The latest blogs from City Archivist, Phil Astley, who uses the fascinating collection of criminal ‘mugshots’ held by Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives and brings them to life, feature the cases of Neil McPherson, who was a prisoner at Perth, Peterhead and Pentonville, and Catherine Anderson, who was tried twice for child murder.
‘Criminal Portraits’ features images found in the ‘Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen’ covering 1869 to 1939 and a much larger album containing 930 images taken at HM General Prison Perth.
A small selection of the images have previously been included in exhibitions for the ‘Granite Noir’ crime writing festival in 2019 and 2020, which takes place in Aberdeen during February. The incredible response to these images from the public convinced the organisers that they deserved a wider audience.