Is anyone farmiliar with mugshots and booking photos?

Question

Is anyone on wikitree farmilier with with mugshots and booking photos? The reason that I am asking this question is related to my biological grandfather. His name is Alex Witcher and he passed away in 1966. Since he died before me and my first cousins were born, we never got an opportunity to me him nor have any of us seen a picture of him. Unfortunately, he lived a very hard life and had many run-ins with the law. Just recently, I was on newspaper.com and I came across many articles from the Montgomery Advertiser from the 1950s and 60s in which he was apprehended for either, burglary, theft of property, or breaking and entering. Since he was apprehended so many times, I am almost certain that there must be some mugshots or booking photos of him that exist somewhere. My dilemma is, where can I find these photos or how can I access them? If anyone has any information that they feel would be beneficial, please feel free to comment or chime in. Thanks

Comments

Very interesting question, Trent, and I commend you for being forthcoming about an ancestor's history.  After all, nothing he did is your fault!

One thing I would suggest is trying every variation of his name on newspapers.com.

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P.S.  If you put everything you know about him on his WikiTree profile, that might enable others to extend the search more easily.

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Trent, FYI I also tried newspapers.com.  I found one case of Alex's first name misspelled as Alec and two cases of his surname misspelled as Wicher, but no photos.

I think one source said he worked for a school.  Sometimes old yearbooks had photos of school staff as well as of the students.  Probably a long shot but you might try that also.

Good luck!

Answer 1

The local police station might have old booking photos.  These days they're online and I know you can see current ones, but I doubt anyone has digitized old ones.  You could call them and ask, at worst they'd say no.

Comments

Thanks Laurie

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No problem!  I hope your request interests them enough that they go do some digging for you.  :)

Answer 2

I ran across one from a relative from California. The prison record was digitized. I know I went on a tour in Sacramento with Historical society I believe. They had access to prison records. Can't remember exactly who's building it was. They had the gun or something from the Kennedy Assassination there also. Oh actually it looks like it was the State Archives Building

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/LaDue-185