Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-18
DIDN'T LIKE LIBERTY.
Joseph McMullen Preferred the Calm
Solitude of a Quiet Cell.
HE WANTED TO BE ARRESTED
Half His Life Spent Within the Walls Of q
Penitentiary.
FREEDOM WAS VERY IRKsoNE TO HIN

Joseph McMullen, who was convicted of
burglary in court last Monday, was taken
over to Warden Wright's boarding house
yesterday to serve . term of eight years
McMullen's life has been a remarkable one.
Though only 4S years of age he has spent
within two or three months of 26 years in
the penitentiary. His first sentence was in
1868. He knocked man down and robbed
him at the end of the old Hand street bridge,
and the victim narrowly escaped death from
the injuries received. After his arrest an
other charge Of larceny was made against
him and he was tried and convicted of both.
On November 26, that year, he received a
sentence Of two years and three months, en-
tering the institution two days later.
The Communication law had not been passed
at that time, and McMullen served the full
limit of the sentence. At its conclusion he
enlisted in Company H, Twenty-eighth
Pennsylvania Volunteers. serving as good
soldier until the close of the war.
Fell From Grace Once More.
He kept out of trouble then until the fall
Of 1868, when he again assaulted and bru-
tally beat man down at the Point, for
which he received sentence of four years
and six months, entering the prison on De-
cember 90, 1868, De had only been out a
few days after serving this term when he
committed robbery, and March 80, 1872,
found him back at the penitentiary with
sentence of two years and six months to
serve.
In 1874, after three sentences and more
than nina veara nAnal aarvitudA this crimi.
nal was again turned loose on the world.
He had spent SO many years of his maturity
inside Of prison walls that he telt i'll at ease
among people wiho were not rs he was. He
experienced desire according to his own
statement, to be only among those who were
like himself, branded criminals, and this
was pleasure denied him outside the pene-
tentiary walls His former associates had
all moved away or had changed their habits
and did not recognize him. The stigma OF
his prison service was on him and wherever
he was recognized he was Stunned and the
police watched him.
Yearned for His Quiet Prison Coll.
He yearned for the quiet solitude of the
prison and the steady round of daily en-
ployment of the prison workshop. At
night the noise of the streets disturbed him
and he wished he was back again in his
little 4x1O cell under Warden Wright's
espionage.
Three nights he went out and broke the
law in the hope of detection and being re-
turned to his chosen home. but there were
fewer police then than now, and they must
have been less vigilant, for his efforts were
truitless He was not detected. Finally
after more than months liberty that had
become positively irksome, he broke into a
Nipfh nt of
valuables and started to leave, but pur-
pcsely made such a noise as to arouse the
household. He fingered, to give the occu-
pants time to call the police and was cap
tured practically in the act.
At his trial several larceny cases were
brought against him, he says unjustly, but
he gave no sigh at the time. He saved the
county expense BY pleading guilty. Judge
kirkpatrick was on the bench and noted tor
heavy sentences on criminals.
Took Twenty u ears With Good Grace.
Poor McMullen, or Mcclellan as his alias
was at this time, had offered no excuse, had
said nothing. The Commonwealth had
brought against him his previous crimes
and sentences, and when the case was
summed up the record was a black one.
The Court showed its sympathy with the
statutes by imposing a 20-year sentence.
McMullen was staggered. He had figured
on five years, never dreamed of such long
term behind the bars and with prison
stripes, but he went back with all the
pleasant anticipation of a schoolboy at the
beginning of the fall term. He was tired of
the life he had learned to love.
During all his service in the prison Nc
Mullen was an exemplary prisoner His
tasks were we'll and faithfully performed in
the time allowed for them. He had learned
all the trades the institution afforded, and
was a valuable man wherever he was placed.
His conduct during his long term was such
that he was allowed all the privileges of
the first grade of prisoners, and under the
Communication law he was allowed five years
and FIVE months off his 20 years sentence,
cutting it down to IA years and seven
months.
His mother had died while he was UNDER
going this sentence, and bis first act on his
release was to visit her grave in st. Mary's
Cemetery. He was as much a stranger to
for fear he would be recognized adopted
the name of Thomas Mellon, and started
out, in the memory OF his good old mother,
to live new life.
Couldn't Stand ths Climate.
At Browns mill, on Ienth street, ne Sc
cured work as laborer, and for two weeks
worked faithfully, but it was winter, and
he had been so long accustomed to the warm
even temperature Of the prison that the
world seemed doubly cold and triendless
and miserable. He sighed for the protection
and warmth of his home for so many
years, and determined to 60 back to it.
That night little store out Penn avenue,
near Sixteenth street, was robbed, and Nc
now Mellon, was arrested and
easily proven guilty. He was not recog-
nized as an old timer when brought before
the Court for sentence and was let off with
two and half year sentence. He was not
until he returned to his old
home.
A commutation of three months was
earned on his last sentence by good be-
l,avior, and on the 14th Of last March he
became free man again. On his release he
travelled over the country, but came back
here in April and went to work as 4 Ia
borer in mill out Penn avenue. The old
desire soon got the best of him, however,
and q week ago this morning he was caught
the house of Charles Schmunk
OH Locust street. His identity was discov-
cred bv the District Attorney in spite of
the alias of Morton he had adopted, and he
plead guilty, receiving a sentence of eight
years from Judge Magee.
McMullen is a native of this city. His
parents came from Ireland, and his father
died when he was Il years. He was a mod