JOHN McGUIRE

Alias: SHINNY McGUIRE

Specialties: PICKPOCKET, SNEAK

No: 155 Last Displayed: 8/8/2022

Description:

Thirty-four years old in 1886. Born in New York. Married. No trade. Medium build. Height, 5 feet 6 inches. Weight, about 145 pounds. Black hair, gray eyes, ruddy complexion. Has letter "F" in India ink on left arm. Generally wears a dark brown beard.

Record:

"SHINNY" MCGUIRE is considered one of the cleverest pickpockets in America. Tom Davis, the sawdust swindler, who was shot and killed in New York on August 31, 1885, by T. J. Holland, of Abilena, Texas, married two of McGuire's sisters. He is an associate of Joe Gorman (146), Jersey Jimmie (145), Charley Allen, and several other New York pickpockets, and is well known in all the principal cities. He was arrested in New York City on October 11, 1878, charged with the larceny of a pocket-book from a man who had just left the Seaman's Savings Bank, corner of Pearl and Wall streets, and was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary on Blackwell's island, on July 2, 1879, by Recorder Hackett. He escaped from the penitentiary library, where he was engaged as librarian, on July 1, 1879. He gave New York a wide berth, working the other cities, until September 21, 1885, when he was arrested in Philadelphia, Pa., and returned to Blackwell's. Island to finish his unexpired time. He will be discharged on December 20, 1886. McGuire's picture is an excellent one, taken in 1876.