The Sunday globe., 1901-05-19

columns OF the Globe to tell "a plain, unvar
nished tale" Of life in a modern penitentiary'
-EDITOR.)
There is a parole board in Ohio the
members of which are the Board of
of Managers Of the penitentary-fve
in number. 1t takes a unanimous vote
of the five members of the board to pa
role a convict. The board meets the
first Tuesday of each month, hears ap-
plications and grants paroles. All first
class prisoners having served a mini
mum sentence of ten months are eligi-
bic to parole, except life prisoners for
second degree murder. Life prisoners
for rape and life prisoners under the ha-
bituaI criminalact eeligible, however
This discrimination against the life
prisoners convicted of murder in the
second degree works a great hardship
and Is unjust Even its injustice was
noticed by the tender-hearted McKin-
ley, and in his last annual message to
the Legislature he recommended that
this class Of prisoners should he made
eligible to parole after having served
ten years mprisonment. The shade or
difference in Ohio between manslaugh-
ter and second degree murder is very
slight, but the penalty attached to each
crime is not made 50. For instance,
while the extreme penalty for mau-
slaughter is twenty years. the prisoner
Is eligible to parole after having served
ulpi IL 4 "a
rolled he is set free and reports once a
month on printed blank his where
abOuts, employment and circumstances.
He is prohibited from leaving the State
until the expiration of his original SEN
tence, unless pardoned outright by the
Governor.
During the Mckinley administration
julius Whiting, of Canton, President
McKinley's own city, was president Of
the Board of Manager, and notwith-
standing that men convicted twice or
more are ineligible to parole he endeav-
ored to violate the law in favor Of some
special friends of his behind the walls.
Among the number this eminent cit
izen endeavored to restore to liberty was
the most notorious and desperate pris-
oneT inside the walls, a william named
w. w. Varney alias Burns, the noto-
rlous jewelry thief and pal Of Prentice
TilfOrd, recently mentioned i'm the pa
pers as robbing the post.oifice street
boxes.
This fellow Narney's history was fur
nished the Board by the Missouri au-
thorities, where he had done time, and
President Whiting unable to secure his
parole endeavored to get Governor Nc.
Kinley to pardon him. Varney forged
letters within and his pal without the
prison walls, purporting to come from
some Of the most prominent men IN
Missouri recommending his pardon, and
alleging that h was heir to a large sum OF
money and had at one time been private
secretary to ex-Gover or Francis. Mr..
Whiting took, or pretended to take,
stock in these letters, and Narney was
about to be paTdoned when the discov-
cry was made, through Detective John
II, Norris, that the letters were forge
ries, and that Varney was well known
ST. Louis thief named Burns. Mad
dened and disappointed by his failure
in this direction Varney, whose escape
by "A tn mel from the prison, which he
had. with the assistance of confeder-
ates, dug clean under the walls,
threw vitrol in the face of fellow
prisoner whom he suspected of betTay-
ing him. For this crime he was gwen
ten additional years, but his friend
Whiting, of the Board and the war
den, q. q. James, did not abandon him.
The latter official appeared in court the
day of NaTney's sen ence and pleaded
with the Judge in his behalf. Narney
had but two years of his original SEN
tence to serve, for breaking the win
dow of jewelry store IN Cincinnati
and running off with tray of diamonds.
These diamonds were never recovered
and many sinister hints We're floating
around the prison that earrings worn
by the wives of certain officials, as well
as the studs i'm the shirt fronts of the Of
ficials themselves, were portion of the
Cincinnati jewelers. stock. However
after the vitrol throwing incident and
the manning and disfguring for life of
his victim Varney was given complete
charge of the clothing or tailoring shop
of the prison. Here he made ON an
average of $500 per month, which he
divided with those who put him in
charge. He got drunk when he pleased
reeled or was carried across the prison
campus in helpless state of intOXica-
ton the wardens wife remarkiDg, on
one occasion to some lady acquaint-
hlltNE W nO NNAN lAti EhNCho anu NNlN
watching the prisoners march:
There is that Varney drunk again,
as usual
Varney had special TODD prepared for
him and went 10 he'd at whatever. hour
of the night he pleased His cell was
never locked, and he and Mr.. Whiting,
as well as Warden James, have been
seen promenading the PRISON yard, ann
i'm arm long nfter midnight
Until the administration of Gov.
Bushnell and the appointment Of r. G..
Coffin as Warden this state Of affairs
existed in the big Ohio prison, and
under the administration of Gov. Nc
Kinley, who was made aware of these
facts time and again by friends of the
writer Mr. Coffin put VaTney under
the discipline the other prisoners were
subjected to, and after one or two at
tempts at suicide he finally died i'm the
prison hospital. There never was a
scandal in any prison to equal this Var
ney affair, not even when female con-
ViCt accused the Warden Of being the
father of her child.
But coming back to the parole sys-
tenn of the State. It is all right, but
like every other good thing it is mis-
used sometimes. For instance, list
of the paroles granted under the Whit
ing Board showed that 20 per cent. of
the prisoners parOled were burglars by
profession, but having been convicted
FOR the first time in Ohio, and no knowl-
edge existing Of their convictions else
where, owing to the abolition by the
Whiting Board of the Bertillion sys-
tenn, they were eligible. Why burglars
are paroled at all Is an unsolvable mys-
tery outside the Board of Managers, for
it Is a certain fact that burglars are not