Glass Plate Negatives, introduced by Englishman Frederick Scott Archer in 1851, were the first widely available photographic negatives and offered sharper images and faster exposures than the calotype and daguerreotype negatives which preceded them. The process of glass plate photography was further refined in about 1870, becoming cleaner, more convenient and, more importantly for police purposes, producing longer-lasting negatives.
Famed detective and spy Allan Pinkerton, founder of the first detective agency in the United States, was the individual who initially capitalised on the camera’s potential as a police tool. In 1870 Pinkerton assembled the first collection of photographs of known criminals to aid in his agency’s work, a procedure that soon became standard practice around the world.
Glass plate photography’s fall from favour came in 1888, when George Eastman sold the first Kodak cameras with flexible rolls of film but Queensland Police were still using the technique for mug shots. On September 11, 1897 the first photo supplement, showing a mug shot, was printed in the Queensland Police Gazette.
The use of glass plate negatives had virtually disappeared by the 1920s. Images captured by the Queensland Police during this period remain some of the best preserved images in the Police Museum collection.
A picture is most certainly worth a thousand words: here are stories of two criminals and their corresponding mug shots scanned from the Police Museum collection of glass plates negatives.
Peggy Moore, alias Renee Lorraine, was arrested on September 8, 1938, for the murder of Douglas Johnstone at Heraud Street in Townsville. Johnstone, a naval rating (enlisted man) on the HMAS Canberra, approached Moore’s home in the company several of his shipmates. It was alleged that the sailors attempted to gain entry to the house by banging and kicking the front and rear doors, eventually breaking a side window. Upon hearing the glass break, Peggy Moore retrieved a revolver from the kitchen and threatened a man whom she saw peering in through the shattered window. As the front door was further battered, Moore moved out onto the veranda and saw Douglas Johnstone poised to throw a bottle at her. Moore shot at Douglas, hitting and killing him. All the sailors present denied breaking a window, and also denied that Douglas was carrying a bottle. On November 7, 1938, Peggy Moore was found not guilty of murder. She was, however, found guilty of possessing an unlicensed firearm, for which she was fined ₤20 with 6 shillings in costs.
Domenico Scarcella, a native of Palmi, Italy, and his accomplices, Mario Strano & Salverio Militano, were charged in 1933 with child stealing and the abduction of Elizabeth Margaret Rosarti. Of the three, Militano was sentenced to 12 month’s hard labour, Strano was found not guilty, & Scarcella was sentenced to 6 month’s hard labour, suspended after the judge’s recommendation for mercy. In June 1935, Scarcella was living on a sugar-cane farm 8 miles from Innisfail. At 9pm on the 8th, Scarcella took a hurricane lantern and went to his barn to attend to his horses. Soon afterwards, two quick shots were heard, followed moments later by a third. Scarcella’s wife called for help, and her husband’s body was found lying in the barn with gunshot wounds to his stomach, left side, and head. A member of Italy’s “Black Hand Society”, Scarcella had visited his hometown of Palmi in 1931 and returned to Queensland in 1932. Police busied themselves trying to learn the whereabouts of all Italian nationals around Ingham at the time of the killing, to no immediate avail. On the 12th of December, 1936, 38 year old Italian canecutter named Francesco Guglielmo Femio was murdered in a room at the canecutter’s barracks at Stone River, Ingham. Scarcella’s widow was strongly of the opinion that Femio was involved in her husband’s murder, and it is believed that Femio’s death was the result of a vendetta carried on by Mrs Scarcella and her relatives.
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Peggy Moore ![]()
Domenico Scarcella
This information was written by Curator Lisa Jones from those Queensland Police Museum resources available at the time of writing.
The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane. Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“A mug only a mother could love” by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode