This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/17/2022
[VICE]. – [KARPIS, Alvin (1907-1979). Mugshot of Public Enemy No. 1 Alvin Karpis. Circa 1934. Black and white mugshot of Alvin Karpis of the Barker-Karpis Gang with biographical information handwritten on verso. 3 ½ x 5”. Crease at lower left, rubbing at extremities. This mugshot was taken in Tulsa and distributed by the FBI to police stations across the country after Karpis was elevated to “Public Enemy No. 1” by J. Edgar Hoover following the deaths of John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Baby Face Nelson; he was the fourth person to hold the title and the first to be taken into custody alive. Founded in 1931 and with numerous kidnappings and murders to their credit, the Barker-Karpis Gang was the longest-lived and most notorious of all of the Depression-Era criminal gangs, with Karpis serving as the gang’s ringleader. He holds the record as the longest-serving prisoner at Alcatraz, and after the prison’s closure was transferred to McNeil Island Penitentiary in Washington state, where he taught a fellow inmate by the name of Charles Manson how to play the guitar.