WILLIAM PERRY

Alias: BILLY PERRY, GRAHAM, WILSON

Specialties: PICKPOCKET, SHOPLIFTER, SNEAK

No: 175 Last Displayed: 12/13/2023

Description:

Thirty-seven years old in 1886. Born in Virginia. Slim build. Height, 5 feet 4 1/2 inches. Weight, 115 pounds. Married. No trade. Light hair, grey eyes, light complexion, Generally has a clean-shaven face.

Record:

BILLY PERRY is one of the most expert and successful professional thieves in America. He has been traveling around the country for years, generally working with a woman. He is well known in all the large cities, and is considered a first-class man. Perry was arrested, and sentenced to three years in State prison, in Richmond, Va., in 1871, for picking pockets. He served two years in Sing Sing prison since. On June 1, 1882, Eldridge G. Rideout, a publisher on Barclay Street, New York, was robbed of his gold watch at the South Ferry, New York. Perry was arrested, and recognized as the thief. Soon after his release on bail in this case he was arrested again, for robbing a man of a gold watch on one of the Coney Island boats. When Perry was brought to court in New York City he was discharged, because the crime with which he was charged had been committed out of the jurisdiction of the court. When Perry's case, for stealing of Mr. Rideout's watch, was set down for trial in the Court of General Sessions he had disappeared, and his bail was forfeited. He was re-arrested, bailed again, and when the case was set down again for trial the pickpocket could not be found. Nothing was heard of him until the arrival of the survivors of the Greely Arctic expedition at Newburyport, Mass., on August 13, 1884, when he was arrested there, with a number of other professional thieves. Before the New York officers could reach Newburyport, Perry had been handed over to the Portsmouth (N. H.) authorities for a theft which he had committed there a few weeks before. On that charge he was sentenced to one year's imprisonment in the Portsmouth jail on August 27, 1884. Perry's sentence expired on August 27, 1885, when he was arrested, at the jail door, brought to New York City, committed to the Tombs prison on August 30, 1885, and subsequently discharged again on bail. Perry's picture is an excellent one, taken in August, 1884.