Pickpockets and thieves often targeted those who could not, or would not, prosecute. Travelers who couldn’t stay in town to testify at a trial and married men who did not want to explain how they came to be alone with a strange woman in saloon back room were especially vulnerable.

About the photo above: Josie Stocking, alias “Josie Derham”, alias “Maud Evans”; a native of San Francisco and old time pickpocket. Her mode of operation was to pick up men registering in the large hotels with their wife, clean out their pockets and skip out knowing the man to be married, he would not dare to say a word. [Brown, J]