Henry Skillman Breckinridge (1886 - 1960)

US Government Official, United States Army Officer, Olypic Athlete. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, he was appointed as President Woodrow Wilson’s Assistant Secretary of War, in 1913, at age 27. A member of the 1912 and 1928 Olympic fencing teams, and was captain of the latter. During World War I he […]

William Milton “Billy” Breckenridge (1846 - 1931)

Western Law Officer. He was deputy sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona at Tombstone under Sheriff John Behan at the time of the OK Corral gunfight between the Earps and the Cowboys. He is considered by most historians to have been part of the anti-Earp faction and a friend of the Cowboys (i.e., outlaws). He wrote […]

Sir John Alexander Boyd (1837 - 1916)

Lawyer and Judge. The only child of John Boyd and Margaret MacCallum. He married Elizabeth Buchan, on August 31, 1863,  and they had nine sons and three daughters. In 1856 he graduated from Upper Canada College. In 1860 he published in Toronto A summary of Canadian history, it also appeared with revisions by John as […]

Floyd Murray “Toad” Boring (1915 - 2008)

US Secret Service Agent. He was involved in a fierce gunfight on November 1, 1950 with two Puerto Rican nationalists who were attempting to assassinate President Harry S. Truman. One of the assassins and a White House police officer, Leslie Coffelt, were killed in the shootout. The incident was recounted in the 2005 book “American […]

Jane Matilda Bolin (1908 - 2007)

Jurist. She was the first black woman to become a judge in the United States. Judge Bolin was the first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, the first to join the New York City Bar Association, and the first to work in the office of the New York City corporation counsel, the city’s […]

Sherman Block (1924 - 1998)

Los Angeles Law Figure. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he was noted for being the leader of the nation’s largest sheriff’s department. After serving in the US Army in World War II, he studied engineering at the Washington University St. Louis Missouri, before relocating to Los Angeles, California, in the mid 1950s. In 1956, he joined […]

Delos Thurman Bligh (1823 - 1890)

Lawman. Known as “Yankee” Bligh, he was a contemporary of famed detective Allan Pinkerton. He was heavily involved in the pursuit of the James-Younger Gang, so much so that in 1875 Jesse James wrote letter to newspapers in Louisville, Kentucky, St. Louis, Missouri and Nashville, Tennessee denouncing Bligh. He gained an international reputation for his […]

Alexander Bruce Bielaski (1883 - 1964)

FBI Director. He served as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from April 30, 1912 to February 10, 1919. After leaving the Bureau he went into law and later as a prohibition agent operating a decoy speakeasy in New York City. In 1929 he became President of the National Board of Fire […]

Alphonse Bertillon (1853 - 1914)

Criminologist. Bertillon began his career as a records clerk in the Parisian police department. He was the son of medicial professor Louis Bertillon. His obsessive love of order led him to develop his own methods of identifying  suspects. Bertillon identified individuals by measurements of the head and body, shape formations of the ear, eyebrow, mouth, […]

Robert Bentley (1970 - 1910)

Murder Victim. London City policeman who, with his colleague Charles Tucker, was ‘killed in the execution of their duty while endeavouring to apprehend a number of armed burglars in Exchange Buildings, Cutler St.’ The burglars were actually Russian anarchists who later held a shoot-out at the ‘Siege of Sidney Street’ in 1911. (bio by: David […]

Melvin Belli (1907 - 1996)

Attorney. A native of Sonora, California, Belli graduated from the University of California Berkeley in 1929 and received his law degree from the Boalt Hall School of Law in 1933. Establishing his practice in San Francisco, he quickly made a name for himself as an expert in personal injury cases. His many successes in such […]

John Harris Behan (1845 - 1912)

Lawman. Born in Westport, Missouri in what is now Kansas City, the third of nine children of Peter and Sarah Harris Behan. Johnny moved west to San Francisco, working as a miner and a freighter. During the American Civil War Johnny was a 19-year-old civilian employee of Carleton’s Column of Union Volunteers in California. He […]

Sam Bean (1874 - 1907)

Saloon Keeper, Folk Figure. Sam Bean was raised in Langtry, Texas. His father was a famous Judge known as “Law, West of the Pecos,” his mother was a Spanish woman. His parents were married in San Antonio soon after the Civil War. About 1914 Sam moved to Del Rio, Texas, opening a saloon and dance […]

Roy “Judge” Bean (1970 - 1903)

Western Law Figure. Born in Mason County, Kentucky, during the Civil War, he ran a blockade by hauling cotton from San Antonio, Texas, to British ships off the coast. After the war, he established a small saloon near the Pecos River in a tent city he named Vinegaroon. With the nearest court being 200 miles […]

Gregson Edward “Greg” Bautzer (1911 - 1987)

A Navy pilot in WWII, Bautzer was The Attorney to the Stars, representing Ginger Rogers, Ingrid Bergman and Joan Crawford to name a few, he also represented MGM owner Kirk Kerkorian and Howard Hughes. Engaged to actresses Barbara Payton, Lana Turner and Dorothy Lamour, he married actress Dana Wynter. He is also credited with founding […]

Richard Achilles Ballinger (1858 - 1922)

Presidential Cabinet Secretary. Served as Mayor of Seattle, Washington from 1904 to 1906. Served as Secretary of the Interior in President William H. Taft’s administration from 1909 to 1911. In 1909 he was President of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition World’s Fair. Named Lake Ballinger in honor of his father, Col. Richard H. Ballinger.  Family links:  Parents: […]

D. M. Ballew (1877 - 1922)

D. M. Ballew Western Lawman. Born David Monticello Ballew, he was a most controversial and effective Ardmore, Oklahoma Territory Deputy Sheriff. A very noted gun fighter, he first made headlines killing Pete Bynum who was in the middle of a holdup. Later he killed outlaws Steve Talkington for resisting arrest, James Perle and two men […]

Lola Greene Baldwin (1970 - 1957)

First Policewoman of the United States. Born Aurora “Lola” Greene in Elmira, New York. Her father died in 1877, causing Lola to quit high school to earn money. She taught school for a number of years in New York and Nebraska before marrying LeGrand Baldwin in 1884. During her remaining years in Lincoln, she found […]

Ella M. Backus (1970 - 1938)

Pioneering Woman. She was the first female Assistant United States Attorney. The Western District of Michigan set a precedent when it hired Ella M. Backus as an Assistant United States Attorney in 1903. In an age when traditional values dictated gender roles and job opportunities, Ms. Backus not only became the first female Assistant United […]

Austin Ira Aten (1862 - 1953)

Texas Ranger. Born in Cairo, Illinois, in 1862, he later moved to Round Rock,Texas, with his father, who was a methodist minister. In 1878, while living in Round Rock, he witnessed the death of outlaw Sam Bass by the Texas Rangers. This is when he decided to be a lawman. In 1883, Aten joined the […]

Chester Ashley (1791 - 1848)

US Senator,  Attorney.  He was a prominent figure in the early history of Arkansas.  Raised in Hudson,  New York,  he graduated from Williams College in Williamstown,  Massachusetts (1813) and Connecticut’s Litchfield Law School (1814) before beginning his law career in Hudson. Personal ambition led him to seek his fortune in the western frontier and in […]

Chang Apana (1871 - 1933)

Folk Figure.  He was the inspiration for the fictional sleuth Charlie Chan.  The son of Chinese immigrants,  he worked as a cowboy on Oahu before joining the new Honolulu Police Department in 1898.  Carrying a whip instead of a gun,  he often led the force in arrests and became Hawaii’s most famous cop.  During his […]

Clinton H. Anderson (1903 - 1989)

American Folk Figure. Clinton began his career in law enforcement as a Beverly Hills police officer in 1929. He was promoted to chief of police in December, 1942.  From 1942 until he resigned in 1969, Clinton protected the city’s image as a sleepy little town for big screen stars. Back then, protecting the privacy of […]

Macon Bolling Allen (1816 - 1894)

Judicial Figure. He was the first African-American in United States history to received a law degree and to receive a judgeship. Born in Indiana as a freeman, he was self taught, and ultimately becoming a school teacher in Indiana where he taught for five years. In the late 1830’s he elected to move to Portland, […]

Frederick Argyle Aiken (1832 - 1878)

Lincoln Assassination Trial Attorney. A Massachusetts native he moved with his parents to Hardwick, Vermont when he was ten years old. As a young man he studied at Middlebury College from 1855 to 1857. Drawn to journalism he became the editor of the “Burlington Sentinel”. After he married Sarah Olivia Weston (1846-1900), daughter of Judge […]

Oscar Zeta Acosta (1970 - 1970)

American Folk Figure. He was immortalized in  gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s novel, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, in which Thompson used him as the model for his “Samoan” attorney character. Born in El Paso, Texas, he served in the United States Air Force, and had a a brief stint as a missionary in […]

Bert C. Moore (1935 - 2000)

Iranian Hostage. A Foreign Service Officer with the United States Department of State, he was one of the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran from 1979 to 1981. (bio by: Erik Lander)

Ebenezer Francis (1743 - 1777)

Revolutionary War Continental Militia Officer. He was killed while commanding Massachusetts militia at the Battle of Hubbardton, Vermont, in 1777, the only Revolutionary War battle fought entirely on Vermont soil. After driving the American army under General Arthur St. Clair from Fort Ticonderoga, British commander General John Burgoyne ordered a force under General Simon Fraser […]

Ken Hudson (1970 - 1970)

Ken Hudson, the first full-time African American referee for the NBA, died on May 9 in Atlanta, Ga. Mr. Hudson became a pioneering NBA referee, officiating in the league from 1968 to 1972. During this phase of his career, he interacted with such notable players as Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Julius (Dr. J) Erving, Walt […]

William Kenzo Nakamura (1922 - 1944)

World War II Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient. Killed by a sniper’s bullet on the outskirts of Castellina, Italy. A tragic story great courage following being rousted from his home, along with many others of his heritage, this native son of Seattle, was not considered such as he was of Japanese descent. Just a month […]