This post was written by Katie Beaver, a student intern working with civilian records.  It is a follow-up to A few good lawmen and is based on documentation found in  ”Appointment Files for Judicial Districts, 1853-1905.” The American South was a particularly tumultuous area after the Civil War and during the occupation of the U.S. Army. Slaves became [...]

This post was written by Katy Berube, a student intern working in civilian processing.  It is a follow-up to the post A few good lawmen.  Documentation for this post can be found in the series “Appointment Files for Judicial Districts, 1853-1905.” As guns unloaded into British subject and cattle investor, John H. Tunstall, in the [...]

Today’s post is written by Denise Henderson. A few months ago, I was asked to locate a record about Pat Garrett, the famous sheriff who killed Billy the Kid in 1881 when cowboys and cattle thieves made the West wild and dangerous and a place in serious need of law enforcement.  Understanding the index to, [...]

Today’s post is written by Alfie Paul, a processing archivist who works with civilian textual records. On an August day in 1991, the body of free-lance reporter Danny Casolaro was found dead in a Martinsburg, West Virginia motel bathtub by two maids.  Ruled a suicide, Casolaro’s death was just a small piece of a larger [...]

Yesterday, I posted about Department of Justice press releases.  Today, I’d like to share a few of my favorites!  One early press release, dated November 6, 1933, details the establishment of a federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island, which according to the release, “is a necessary part of the Government’s campaign against predatory crime.”  Three years [...]

What do John Dillinger, Al Capone, Bruno Hauptmann, and Frank Sinatra’s son have in common? You can find a press release (or in some cases, more than one!) relating to them at the National Archives!  Recently, I processed and described the series “Press Releases, Speeches, Testimonies, and Other Records, 1933-1984” (ARC ID 5605357) in RG [...]