The photos of Harris Lyons were taken by the police in Newark, New Jersey. They are carte de visite, also known as CDVs, meaning they are small photos mounted on card stock about the size of playing cards. CDVs were popular for non-criminal portrait photos too! In the case of mugshots, they usually had pre-printed labels on the back side with spaces for the police to write in details about the subject’s appearance and arrest.
What initially intrigued about the CDV mugshots of Harris is that he was photographed twice. He has a scruffy beard in one photo, and in the other, he’s clean-shaven. His beard was minimal. It doesn’t hide his mouth, chin or jaw line to any extent. Both photos were taken of him in exactly the same position. So why take two photos?
To answer that question we need to delve a bit deeper into the story. Harris and a criminal pal named James Goughty were arrested in New York City on December 8, 1893 for a “sneak thief” robbery in Newark, New Jersey, according to an article that appeared on December 9th in The Evening World (New York, NY). The article stated that Emma Zillaux, the storekeeper of the business that was robbed, identified the men after she saw their photos in the New York City Rogues’ Gallery. As you can see by reading the back of his cards, Harris was not photographed in Newark until two weeks after his arrest in New York. This detail explains why two photos were taken of him.
In between the New York arrest on the 8th and the taking his photo in New Jersey on the 22nd, he’d likely been held in jail and been unable to shave. Assuming he was normally clean-shaven, the police wanted his mugshot to show him like that. But it’s interesting that they also photographed him with the stubble. Maybe they took that photo first, then realized their mistake, shaved him and took another photo. It’s interesting that they kept both photos.
Since the New York City police also had his mugshot, it will come as no surprise that Harris Lyons had a long and interesting criminal career; one that even included stealing silver from a descendant of Alexander Hamilton. Cath Giesbrecht, his great grandniece, has researched Harris and written a fascinating story about him. Here’s a link to her Substack article about her Uncle Harris.
(via Captured and Exposed)
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