Presumably, a person would not need a SSN to work, since it wasn't developed yet. There were tons of nameless immigrants in the United States and the country was wide open. Would it have been easy for murderers to " blend in"?
shareYou would have had a record, it would have been in the papers, in the radio. That doesn't necessarily mean that you're potential employer would know about your record...but you would have had to wait a considerable time before you applied for work.
Also...a great deal of murderers were given the death sentence or life in prison. We're much more lenient about it today.
I would think that someone who killed in self defense might be seen as more sympathetic.