Legs Diamond: Cheap Mug & Package Thief

In the old news articles, if you were a crook on the business end of crime piece, they were bound to have fun with your odd physiology – if you possessed anything noteworthy. Criminals were often referred to as being short, fat, having a swarthy complexion. If it was a female then maybe she was “a bit on the heavy side” or how the “femme-sneak thief had stunningly beautiful raven hair”. And in the more innocent human interest stories they always maintain that “so-and-so, a smart and pretty girl, won the bake sale”.

Legs was one of those gangsters who was adored by the public, for whatever reasons.

Diamond’s ostrich-like limbs seemed to start at his Adam’s apple … he ran like an ostrich … and so he made his getaway by legging it:

Posthumous article.