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Some dapper mug shots.

lovelux2010

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thanks for sharing..

some fantastic photos there...love the boots some of the gents were wearing
 

lovelux2010

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thanks for sharing..

some fantastic photos there...love the boots some of the gents were wearing
 

repp_fink

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Unfortunately, the linked article doesn't source to the photos' origin, which is the New South Wales Historic Houses Trust / Police Museum's "Crooks" photo archive. Many of the photos are scanned and available online -- here's a search which should get you started.

I own the book associated with the exhibit, and it's pretty worthwhile. The clothes are a great range of what people wore -- what's particularly interesting, besides the different styles, is how some of the fellows obviously wore the same suit day in and day out. The photos are also teriffic for the personalities of the "sitters". Like these two fellows, who are basically a masterclass in how to look hard as f...

019.jpg
 

PhiloVance

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I think for candid mug shots in the US, you need to look at the photos taken by police before and after the "official" mugshot. Those unofficial pictures often capture the racketeers/gangsters playing up to their audience, or at least exhibiting the bragadocio normally on display when the racketeers interacted with the police.

Here's a good example - in this photo from 1931, Mad Dog Coll and his crew have been hauled into police headquarters in Manhattan to be charged for the infamous "Harlem Baby Murders."

Basically, during the on-going war for control over Bronx/Harlem beer distribution with his former employer Dutch Schultz, Coll had started bumping off Schultz employees in broad daylight. Schultz had a good working relationship with the "uptown" Italians (not to be confused with the downtown boys who eventually put him on the spot in that chophouse in Newark) like "Tough" Joey Rao. Rao ran a social club on 107th street between 2nd and 3rd (which also happens to be the street I grew up on) and was the target in question on a hot summer day in 1931. Coll and his henchmen, presumably looking to take out Rao, opened up in the middle of a busy street - whoever the real target was managed to elude the gunmen, but several Italian children playing on the street were not so lucky.

As a result, Coll became known as the baby killer and was hauled in as the prime suspect. As you can see from the photo, he didnt appear to be too distraught over the killing or cowed by the police. Coll is the guy to the far right with the matinee idol looks (hair dyed black and moustache grown in to evade the police manhunt) with the peaked lapels:

maddog.jpg


Coll was eventually acquitted in the case. But all of the men in this photo were dead within months. Toughy Odierno and Frank Giordano went to the chair at Sing Sing for killing a Schultz beer drop attendant in broad daylight. A Con Ed worker saw the whole thing while peering out from a manhole cover. Patsy Del Greco was shot dead in a Bronx apartment, and of course, Coll was famously shot 18times while allegedly being kept on the line by Owney Madden in a phone booth in the pharmacy across the street from his hotel on 23rd street. Mike Basile may or may not have been the bodyguard who took a walk when Madden's gunman walked into the pharmacy with a tommy gun to take the "mad dog" out. I'm not sure what ultimately happened to him.
 

Arsenal

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Originally Posted by PhiloVance
I think for candid mug shots in the US, you need to look at the photos taken by police before and after the "official" mugshot. Those unofficial pictures often capture the racketeers/gangsters playing up to their audience, or at least exhibiting the bragadocio normally on display when the racketeers interacted with the police.

Here's a good example - in this photo from 1931, Mad Dog Coll and his crew have been hauled into police headquarters in Manhattan to be charged for the infamous "Harlem Baby Murders."

Basically, during the on-going war for control over Bronx/Harlem beer distribution with his former employer Dutch Schultz, Coll had started bumping off Schultz employees in broad daylight. Schultz had a good working relationship with the "uptown" Italians (not to be confused with the downtown boys who eventually put him on the spot in that chophouse in Newark) like "Tough" Joey Rao. Rao ran a social club on 107th street between 2nd and 3rd (which also happens to be the street I grew up on) and was the target in question on a hot summer day in 1931. Coll and his henchmen, presumably looking to take out Rao, opened up in the middle of a busy street - whoever the real target was managed to elude the gunmen, but several Italian children playing on the street were not so lucky.

As a result, Coll became known as the baby killer and was hauled in as the prime suspect. As you can see from the photo, he didnt appear to distraught over the killing or cowed by the police. Coll is the guy to the far right with the matinee idol looks (hair dyed black and moustache grown in to evade the police manhunt) with the peaked lapels:

maddog.jpg


Coll was eventually acquitted in the case. But all of the men in this photo were dead within months. Toughy Odierno and Frank Giordano went to the chair at Sing Sing for killing a Schultz beer drop attendant in broad daylight. A Con Ed worker saw the whole thing while peering out from a manhole cover. Patsy Del Greco was shot dead in a Bronx apartment, and of course, Coll was famously shot 18 times while making allegedly being kept on the line by Owney Madden from a phone booth in a pharmacy across the street from his hotel on 23rd street. Mike Basile may or may not have been the bodyguard who took a walk when Madden's gunman walked into the phrarmacy with a tommy gun to take the "mad dog" out. I'm not sure what ultimately happened to him.


Excellent post
worship.gif
 

Patek

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Great stuff. I like that none of them have their pant around their knees.
 

alexanduh

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thats ******* cool. i wish people in WAYWT would make their pictures like that.

everyone wore their waist coasts real tight
 

landshark

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Every single pair of shoes looks so good on them.
 

Loathing

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they're all so well put together, love it
sad that people don't put that sort of care into their daywear these days
these sorts of nostalgia trips make me want to wear a suit every day, which I might well do as I get older
 

lasbar

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Everybody was going to the local tailor and bespoke was affordablish...

Great sartorial times....
 

repp_fink

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Some further thoughts :

I particularly like that this guy here is wearing a belt and braces. As a safecracker, I suppose it pays to take all eventualities into account.

Check out this fellow's trousers ... that's an amazing taper to the cuff.

I'm also interested in the collar that this guy is sporting. It's sort of a modified club collar, with a curve and a point, and pretty great-looking.

There are some fellows in these shots with obviously good-quality clothes, but notice how most of them have pretty well-worn stuff. Even if they only owned one or two suits, men wore them as a matter of course, which meant that they saw a lot of hard wear. Check out where their jackets are creasing and puckering, particularly around the buttons and buttonholes; in better reproductions of these photos, you can really make out the wear on the fabric and the pulling around the seams.
 

Loathing

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Originally Posted by lasbar
Everybody was going to the local tailor and bespoke was affordablish...

Great sartorial times....


I think bespoke is still affordable-ish but people have different priorities now. They spend their cash on large quantities of cheaper clothing, or on beach holidays, gym memberships, cars, etc. .
 

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