Oh, yeah, my maternal grandfather was dodging the Austro-Hungarian army draft when he emigrated in 1903. He was Hungarian and held no love for the Austrians.
One of my cousins (mothers sisters son) was sent to life in prison for murder. He swears up and down he didn’t do it and is currently draining my aunt’s life savings in all these long shot appeals, but he knew and had an open problem with the victim, his car was seen driving away from the scene after the crime was committed and the murder weapon was found inside his car when the police searched his car the same day (since he was basically the first suspect). So either somebody REALLY wanted to frame him for murder or else he’s just an idiot.
I was once hired to file an appeal of a trial, where a guy was convicted of sexually molesting a young girl. His mom paid me fifteen thousand dollars (my boss: “I said fifty!”) to challenge the conviction.
She was convinced he didn’t do it. The evidence was flawed.
So I get transcripts of the trial. His DNA, from sperm cells, was found in her underwear.
To be more precise, the DNA said there was a chance it wasn’t him. But that chance was something like 1 in a quintillion. More people than live on planet Earth.
The trial defense was that this sperm got there because defendant had sex with his wife, and grabbed that girl’s underwear (which was left out because she had changed clothes) to “clean” himself.
(It was an untenable defense, by the way, because the DNA sample was pooled in the underwear, instead of smeared. Ain’t sex cases fun?)
I’ll never forget reading the Prosecutor’s closing in that trial
So, yeah, people are rarely framed. The evidence almost always points to he’s an idiot.
Well, unless the investigators bully a confession out of an uninformed suspect, or an ‘eyewitness’ makes a false claim, or a piece of exculpatory evidence is not disclosed by an overly ambitious prosecutor. But yes, the kind of elaborate schemes in mysteries to frame an innocent person rarely happen, and usually aren’t very solid when they do.
Stranger
I talk about my great-uncle here
Short version is that he was a notary public, and helped an attorney friend get the wealth of the attorney’s client that disappeared about the same time. That wasn’t what put him in jail.
After a couple of years he and his friend decided went for extortion, which included ticks sent to their victims via US mail. The ticks didn’t survive the trip.
Also true if there is a U.S. president anywhere in your tree. Most of my tree disappears into the anonymity of Italian, Irish or Prussian peasantry not too many generations back. However I do share an x-times great grandfather with Abraham Lincoln. That branch I can trace back to Edward I because all the work has already been done for me.
I do a lot of aerial photograph identification, primarily in Ohio. Because of this I have amassed a large collection of older rural directories to help me ID things. I was doing some work in Auglaize County a few weeks ago. I took a look and there were still 14 listings for Crafts in 1960 including Craft’s Garage.
I haven’t encountered any criminals in my family tree. But one of my ancestors was a slave holder in Long Island, New York in the 1700s. I have a copy of his will and he bequeathed George, his houseboy, to his son. In case George had died the son was to get an additional $50. Such was the value of a human life at the time.
Another incident I wish I could find more about: One surname of my family tree (Roe) has a professionally written genealogy from around 1900. In it it mentions a woman who lived in Ohio who went to visit her brother out west somewhere. There she was “frightened to death”. Maybe she saw an armadillo.
Not professionally written but an ancestor of mine, late 19th century, wrote a book about the history of his family name. The first person, his wife and eight kids, came to North America inb 1722, It’s thanks to the writer we know so much about the family on this side of the Atlantic.
I’ve mentioned it elsewhere but I was watching a show on PBS about Annie Oakley and a professor from North Caroline, commenting on her, had that family name; I dug up an email address for her from the university and asked about the name. She said it was her married name but gave me email contact for her husband, who was into family history. Yes, we are descended from that original couple, he through one son, I through another. We are seventh cousins once removed.
I had a great-aunt who was married to a gangster for a while, although apparently it was a somewhat idealistic sort of gang whose main purpose was funneling money to the IRA. I don’t think I ever met her, although I can’t swear I didn’t (my grandfather’s siblings were all dead by the time I was eight or so, and while I’ve got very dim memories of two of his sisters, I don’t think Aunt Agnes was one of them).
My grandmother’s sister married into the family of a noted gangster, who definitely hurt (and killed) people. His name was Louis “Lepke” Buchalter. He was a major name in organized crime in the 30s, founding “Murder, Inc.,” a collection of hit men. He also killed some people himself and ended up in the electric chair.* They even made a movie about him.
*I love that genealogy records list him as dying in Ossining, NY: Sing Sing Prison.
Not a criminal as such, but Googling my full name turns up no references to me, but a number of links to the father of one of Jack the Ripper’s victims. Since he was from the same area of England that my ancestors came from, and that specific given name combination turns up repeatedly in the family genealogy, it’s very likely that we are related.
Thanks for that reminder … I think 
I am (by dint of some considerable effort) nearly invisible on the WWW under my real name. But there is a convicted armed robber in NJ whose mug shot & accompanying newspaper article about sentencing was the first hit for my name for many years.
My eleven year old great-grandmother was impregnated by my twenty-three year old great-grandfather. Back in the 1860s, it may not have been a crime in Oklahoma territory. It makes me wonder: how old was she when they first had sex.
Given the fertility numbers at those ages, I’d say the answer is “11 and 23, respectively”.
Were they married? (Which may have been legal in Oklahoma territory in the 1860’s; I’ve no idea.)
Did she survive her teens?
She lived to be 51 having a total of 6 children. All I know is that she was born in 1859, married in 1870, and their first child was born in 1871. I do not know whether the marriage took place before or after the pregnancy was discovered.
About 5 or so generations ago, my great…grandfather was a polygamist and fled to Mexico when it became illegal. But, if he wasn’t a polygamist, I wouldn’t be here - I come from the second wife.
My father was relatively high up in the hierarchy of a big Spanish insurance company. There weren’t any Luigi Mangionis back then, and he was not that high up the ladder anyway. I am not sure that he / his decisions never hurt nobody. He did not like the Clash.
His brother, my uncle, was a medium sized fish in the construction industry in Barcelona. It was never discussed, but it goes without saying that you cannot operate in that business without being corrupt.
No consequences that I know of ensued in either case.
If she was born in January 1859 and married in December 1870, she may have been nearly 12. Which is only very slightly better, even if she was nearly 13 when she gave birth.
I’m glad she survived it, and probable later teen pregnancies, in any case. I hope she wanted to get married; though it seems unlikely that it’s possible to find that out now.