Today’s mugshot comes to us from Missouri and features William Earl Miller, Inmate #29270.  He doesn’t have the usual disheveled look of a mugshot. In fact, he looks a lot like a model, doesn’t he? In this case, looks are quite deceiving!

William Earl Miller, who was employed at the Citizens Cleaners, had been suspected of perpetrating a number of robberies and fires in Union, Missouri.

The police acted after Miller’s Studebaker car was found burned out on the St. Louis road on the same night someone stole a car from the garage directly behind Miller’s workplace. A look into Miller’s record ascertained that he was wanted in Hannibal on eight counts, including burglary and larceny and arson charges.

Miller was apprehended and returned to Hannibal, Mo. There, he received a 25-year sentence (10 years for burglary and larceny, and 15 years for setting fire to a residence).

Franklin County Tribune 29 Jan 1926

Prosecutor F.W. Jenny then revealed that “Miller was as rough a character as he had ever come in contact with; also that he had been operating at Hannibal for the past year, stealing such articles as watches, rings and other jewelry. Miller confessed to having stolen the Studebaker car in Hannibal that he had while in Union.”

The charges continued to pile up. Miller was discovered to have sold stolen property while he was living in Union. The year before, he had been fined for a traffic violation and he wrote a check for $8.10 drawing on an account at the Bank of Union, though he had no account there. After his arrest, Miller admitted to having entered a residence in Washington, Mo., for the purpose of stealing valuables, but he left when he heard a child’s voice saying that someone was in the house. He also said he had set fire to the stolen Studebaker because it ran out of oil.

1925 Studebaker from ClassicCars.com

Interestingly, William Earl Miller’s wedding to a Miss Sterling took place about seven months before his arrest and the festivities were described in some detail by the Sedalia Democrat, which suggests the bride’s family was prominent in the area.

Miller’s intake at the penitentiary was on Jan 23, 1926. His sentence was 25 years, so he should have left prison in 1951. However, he was discharged after 13-and-a-half years with merit time, on Nov 16, 1939.