#TBT: Mug Shots of San Francisco Bad Girls, 1880s-1950s

14 September 2017

V. Alexandra de F. Szoenyi

We've learned about the over-the-top days of the Barbary Coast, and the ruffians and outlaws that made the west really wild. We know about the bootleggers, the scoundrels, the outsiders. But, as with most of history, women were also a part of this, yet have often been written out of it. Meet the misbehavin' girls of the 1880s to the 1950s, who got into some trouble, and left behind a mugshot as evidence.

Mollie Wisner was known as "The Lost Chicken."She was a Barbary Coast entertainer who apparently only performed one song, and part of a group of women pickpocketers of the Barbary Coast. After making bail from her 1880 grand larcery arrest, Wisner skipped town, never to be seen again.
▲

Mabel Keating, 26-years-old when she was arrested in SF, was known from "New York to San Francisco as the Queen of Pickpockets." In SF, she would target men staying at the Palace Hotel and other hotels, knowing that if caught, these men wouldn't want to prosecute. She would hang out on Grant Avenue, where her husband had ran Keating's Saloon on the corner of Grant and Morton Street (now Maiden Lane). On March 6, 1888, the Sacramento Daily Union reported that Mabel and her husband were shot (she fatally) at the saloon by Jerry Sullivan, a City Hall janitor. The argument ensued after Mabel's husband brought up an unpaid tab and an argument ensued, where she insulted Sullivan, a known "opium fiend" who "bears a bad reputation."
▲

We may not know what these women were arrested for, or charged with, but we do know they were wearing some fabulous hats! These mugshots are from female prisoners at San Quentin Prison; it was required there, at the time, to have photos taken with hats on.
▲

Marie Lawler (alias Bacigalupi) was known as "an old time pickpocket of San Francisco." She was arrested a number of times, but it never led to any convictions. Lawler ran out of San Francisco after being released on bail for her February 26, 1906 arrest for pickpocketing Enrich Multos.
▲

Connie Collins, was arrested on May 17, 1938 for "vagrancy." She was one of the B-Girls of the Tenderloin. B-Girls, also known as "drink hustlers," or "percentage girls," would convince men to buy overpriced drinks at bars. Some would also be prostitutes; after arrest, they were quarantined and given mandatory testing for diseases.
▲

Eva Garcia (alias Elisa Lerma) was arrested with her boyfriend, Joe Gallo, by the Pittsburg Police on April 29, 1945 (her mugshot says 1941, so this might not be Garcia). Her boyfriend was arrested for burglary, and they detained Garcia as well, although they couldn't find anything on the San Francisco resident. She didn't look too pleased with this situation.
▲

This SFPD photo album was part of the Smithsonian's A Democracy of Images: Photographs from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It coincides with the time in May of 1942 when SFP Regional Supervisor Edwin Cooley decided to crack down on "women of the nightlife." Here, you see a variety of local women arrested for crimes, mostly vagrancy and soliciting prostitution (with quarantine). Under each photo is the following information: address, age, offenses, address, height, weight, hair color, eye color, and identifying marks.
▲

We don't know the backstory to this arrest, but had to include it. This lady was detained in San Francisco on December 13, 1954, and by the looks of it, she wasn't too happy about it. Was this an upset face? Was she trying to disguise what she really looked like? Is this her everyday face? It's one of those photos you can create 100 different stories around.
▲

This woman was arrested in San Francisco on January 28, 1957. No backstory is available, but she stands out from the sea of other local mugshots, with her dramatic brows and blonde hair, which look like an homage to the great Etta James.
▲

Related Articles