- Henry Earl, a homeless alcoholic from Kentucky, died at the age of 74 last week.
- People described him as charismatic and with a great sense of humor.
- Earl was buried in the Owenton Cemetery by rehabilitation center workers.
The most arrested man in the United States, who spent thousands of days in prison, died at the age of 74.
Henry Earl of Lexington, Kentucky, who was arrested more than 1,500 times in his criminal career, was buried in Owenton Cemetery last week.
His epic disregard for the law, mainly his public intoxication, made the homeless man nicknamed ‘James Brown’ and something of a legend in his town.
He had spent the last years of his life in obscurity at the Owenton Health Care and Rehabilitation Center.
Henry Earl, dubbed “America’s most arrested man” for spending thousands of days in prison, died at the age of 74 last week.
Since Earl had no known family, facility employees attended the ceremony.
Earl, who began drinking at age 18 after the death of his adoptive mother and began his criminal career in the 1970s at the age of 20, was described as charismatic with a great sense of humor.
“He was a character, he had a wonderful sense of humor.” saying Ginny Ramsey, founder of the Lexington Catholic Action Center, who knew him for decades.
She also described him as a gentle, free-spirited soul.
‘We would tell you now, Henry Earl, that you must be there at 9:30 or 10 o’clock. On weekends you can stay out until 11. Well, he tried, but he wasn’t quite ready.
“When we didn’t see Henry Earl for a while, everyone got worried, we thought he would die in the streets. He didn’t die in the streets,” he said. LEX18.
Earl, who began drinking at age 18 after the death of his adoptive mother and began his criminal career in the 1970s at age 20, was described as charismatic with a great sense of humor.
The Man with Many Mugshots: Earl never takes the same mugshot twice, as evidenced by the collage above of some of his arrests in Kentucky.
Two of the Owenton Facility employees who cared for Earl in his final days and attended the ceremony described him as a pleasant man who tried to make people laugh.
Kirsten Dempsey told the channel ‘he was a very nice man, always having a good time, always trying to make people laugh’, while Charlotte Woods joked ‘you could ask him ‘what’s your name?’ and he’d say James Brown.’ .
Earl’s arrest history dates back to July 1970, when he was in his mid-20s, for carrying a concealed weapon, according to The smoking gun, who has continued his career. He would be arrested 33 more times that decade.
Since then, Earl has gradually increased the frequency of his arrests.
In the 1980s, Earl picked up the pace with 230 arrests, most for public drunkenness or disorderly conduct. But it wasn’t until 2008 that Earl gained national attention when he found himself in court for his 1,000th arrest for public intoxication.