If they went to prison---they had a paper trail. One of my notorious relatives was gunned down before he got to prison,but he had quite a paper trail that I located at the Anderson CO.court house. Actually,while reading the transcripts from the trial of the men who ambushed my g uncle I found that a relative that I had been trying to find from my mother's side of the family had been one of the jurors. The two sides of the family were unaquainted at the time. The courthouses have records catalouged by dates. It's a great way to hunt.The District Attorney's office,or criminal court,will probably be too busy to help you do any research.They do however hand you one book at a time that you can scour for names. If you find your relatives name mentioned you can then ask for that particular transcript. In my case there were also newspaper headlines and a lot of info was contained in the accounts.If you get the dates of the trial from courthouse records, the next step should be the newspaper.I found this on microfilm at the library a few blocks from the courthouse. This is why I once said that ancestors that misbehaved were easier to trace than the good guys. They just did not make permanent county records and headlines when they got awards for perfect attendance in Sunday School.Those are the ones that I am having trouble locating. Karen Kerr