Depression-Era Lives of Crime

While researching a case for my upcoming book on historic D.C. murders, I came across the criminal records of two suspects, William Kappel and Leo Cullen. They present a rather intriguing glimpse of Depression-Era crime (and evidence that it wasn’t hard to avoid jail time). It’s interesting that Kappel was charged with violating child labor laws when he was the child being employed, although in fairness to the system his sentence was suspended. Some chargers sound amusingly archaic, like “incorrigibility” and “breaking glass in street.” Note that Kappel’s and Cullen’s records overlap on August 26, 1933 when the two buddies were charged with assaulting poor Nick Vlahos.