America’s most arrested man dies at age 74 after more than 1,500 busts and 6,000 days in jail
- Henry Earl, a homeless alcoholic from Kentucky, died last week at the age of 74
- He was described by people as charismatic with a great sense of humor
- Earl was buried in Owenton Cemetery by rehabilitation center staff
America’s most arrested man, who spent thousands of days in jail, has 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 last week in Owenton Cemetery.
His epic act of lawlessness – mostly public drunkenness – 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 Healthcare and Rehabilitation Facility.
Henry Earl, described as ‘America’s most arrested man’ for spending thousands of days in jail, died last week at the age of 74
Because Earl had no known family, facility employees attended the ceremony.
Earl, who started drinking at the age of 18 after his adoptive mother died and began his criminal career at the age of 20 in the 1970s, was described as charismatic with a great sense of humor.
“He was a character, he had a great sense of humor.” said Ginny Ramsey, founder of Lexington’s Catholic Action Center, who knew him for decades.
She also described him as a gentle soul with a free spirit.
‘We would now say Henry Earl, you have to be in at half past eight or ten o’clock. On weekends you can stay out until eleven o’clock. Well, he tried, but wasn’t quite ready for it yet.
‘If we didn’t see Henry Earl for a while everyone would be worried, we thought he was going to die on the streets. He didn’t die on the street,” she said LEX18.
Earl, who started drinking at the age of 18 after his adoptive mother died and began his career in crime in the 1970s at the age of 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 above collage of just some of his arrests in Kentucky
Two 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 really nice man, always a good time, always trying to make people laugh’, while Charlotte Woods joked ‘you could ask him ‘what’s your name?’ and he said James Brown’.
Earl’s arrest history dates back to July 1970, when he was in his 20s, for carrying a concealed weapon, police said. The smoking gun, who has followed his career. He would be arrested 33 more times that decade.
Since then, Earl has gradually increased his number of arrests.
In the 1980s, Earl picked up the pace with 230 arrests, most for public intoxication or disorderly conduct. But it wasn’t until 2008 that Earl gained national attention when he was in court for his 1,000th arrest for public intoxication.