First mug shots capture the criminals of long ago

Experts delve deep into the archives to tell the stories behind

They are among some of the first criminal mugshots in Britain. Dating back to 1869, the photographs capture the cold, hard stare of a mother-turned-double-child-killer; the glare of a murder accused who plunged a knife into his victim’s neck; and the hopeless resignation of a petty thief who was to later meet her end in the cold, dark waters of a north-east harbour. Now some of the images held in the Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen will feature in the city’s three-day international crime writing festival Granite Noir. The festival – held online this year due to Covid-19 restrictions – starts on Friday. The criminal portraits and the stories behind them will be the focus of an illustrated webinar by city council archivist Phil Astley, 53. He said: “The photographs are among some of the earliest in Britain. There are one or two places where mugshot technology was employed as early as the 1840s, but it didn’t take off until the 1870s. So these early images in 1869 are quite unusual.” Historian Phil, who has exhibited at the festival since its inception in 2017, said they are a fascinating snap shot of Victorian Aberdeen, and give “an immediate glimpse of the personality, appearance, vulnerability or otherwise” of the convicted – most of whom were from the poor lower classes.

He said: “The mugshots bring it home to you that some of these people lived a life of crime,” he said. “It was their only way of subsisting. It is not that their stories are particularly shocking, but they are extraordinary because they were quite ordinary people whose photographs probably would not have been taken had they not committed a crime. They themselves wouldn’t have ever seen the photographs.” Now – thanks to the register – we can.

Phil Astley will be taking a closer look at Criminal Portraits on Sunday www.granitenoir.com