women of the Golden era from the 1920's mug shots

[green papaya]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2103393/Womens-mug-shots-1920s-Australia.html

Fasinating mugshots from women prisoners in the 1920's Australia

They were some of Australia's shadiest sheilas.

Murderers, bigamists, cocaine dealers and back street abortionists, all manner of vampish villain and fallen floozy scooped off the streets and photographed for police files. Their blank expressions hiding a catalogue of appalling crimes.

The incredible pictures - part of a collection of 2500 mugshots taken by New South Wales Police Department photographers between 1910 and 1930 - give a fascinating glimpse into the role of women in the seedy underbelly of early 20th century Australian life.

There is 32-year-old Dorothy Mort. She may look harmless but behind that innocent-looking face lurks a terrifying femme fatale who turned to murder when her toyboy lover starred into her dark eyes and said their affair was over.

the women back in the 1920's look a lot different than today

 

[scottyrocks]

Some very startling pictures that speak volumes to how different and difficult life was for some people so many years ago. A. Cooke, however, looks like her picture could have been taken today.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Clara Randall (November 12, 1923) -- is it just me or is she sporting a black eye?

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

Some very startling pictures that speak volumes to how different and difficult life was for some people so many years ago. A. Cooke, however, looks like her picture could have been taken today.

I noticed her too. She stuck out because she does look "modern", and she's actually a rather nice looking young woman.

Naturally, she's the bigamist in the lot!

What frightened me a tiny bit, was how "young" some of these women were. Unless I'm mistaken, some of them are apparently missing most of their front teeth. (They have that sunken in look around the mouth that usually indicates missing teeth). It's like looking at women in today's Pakistan or Darfur. Extreme hardship isn't very kind to the human body.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It was common for even well-off people in their thirties to have lost many, if not most of their teeth -- it was viewed as much a consequence of aging as grey hair. My mother had lost all of her teeth by the time she was 40, and that was only in the '70s. It wasn't until mass flouridation of the drinking water supply began in the fifties and sixties that this began to change.

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

^^^
I know what you mean. I remember my grandmother having full dentures my entire life, I'm guessing she was in her late 40's or early 50's when she got them, but it could've been much earlier. My mom turns 68 tomorrow. I think the worst she has are a couple of fillings.

I was recently thumbing through a book about the Pearl Harbor attack, and there was a comment that struck me. Don't remember who it was, but a Navy captain was running out of his house to get to his duty station, when his wife yelled at him to come back and put his dentures in! I imagine he couldn't have been much more than 50, and could afford the best dental care available at the time- but he still had to have dentures.

Lord, I love fluoridation- and hair color!

But that gal who killed her lover the doctor is still one creepy looking lady. What was the guy thinking?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

It wasn't until mass flouridation of the drinking water supply began in the fifties and sixties that this began to change.

Lizzie, you could add this to your "Personal List of Good Things That Post-Date 1959." Or was it begun before '59?

 

[lolly_loisides]

But that gal who killed her lover the doctor is still one creepy looking lady. What was the guy thinking?

The Tozer murder was a sensation in Sydney during the 20's. It was covered widely by the press, here's a link to one of the articles at the time. Dorothy Mort was found not guilt on the grounds of insanity. If you google "Tozer murder 1921" you'll find photographs of the crime scene. It's fairly graphic, but what I find interesting is the decor of the room - it's obviously an upper middle class home.

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

^^^
Thanks for the links, it looks like the kind of murder that would be a media sensation. It seems that they weren't even "technically" lovers; I wonder if most of the affair wasn't in her mind.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Lizzie, you could add this to your "Personal List of Good Things That Post-Date 1959." Or was it begun before '59?

Before -- it actually started in 1945, and took about twenty years to become really widespread. There were --and still are -- people who were convinced it was a sinister plot to undermine American health, but they were in the minority.

There was -- and still is -- no fluoridation in the town where I grew up, and I have a mouth full of fillings and am missing six teeth. Cause and effect?

The Tozer case is absolutely fascinating -- there's an American parallel in the shooting of baseball player Eddie Waitkus by an obsessed female fan in 1949. Waitkus survived, but the shooter, a young woman named Ruth Steinhagen, was institutionalized, given shock treatments, and "pronounced cured." As in Austrailia, the media ate the case for breakfast -- and Bernard Malamud used it as the basis for a novel.

 

[scottyrocks]

There was -- and still is -- no fluoridation in the town where I grew up, and I have a mouth full of fillings and am missing six teeth. Cause and effect?

Not necessarily. If there was/is a preponderance of these type of dental issues, however, in your town, then I'd say there is a good case for cause and effect. Or maybe everyone there has bad teeth genes but I doubt it.

My wife, who grew up here in fluorodated NYC has problems similar to yours. Hers began after the birth of her first children (twins). Was that the cause or is it coincidence? We don't know for sure despite the timing.

 

[Philip A.]

Worth noting that sweet Dorothy's surname, Mort, means Death in French...

 

[vitanola]

Here in the 'States "Mort" was also underworld slang for a girl or woman, from the 'fifties until the days of Monk Eastman in the first decade of the last century, roughly equivalent to the English term "Bint".
A particularly fine space in would often be referred to as "Bleak", as in a "Bleak Mort".

 

[sheeplady]

Not necessarily. If there was/is a preponderance of these type of dental issues, however, in your town, then I'd say there is a good case for cause and effect. Or maybe everyone there has bad teeth genes but I doubt it.

My wife, who grew up here in fluorodated NYC has problems similar to yours. Hers began after the birth of her first children (twins). Was that the cause or is it coincidence? We don't know for sure despite the timing.

Many countries don't fluoridate their water and there has been a significant drop in cavities in most industrialized countries over the past several decades. Since the 1970s toothpaste with fluoride has been widely available, so I bet the reduction of cavities has more to do with fluoride in toothpaste than in the water.

 

[green papaya]

the photos almost look like they could be right out of the OLD WEST , they remind me of the early pioneers & settlers that crossed the plains on the Oregon trail

 

[W.A.Mack]

It's not surprising they look like they are out of the old west. Much of Australia in that era was a frontier enviroment. Hard lives have aged many of them prematurely.

 

[lolly_loisides]

It's not surprising they look like they are out of the old west. Much of Australia in that era was a frontier enviroment. Hard lives have aged many of them prematurely.

That's incorrect. Most Australians (then and now) live in an urban environment. All of the photographs from the Police & Justice archives were taken in Sydney (Australia's largest city).

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

^^^
My uncle moved to Australia back in the early 70's (back when a phone call was a scheduled event), and for years we had an idea that he was living in the Old West. HE was living rough (a long story), but we found out later that it was far from Dodge City. Certainly not what we envisioned.

 

[katiesparkles]

"Harry Crawford, above looks like a man but her real name was Eugenia Falleni (right)."
YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME.

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

And she was married, to a woman. And when she was arrested asked the cops not tell the wife that he was a she!

I don't want to know...