Kleptomania and Appalachia’s Strangest Historic Thieves

Kleptomania has long been associated with a seemingly irresistible compulsion to steal, sometimes involving objects of little practical or financial value. Historic newspapers occasionally described particularly baffling thieves as suffering from a “mania” for stealing.

These three historic Virginia thieves certainly seemed to put the mania in kleptomania.

The Sundry Burglar of Roanoke

In 1893, a skillful burglar prowled the streets of Roanoke with one peculiar focus: protection from the elements.

He first targeted the home of J.J. Jarman, slipping through the front door and attempting to steal hats and umbrellas. Mrs. Jarman spotted him and yelled, forcing the would-be thief to flee empty-handed.

Undeterred, he made his way to Mr. Hodgins’ house down the block, where he successfully made off with two umbrellas without detection.

Apparently, when one door closed, another opened.

Charles Johnson and the Stolen Bridles

Charles Johnson had an almost obsessive attraction to horse bridles, which led him to break into farms across the region in 1902.

Although he sold a few bridles for pennies in Abingdon, he reportedly kept most of them for reasons known only to himself. This peculiar fixation eventually led to his downfall.

After Johnson broke into property belonging to Robert and Kemper Wilhelm in March, the brothers caught him stealing their bridles.

Reporters couldn’t resist the obvious joke. Johnson, they quipped, was given a bridle of his own: a straitjacket.

He was indicted, fined $50, and sentenced to five months in jail.

Richard Weeks, the Man Who Stole Everything

Richard Weeks was already an accomplished thief when he was arrested for the tenth time in July 1904. Authorities attributed his behavior to a “mania” or mental derangement because many of his thefts seemed to have little practical purpose.

Described in contemporary accounts as the “jolliest negro” in Blountville, Weeks accumulated an extraordinary record of stolen property.

His targets included pots, pans, canned goods, blind bridles, lanterns, hogs, plows, dump carts, hoes, locks, and more.

The strangest part was that Weeks owned neither land nor livestock that would have given many of these things an obvious use.

Even jail couldn’t entirely cure his appetite for other people’s property.

While imprisoned in Blountville, Tennessee, Weeks boldly stole $20 from fellow prisoner Elbert Boyd, who was being held on suspicion of murder.

Convicted again in September 1904, Weeks was sentenced to six years at Brushy Mountain Penitentiary.

His story eventually took a tragic turn. In 1907, Weeks was paralyzed in a rockslide. Because of his injuries and excellent behavior while incarcerated, the Board of Prison Commissioners pardoned him.

Whatever drove Richard Weeks to accumulate his extraordinary assortment of stolen goods, his peculiar criminal career earned him a place among the region’s strangest historic thieves.