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Leavenworth identification photograph, No. 22066: William P. Colbeck

Front and profile Bureau of Prisons photograph numbered 22066, with "WILLIAM P. COLBECK 22066" written on the back, from the Leavenworth inmate case file of William P. Colbeck, one of the men convicted in the 1924 Staunton mail-robbery case. A copy is stored here.

Date: undated
Kind: photograph
Source: National Archives Catalog
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
NAID: 164583999
Rights: A Bureau of Prisons record, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. Leavenworth Inmate Case Files, Records of the Bureau of Prisons (Record Group 129), National Archives at Kansas City. The National Archives catalog marks the item "Use Restriction: Unrestricted." The copies stored here are 800-pixel downsamples of the front and the back of the print.

The National Archives catalogs this print as “Photograph of William P. Colbeck (aka Dinty Colbeck)” (NAID 164583999), an item in the Leavenworth inmate case file of William P. Colbeck (file unit NAID 161379916). It is a single identification print with two views, profile at left and full face at right; the number 22066 is on a placard in the profile view. The back of the print, stored here, carries a handwritten line reading “WILLIAM P. COLBECK 22066.” The catalog does not date the photograph.

The catalog does not say who this man was beyond his name, or that he was a defendant in any particular case. This archive matches him to the Staunton mail-robbery case on three grounds, and only these: the name on the back of the print is the name of a defendant in the indictment and the Seventh Circuit’s opinion; the photographs of six of those defendants carry the consecutive numbers 22066 to 22072 (22068 has not been found); and the Alcatraz card of a seventh defendant lists these men as his codefendants, all sentenced to 25 years at Leavenworth. The indictment lists him first, as “WILLIAM P. COLBECK, alias “Dinty” Colbeck.”

The photograph records a prisoner’s identity at the penitentiary. It says nothing about the man’s part in the robbery, and this page adds nothing to it. “Egan’s Rats,” the name the National Archives and the 1924 press gave the group, does not appear on the print.

itemUnited States v. William P. "Dinty" Colbeck et al., criminal case file No. 25 (S.D. Ill.)National Archives description of the Southern District of Illinois case file on the 26 May 1923 robbery of mail custodians at Staunton, Illinois. The archivist's note says the defendants "were members of a gang called Egan's Rats" led by William P. "Dinty" Colbeck.itemColbeck v. United States, 10 F.2d 401 (7th Cir. 1925): the Staunton mail-robbery appealSeventh Circuit opinion of 8 December 1925 affirming the convictions and 25-year sentences of William P. Colbeck and eight codefendants for robbing persons in charge of the mails. It upholds the use of a convict's testimony and the instructions on alibi and reasonable doubt.

itemAlcatraz warden's notebook page for Frank Epplesheimer, No. 309Bureau of Prisons notebook page for a defendant in the Staunton mail-robbery case, received at Alcatraz on 30 May 1936 and transferred back to Leavenworth on 10 July 1938. Its codefendants box names the other men convicted with him and gives the place of sentence as Quincy, Illinois. A copy is stored here.

itemLeavenworth identification photograph, No. 22067: Oliver DaughertyFront and profile Bureau of Prisons photograph numbered 22067, with "22067 Oliver Daugherty" written on the back, from the Leavenworth inmate case file of Oliver Daugherty, one of the men convicted in the 1924 Staunton mail-robbery case. A copy is stored here.

itemLeavenworth identification photograph, No. 22069: Gustav B. DietmeyerFront and profile Bureau of Prisons photograph numbered 22069, with "GUSTAV B. DIETMEYER 22069" written on the back, from the Leavenworth inmate case file of Gustav B. Dietmeyer, one of the men convicted in the 1924 Staunton mail-robbery case. A copy is stored here.

itemLeavenworth identification photograph, No. 22070: Frank HackethalFront and profile Bureau of Prisons photograph numbered 22070, with "FRANK HECKETHAL 22070" written on the back, from the Leavenworth inmate case file of Frank Hackethal, one of the men convicted in the 1924 Staunton mail-robbery case. A copy is stored here.

itemLeavenworth identification photograph, No. 22071: Charles LanhamFront and profile Bureau of Prisons photograph numbered 22071, with "22071 Charles Lanham" written on the back, from the Leavenworth inmate case file of Charles Lanham, one of the men convicted in the 1924 Staunton mail-robbery case. A copy is stored here.

itemLeavenworth identification photograph, No. 22072: Stephen RyanFront and profile Bureau of Prisons photograph numbered 22072, with "22072 Stephen Ryan" written on the back, from the Leavenworth inmate case file of Stephen Ryan, one of the men convicted in the 1924 Staunton mail-robbery case. A copy is stored here.