Released on parole due to collective disgust (5 photos)

The story is, of course, crazy. The photograph of Bert Martin was taken in prison, after his arrest.





Martin was an ordinary ranch worker in the American outback. The guy was also distinguished by his highly skilled ability to shoot a bow and a gun. And everything would have been fine until, after looking around, Bert began stealing horses from his neighbors.

In 1900, a horse thief was caught and sent to prison. Bertha's wife, her daughters and his mother were present in court.



Martin was given two years in prison and sent to Nebraska. There was supposed to be work in prison, but Bert turned out to be somehow too weak for hard work and he was sent to a broom factory, where he fulfilled his duty quite responsibly.

And only 11 months later (for some reason) Bert went for a routine medical examination. Usually the examination is carried out immediately upon arrival, but either the doctor cheated or there was no examination at all.





And so, during a medical examination, it turned out that Bert Martin is actually Lena Martin!

She lived with her mother for a long time, there was no normal work, and somehow there was no queue of potential suitors. Lena decided to change her life, and quite radically: pretending to be a guy, she climbed into some wilderness of Nebraska, where she began working on a ranch, and then met her single mother and married her. The wife, by the way, was aware of her “husband’s” gender, but agreed to the union because it was significantly easier to survive together. Later, Lena moved her mother into the house and they all began to look like an ordinary family.

And everything was fine until Lena decided to chase the supposedly easy money by stealing horses.



The United States at the beginning of the last century was characterized by increased conservatism and the situation shocked everyone. Especially the prison authorities and its inhabitants.

Impersonating a man was, in fact, a crime. The prison management thought it over, bought Lena a women’s uniform and sent her to a women’s prison. Where such modifications of women also raised a lot of questions. In general, suspicions began that she was not that much of a woman and there was no point in her sitting here and frapping everyone for nothing.

The state governor made a Solomonic decision: due to the fact that Lena Martin caused universal disgust (including the same governor), they decided to release her early.

Lena was given to her mother, and her mother promised to take care of her unlucky daughter. There is no information about how her life developed further and whether her mother and wife were punished for complicity.



Lena Martin was a very ordinary woman; she was not focused on a full-fledged relationship with another woman. It’s just that in those days a woman had little chance of getting a job at all and had to get out as best she could.

By the way, there was only one cellmate of Lena’s in prison, who began to suspect something. In fact, thanks to the rumors he spread, a medical examination was carried out.

And Lena herself, by the way, when everything was revealed, only laughed at such a long blindness of all the people who had not guessed her main secret.