"We have nothing to say, but we hope you will be lenient."

It wasn’t so easy being a judge in Brooklyn back in the day. The accused could use aliases and there was no way to check on them. But a pair of convicted lady shoplifters couldn’t escape their criminal past after being pinched while trying to steal a camel’s hair shawl at a Flatbush Avenue shop. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle ran a story about their sentencing on December 23, 1876. An excerpt:

“The two female shoplifters who stole the camel’s hair shawl from Journeay & Burnham’s, and who were convicted last Thursday, were sentenced in the Court of Sessions this morning. Quite a crowd were in waiting to see what Judge Moore would do with them. Another woman said to be a sister was with them.

Deputy Clerk York opened the Court of Sessions and the prisoners, Mary Martin and Catharine Martin, were called to the bar. Mary is tall and skinny with sallow skin and dark eyes. She was dressed in a cotton velvet cloak trimmed with beads and a dark dress. The other is short and fleshy, with round face, fat chin and wore a woolen shawl around her shoulders.

They were sworn and the tall one gave her name as Mary Martin, said she was thirty-seven years old, born in Germany and a dressmaker by trade. The other woman said her name was Catherine Martin, thirty-three years old, born in Pennsylvania and a dressmaker by trade. Both denied they had ever been in State Prison. It is not known what their real names are.

These preliminaries settled, the clerk asked them whether they had anything to say why the judgement of the Court should not be pronounced. Catherine, the younger woman replied, ‘We have nothing to say, but we hope you will be lenient.’

Camel: String 'em up. (Image MaddiyK.)

In passing the sentence Judge Moore said: ‘If it were not for the fact that you two women have been for years past known to the police authorities as two of the most expert professional shoplifters in the country, the plea of leniency would have a good deal of force, but when we know the fact that for years past you have been engaged in the commission of crimes, as professional criminals, that you are notorious from one end of the country to the other, in your case we cannot abate much of the extreme penalty prescribed by the law for your offense. One of you, at least, has been in the State Prison and I think both of you.

‘This attempt to steal their goods from merchants in this city and to deprive them of their property was a bold attempt, but was fortunately frustrated. Considering your character and the character of your offense, we have concluded that the sentence should be this: That each of your shall be imprisoned in the Penitentiary of this county for four years and six months.’

The prisoners received the sentence without emotion, save wiping their eyes with their handkerchiefs, and were removed in the custody of the officers. They won’t trouble the shopkeepers of Fulton street for some time to come.

On the eve of the trial, after recess, two children were brought into Court, ostensibly as the children of the older woman, and she received them very pathetically. It had a curious effect on the jury. One juryman said afterward that he didn’t believe the children were her’s, as they had blue eyes, and another juryman said he knew them, they were thieves, for the children were dressed too well.”

Judge Judy: I once found an avocado guilty of being too succulent. (Image by Susan Roberts.)