Mugshot March continues with the case of Mr. Alonzo Dowell. Dowell was no stranger to trouble. He was a career thief and in 1924, he was convicted of robbing Mrs. W. Arthur Stickney near her residence, and stealing $17,000 in jewels.

This gives one pause: if you take inflation into account, this woman was wearing over $260,000 in jewelry. I’m not trying to judge her. I’m as guilty as anyone else of adorning myself in priceless jewels before taking an afternoon stroll, but it does seem a little much. 

Back to Mr. Dowell. It turned out, robbing Mrs. Stickney wasn’t a totally out of character thing for him to do. While in court, he also pleaded guilty to two charges of second-degree burglary, that had been committed in 1923. In the first instance, he had stolen $30, and in the other he had taken $479.

The St. Louis judge was not happy with Dowell’s improved criminal performance, and handed him a heavy sentence: 50 year and 1 day in the Missouri State Penitentiary, which included a five year sentence for each prior burglary.

Dowell’s luck had not completely run out: he was paroled on November 13, 1939.

He remained free for two years and two months, when his parole was revoked for reasons unknown, and he returned to the penitentiary in February 1942. Alonzo Dowell died in prison on March 3, 1947.