Mug Shot of Al Capone - Bureau of Indian Affairs

A mug shot or mugshot is a photographic portrait of a person from the waist up, typically taken after a person is arrested made with a purpose to have a photographic record for identification purposes by victims, the public and investigators. A typical mug shot is two-part, with one side-view, and one front-view. The paired arrangement may have been inspired by the 1865 prison portraits taken by Alexander Gardner of accused conspirators in the Lincoln assassination trial, though Gardner's photographs were full-body portraits with only the heads turned for the profile shots. The earliest mugshot photos of prisoners may have been taken in Belgium in 1843 and 1844. In the UK, the police of London started taking mugshots in 1846. By 1857, the New York City Police Department had a gallery where daguerreotypes of criminals were displayed.

There have been many famous mugshots throughout history, but some of the most well-known ones include those of Al Capone, the notorious American gangster; Ted Bundy, the American serial killer; and Charles Manson, the American cult leader. Other famous mugshots include those of John Dillinger, the American bank robber; Adolf Hitler, the former German dictator; and Rosa Parks, the American civil rights activist. These mugshots have become iconic and have become associated with the crimes and personalities of the individuals depicted in them. Though it is generally considered unethical to make assumptions or judgments about an individual's criminal behavior based solely on their physical appearance, in criminology, there is a subfield known as criminal profiling, which often uses techniques such as analyzing mugshots to try to identify common physical traits or characteristics that may be associated with certain types of criminal behavior.

Al Capone was a prominent member of the Italian-American mafia in the 1920s and 1930s. He rose to power as the leader of the Chicago Outfit, one of the most infamous criminal organizations in American history. Capone was known for his ruthless tactics and his ability to bribe law enforcement officials, which allowed him to avoid prosecution for many of his crimes. He is most commonly associated with the illegal sale of alcohol during Prohibition and with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, in which seven members of a rival gang were murdered. Al Capone was tried and convicted for several crimes, including tax evasion. He was tried in federal court in Chicago in 1931 and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. However, he was not tried for any of the violent crimes that he is most commonly associated with, such as murder or racketeering, as there was not enough evidence to convict him on those charges. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison and was initially sent to the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta. He was later transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution in Alcatraz, where he remained until 1939, when he was released due to deteriorating health. He died a few years later in 1947 at the age of 48.