceny George Ray’s 1890s smiling mugshotAlberto Interciago was sentenced to one to 20 years at the Nebraska State Prison for “assault to wound”Juanita McKamey, 20, was arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy after participating in a public labor protest in 1912.Emmett Dalton: youngest brother of the Dalton Gang. They robbed trains and banks in the late 1800s.Charles Martin was among the three burglars who blew up a safe in a bank vault in Sheridan, MissouriDave Marshal was a pickpocket and stole purses.A police officer holds Herbert Cockran in a headlock during his mugshot in November 1899. Cockran was arrested on burglary charges.An unidentified inmate at the Washington State Reformatory.H.C. Adams was arrested for blackmail.Jim Ling was arrested for running an opium joint.William Lee was arrested for “bootlegging”Lola Lopez was arrested after her partner, Cicerio Estrada, robbed and killed a man in the Null Rooming House of Sidney, Nebraska. An inmate at the Washington State Reformatory Stephen Shock was sentenced to two years at the Nebraska State Prison for grand larcenyMyrtle Hetrick escaped from Nebraska’s State Reformatory for Women in a car.Ruby Fox worked with Myrtle Hetrick to escape from Nebraska’s State Reformatory for Women.Bob Younger committed a string of daring robberies.Unidentified offender, 35.
