Description

Now available in paperback, Mug Shots presents over 250 booking photos spanning the history of this practice. It includes some of the most infamous suspects in modern history, from mafia bosses to cold-blooded killers, as well as enemies of the state and prominent political activists. In 1882, Alphonse Bertillon created a scientific system for the identification of criminals and developed the anthropometric photoA", showing the accused's measurements and physical markings. Today, the mug shot is an essential police procedure worldwide. From Dreyfus to O.J. Simpson, this international selection includes notables like Lenin, Al Capone, Frank Sinatra, Fidel Castro, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Janis Joplin, Elvis, the Russian Jewish anarchist Emma Goldman, French assassin Raoul Villain, Dutch exotic dancer and spy Mata Hari, Polish war criminal Amon Goeth and Robert Stroud, the Birdman of AlcatrazA". Accompanying these gripping images is illuminating commentary that puts both the criminals and their crimes in historical context, and reconstructs some of the most dramatic trials of the twentieth century.