Roger, arrested
Click here to view it larger.
This is the first time I’ve added a mug shot to my vintage photo collection. A store where I sometimes buy photos had a bunch when I stopped by yesterday. I selected this one, partly because it was one of the least expensive, and partly because this guy has such a classic Hollywood juvenile delinquent look. I’m guessing it’s one of the cheaper ones because, unlike some of the others, it doesn’t have a ton of information, and his crime is listed via a code I can’t decipher without more research than I’m willing to do right now. (That, plus the photo is somewhat faded.) But this still tells a bit of a story. Roger, an 18-year-old store clerk, was arrested in 1939 in Homestead, Pennsylvania, a small town a bit southeast of Pittsburgh. The fact that he was arrested on Halloween might give a clue as to the sort of mischief he was up to. Below is the back [click to enlarge].
Pics of Then 
How have you been? Not a bad-looking boy! Which store do you find photos in?
Hey there! I’m doing well, and hope you are, too. There are a couple stores with photos. The one closest to you would be Russian Hill Bookstore on Polk Street (though this came from somewhere else).
Thank you! I haven’t been there in a while. I should check it out. Good to hear from you!
I agree he looks very Central Casting. Some tidbits on the sheet jump out at me: 5 foot ten but only 124 lbs (build: “Slim,” yep); listed as “dark complexion,” though he sure looks light-skinned to me (this same thing comes up in Jane Austen’s “Mansfield Park,” and I always wonder how white English people of the Regency period categorized other white people as having, say, “a clear brown complexion”–maybe it’s the same system used here?); and noted as “German-American.” My dad always claims that people didn’t used to use hyphenated nationalities (despite the fact that he was alive in 1939); I should probably not use this as evidence to argue about it next time it comes up, but it will be tempting.
The “0” is so faint, I at first thought he was 5-one, not 5-ten. I do wonder about the “dark” complexion. It would fit the biases of the time if he were, say, Italian, but it makes less sense if he’s German. And, of course, just visually he looks rather pale. I wonder if they mention German to note his ancestry, or if he was actually born there. Also, I looked up the two addresses. They are just a few blocks from each other. Given his age, I wonder if one is his parents’ house.