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🎙️ Mugshot Mysteries: Episode 3

The Outlaw Who Sued the Railroad – Al Jennings

Train robber. Failed candidate. Hollywood actor.
Al Jennings lived more lives than one man should… and made sure you heard about every one of them.

In this episode, we dig into the strange saga of a former attorney who picked up a gun after losing a brother, formed a ragtag gang with little success, and somehow wound up reinventing himself as a Western folk hero. From bungled heists to prison time with O. Henry, Jennings blurred the line between outlaw and opportunist...and spent decades mythologizing the difference.

📷 Instagram: @MugshotMysteriesPodcast

Show Notes & Sources:

News & Historical Records

— The Western Star (1895): Ed Jennings killed
— Kansas City Times (1897): Al Jennings captured
— Oklahoma State Capital (1899): Life sentence
— Coffeyville Daily Journal (1902): O. Henry prison era
— Minneapolis Journal (1919): Check fraud denial
— El Reno Democrat (1893): Family legal background

Archives & Articles

— Legends of America: https://www.legendsofamerica.com/al-jennings/
— True West Magazine: https://truewestmagazine.com/article/al-jennings/
— Library of America: https://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2024/09/holding-up-train.html
— Edmond Life & Leisure: https://edmondlifeandleisure.com/the-great-edmond-train-robbery-p10565-87.htm
— MIHP / History Mugs: https://www.mihp.org/2013/09/jennings-al-1863-1961/

Film & Memoir

— Silent Westerns Wiki: https://silentwesterns.fandom.com/wiki/Al_Jennings
— Thanhouser Film Co.: https://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Filmography_files/ind6a6duy.htm
— Beating Back (1913), Through the Shadows with O. Henry (1921) – Public domain
— Jeff Arnold’s West: https://jeffarnoldswest.com/2019/05/al-jennings-of-oklahoma-columbia-1951/

Psychological & Cultural Themes

• Outlaw Archetypes – Gunfighter Nation, Richard Slotkin
→ https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780806130316
• Self-Mythologizing – Troubling Confessions, Peter Brooks
→ https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo3649362.html
• Reinvention After Trauma – Dan McAdams, “Psychology of Life Stories”
→ https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.5.2.100
• Western Mythmaking – Robert Warshow, “The Westerner” essay
• Memoir Legacy Inflation – Barbara Hochman, Biography (2001)
→ https://muse.jhu.edu/article/45391

👤 Al Jennings Mugshot

• View his mugshot here → https://itoldya420.getarchive.net/media/prisoner-at-leavenworth-federal-penitentiary-al-jennings-nara-292114-12ac8c

💬 Enjoyed the episode? Follow, rate, and share with fellow true crime & history fans. Got a face with a hidden story? Send it our way.

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Enjoyed the episode? Don’t forget to follow, rate, and leave a review. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time with another face… and another mystery.

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🎙️ Mugshot Mysteries: Episode 2

The Lady Bandit of the Wild West – Pearl Hart

She wasn’t a sharpshooter. She wasn’t part of a gang. She wasn’t even trying to make history. But Pearl Hart, stagecoach robber, courtroom rebel, and media darling, defied every expectation the frontier had for women in 1899. In this episode, we follow Pearl’s journey from Canadian boarding school to Arizona prison cell, exploring the cultural blind spots she exposed and the legacy she left behind.

We dig into her backstory, walk through the infamous Globe-to-Florence robbery, and unpack why her name still echoes in feminist folklore and Wild West legend alike.

📷 Instagram: @MugshotMysteriesPodcast

Show Notes & Sources

Historical References & News Archives

• “Female Bandit’s Trial Begins,” The Arizona Republic, 1901
  → https://www.newspapers.com/image/116238058/
• “Miss Pearl Hart’s Bold Robbery,” Yuma Sentinel, 1899
  → https://www.newspapers.com/image/87356541/
• “Pearl Hart’s Strange Case,” The Arizona Weekly Journal-Miner, July 1901
  → https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85032938/1901-07-24/ed-1/seq-2/
• Pearl Hart’s Story, Arizona State Library & Archives
  → https://azlibrary.gov/speccoll/az-biographies/pearl-hart
• Buffalo Bill Center of the West – Did Pearl Join the Show?
  → https://centerofthewest.org/2014/03/17/pearl-hart-female-bandit/

Contextual Background: Law, Gender & the West

• Arizona Women’s Suffrage Timeline, Arizona State Library
  → https://www.azlibrary.gov/collections/womens-suffrage
• “Women in the Wild West,” National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame
  → https://www.cowgirl.net/women-of-the-west/
• “Calamity Jane, Belle Starr, and Pearl Hart: Legendary Outlaws,” Legends of America
  → https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-pearlhart/
• Inflation Calculator (1899 to today)
  → https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

Psychological & Cultural Analysis

• Gender Performativity and Crime, Judith Butler (1990) – Gender Trouble
  → Scholarly Reference [no free link, but worth citing]
• Robin Hood Mythos and Criminal Sympathy, Journal of American Folklore
  → https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jamerfolk.128.509.0137
• Criminal Women in Frontier Mythology, American Studies Quarterly, 2003
  → https://muse.jhu.edu/article/44075

👤 Pearl Hart’s Mugshot

• View her original mugshot here → https://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/nodes/view/252518

💬 Enjoyed the episode? Follow, rate, and share with fellow true crime and history fans. And as always, if you know a face that deserves a deeper look, send it our way.

Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time with another face… and another mystery.

Enjoyed the episode? Don’t forget to follow, rate, and leave a review. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time with another face… and another mystery.

Send us a text

The Nebraska Siren – Bertha Liebbeke

She looked like the girl next door. Polite, well-dressed, maybe a little flustered. But behind the lace gloves? A master manipulator who pulled off some of the slickest thefts in Gilded Age America...without ever brandishing a weapon.

In our first episode, we dig into the story of Bertha Liebbeke... con artist, charmer, and one of the most fascinating women ever to grace a mugshot. We break down her origin story, her best-known scams, and the psychology that made her so effective. Plus, Gabriel joins Kathryn for an interview-style dive into the criminal mind.

🕵️‍♀️ Show Notes & Sources:

• "The Nebraska Siren," Omaha Bee, 1891–1894
  https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn99021999/
• "A Beauty with a Taste for Deception," The Inter Ocean (Chicago), 1893
  Available via Newspapers.com archives
• Captured & Exposed – Fainting Bertha
  https://capturedandexposed.com/2017/02/20/fainting-bertha/
• Old Spirituals – The Nebraska Siren
  https://oldspirituals.com/2016/06/01/bertha-liebbeke/
• Nebraska State Historical Society
  https://history.nebraska.gov
• Inflation Calculator (for crime value comparison)
  https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
• Mugshot Mysteries - Youtube Episode
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_rTN61F_IQ&t=4s

🖼️ Bertha Liebbeke’s Mugshot
https://capturedandexposed.com/2021/03/19/fainting-bertha/

Enjoyed the episode? Don’t forget to follow, rate, and leave a review. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time with another face… and another mystery.