Fred L Nightingale: Bigamy

 Fred L Nightingale was born 1857 in New York to George H Nightingale & Sarah "Sally" (????).

Inmate: #20854 San Quentin Prison

Rec: 28Oct 1904

Crime: Bigamy

Age: 46

His prison record states he was born in Kentucky but it also states he is a oil pumper, when I found a census record with his name and occupation it states he was born in New York as well as other documents I found, Prison mistake or lie I am sure it was an oversight.

Here's a newspaper article explaining Fred's marital problems. Seems his first wife Helen and him were divorced and they decided they really loved each other and reconciled and re-married but in the state of California you have to wait a year after a divorce to re-marry unless you are re-marring your previous spouse, if that's not complicated enough, Fred marries his second wife Dora and his first wife surprises him by coming to see him in the town where his second wife lives. Both these women had been married before and had children with their previous husbands.

I will leave it there and you can read the article for the rest of the juicy details.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106643796/fred-l-nightingale/

Both women keep Nightingale as their names until their deaths, here is Dora's obituary from 1924, I never found Helen's but I did find a voters registration for her from 1934.

Fred dies 29 Dec 1920 in Santa Barbara, CA and his wives children are listed and a son he adopted but no wives name.

Crazy story and drama the one wife's daughter stirred the pot, if she would of left it alone he would of most likely would never of gone to prison.