Week 48: Thief

     We all have a criminal in our family, whether or not we want to admit it. No family is perfect. Some are just better at hiding it. I've sure come across some skeletons in my family while researching their lives. For the 52 Ancestors prompt this week, only one man came to mind that fits within the topic of "Thief". Let me introduce you to Earnest Alexander.
     Earnest Alexander was born July 12, 1874, in Arkansas to John William Alexander and Mary Francis Munday. He is the half-brother of my husband's great-grandma, Mary B. Schulling. I only started researching Earnest to find out more about Mary's family. The first interest I had in him was when I located him in the 1900 United States Federal Census. He was listed as an Inmate at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas. Oooooo... Earnest, what did you do?

     A quick search online led me to an index for Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary Inmate Case Files at Archives.gov. He was listed there as inmate #1438. With that information in hand, I sent off an email to the Kansas City Archives to request information about his file. This is the response I got back:

"Earnest Alexander, was inmate number 1438. His inmate file is 7 pages. To make sure this is the “correct” person; here are a few particulars from the file:
Crime: Having in Possession Altered Obligations of the U.S.
Sentence: 2 years
Received at Leavenworth: Dec. 29, 1898
Discharged: July 11, 1900
Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Farmer"

     I was unsure what the crime he was charged with, so I googled that charge. Apparently, he was in possession of counterfeit money. Oh, you naughty boy. The Kansas City Archives told me I could get a copy of his file, but it would cost me $20.00, so I decided to wait on that. I searched in newspapers but found nothing mentioning his arrest.
     Even though I did not get his file, the Archives were nice enough to send me a link to view his mugshot at least. Fascinating! So let me introduce you to Earnest Alexander.

     It appears he was also known by another name: Henry Price. Interesting. I will definitely have to get a copy of his file to hopefully find out more about this character. For now though, this is all I know. So maybe it's a stretch to say he was a thief, but he was definitely trying to, or at least had the idea to, try to "steal" something by passing counterfeit currency.

Do you have any criminals in your family? 

Share them in the comments below.