Merrithew 1923/Dollar 1947 Looking for opinions on these.

[DrDude45]

I'd say it's possible, but unlikely that these are the same person.

The gentleman in the photo on the right (from newsprint) looks like he may have a severely cauliflowered right ear. Usually this happens to boxers and long-time street fighters, so it's possible the years of crime/fighting (implied by what looks like a prisoner number, no offense) did a Mickey Rourke on him and damaged his face severely. Hard to say for sure.

Perhaps these slightly cleaned up images may help.

Do you not think that the merging of the photos could be altering the appearance of his ear?
Carol

The cauliflowered right ear is on the elder person, not the younger. I mentioned it was "in the photo on the right (from newsprint)", but it's his right ear (the one on the left side of that photo) that looks so very cauliflowered. See the enclosed photo which ear I mean.