The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1893-02-09
LIVING TOMB.
Career of Billy Carroll,
Convict.
He Killed n Georgetown Bank Watchman,
and " lille Serving Lie Term lie >lew
Fellow Prisoner-FinaliyH He Is Re-
stored to Light and Liberty

COLUMBUS, Feb. 6.-The penalty of
solitary confinement for life imposed
upon Murderer George Jones at the
penitentiary Saturday calls to mind
the wonderful experience of Billy Car
roll, the noted convict, who occupied a
living tomb for nearly twenty years.
Not since Carroll was pardoned by Gov.
Foraker. on Thanksgiving day, 1889, has
the punishment of solitary confinement
for any length of time been inflicted
at the Ohio state prison. Carrolls
case is one of the most dramatic and in
tensely interesting within the criminal
annals of the state. The crime which
brought him behind prison bars was
the robbery of the treasury of Brown
county and the murder of the watch
man, an old man named Adam Rose. 1t
was committed October 81, 1856. The
job was done by Samuel Huling, John
II. Benton, David Jones and William
Carroll all desperate crooks They were
discovered in the act of blowing the
safe by the old watchman and shot
him dead in order to escape. They fled
to Cincinnati. where all but Huling
were captured few DAYS later. a posse
of deputy sheritfs started for George
town with the prisoners, Peter McCor-
mick. of New Richmond being in
charge of Carroll. McCorulicli's man
got away from him at New Richmond,
aud every effort to rctake him proved
futile The others were sent up for
terms ranging from five to fifteen years,
and in the meantime large reward
was offered for Carroll, who was sup
posed to have done the shooting.
For about year nothing was heard of
him, and then the authorities learned
that man in Illinois answered the de-
scriptiou of the fugitive The suspect
proved to be Edwin w. Smith, pros
porous citizen of Joliet, and his arrest
for the Brown county murder caused a
great seusa ton. He waived all for
malities and came willingly to Ohio as
he said, TO show the people that he
was not the man. Despite strong de-
fense Carroll was convicted and sem
senced to life imprisonment for the
murder of old Adam Rose
In Decemper, 1870, Carroll killed an
other man. His victim was James
Rothc, a Hamilton county convict and
fellow prisoner with Carroll The
crime was the reult of quarrel over
the ownership of patent that Carroll
had conceived. For this he was taken
out of prison and tried. Upon convic-
tion he received the remarkable sem
tence of ten years in addition to the life
term he was already serving. When
he was taken back to the penitentiary
Warden Dean imposed the penalty
of solitary confinement for life upon
Carroll, as it was feared his ungovern-
able temper would result in still an
other tragedy if he was allowed to
mingle with the other prisoners. The
cell occupied by Carroll for nineteen
years was about four feet wide, seven
feet long and eight feet high. He
never stepped outside of this little hole
in the stone wall for nearly quarter
of century He was an inventive
genius, and managed to while away
the dreary hours and days and years
in works of mechanism. During his
Imprisonment he invented car-heater
and several other valuable apparatuses
for railroads His cell was in the east
wing of the prison and almost in the
shadow of the annex. Carroll used to
say that he did not mind his confne-
ment so much as the executions going
on in the death chamber. There was
always great doubts in the minds of the
public as to whether the Edwin Smith
arrested at Joliet Ills, was the Billy
Carroll who played the leading role in
the Brown county tragedy, and upon the
discovery of strong evidence that it was
Dt - -, r..
Hyde" Gov. Foraker granted the cele.
brated prisoner his liberty. Mrs For
aker had become deeply interested in
the case, and on Thanksgiving morn.
ing Of that memorable day in Carroll's
strange career, she drove up to the pen
itentiary gate in the gubernational car
riage. Alighting she carried to Warden
Coffin the pardon, and was the first to
congratulate Carroll when he walked
out free man.