The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-02-08
Ex-Convict Tells of Brutal
Treatment at Sing Sing.
RING OF PRISON CONVICTS
Drives Fellow Prisoner Cray
or Kill Him.

makes this declaration:
Il will never go back to Sing Sing.
would rather go to he'll itself. If the
courts should decide that L must return
to prison L think I'd kill myself"
What is the secret of this desperate de-
termina ton? Why should a man declare
with absolute earnestness in every word
that he would rather endure the tor
lures Of the internal regions than to be
imprisoned in the New YorH State Peni-
tertiary?
| Because I know the truth of the mat
ter 1 can answer these questions. One
| morning several years ago l awoke to
find myself arrested. The experience
which / afterward had with my fellow
prisoners taught me a bitter lesson.
| George Bissert has been to Sing Sing
| that is the basis OF his desperate re-
solve. He has suffered from the cruelties
which have been permitted there. He
would rather fly to any and all ills that
the Imagination can conceive than to
face the real horrors of reincarceration in
! that prison.
Wardman Bissert has been the victim
not so much of the active enmity of the
prison officials as of the vindctive and
heartless hatred of a ring OF prison COZ
victs who have taken advantage Of Off
ciai negligence to wreak their vengeance
upon him.
AS rule, convicts hate policemen, de-
tectives and "squealers." The profession.
al thief hates them in particular He be-
1ieves that the ma jority of them are quite
as corrupt as he is, and he asserts that
they are too cowardly to take the chances
that men of his stamp have to take. An
old bank burglar once said to chief
of police:
You're a thief, and so am I, but I
wouldn't be the thief that you are for all
the money in this town.
When Bissert reached Sing Sing the
professionals and others, among them
some men whom Bissert had helped to
imprison, Immediately began to carry
cut their programme of hatred and re-
Nenge.
The first day a wife-murderer, man
whom Bissert is reported to have given
the third degree told him that he
would never leave the prison alive. He
whispered it savagely in Bissert's ear
while the men were in line.
The next day this wife-murdered waited
till the guards back was turned and then
kicked Bissert savagely in the groin.
Bissert cried out in pain but the guard.
it is asserted, merely turned around and
ordered him to shut up"
This was the first cruelty. Others fol-
lowed thick and fast.
At the end of Bisserts first week in
Sing Sing his father came to visit him.
The older man scarcely recognized his
10y, seven days of prison life had changed
him so.
The inventive genius of the convict gang
exhausted itself in the infiiction of in
suit, indignity and bodily injury upon
the unfortunate convict wardman.
What those tortures were must to some
extent be imagined. Some of them can
not be told.
One method of visiting hatred upon a
fellow convict by the prison gang is to
accuse him of despicable actions and then
to pass the accusation along until the
victims are spurned and reviled by all
the prisoners. Under this and kindred
systems of torture the victims sometimes
become insane. !
First they are merely morose and sui
len. Later. if they succeed in getting
opium into their cells by the under
ground" and take enough of il, they grow
wild, violent and looney- Then over they
go to the dope house, where many OF
them stay till they go up the escape"
and are buried.
Still another procedure is to accuse a
convict publicly of being a spy and tat
tier on the other prisoners. This often
works as disastrously as does the other
method A sensitive man. who knows
that ne is not spy, suffers extremely
from the treatment Eventually, he also
gets cranky violent and unmanage-
able in the regular prison. Hypodernic
injections and the life in the dope house"
often send him up the escape" as in
the other case.
The district formerly presided over by
Bissert and Diamond is one with which I
have some acquaintance. Some time ago.
while both Captain Diamond and Bissert
was still recognized policemen, 1 made
Il tour of their district one night with
a friend, and il was evident from what
we saw and heard that the quarter was
wide OPEN Among other places visited
we called at a 'hotel." The manager
OF the hotel" turned out to be a CRATER
with whom my friend had at one time
transacted business.
How about the go-between over here" |
we asked the manager. lis he straight
Sure"
''one can do business with him then?"
1T depends. / pay SIS per
rs il worth while?"
Well l wouldn't II it wasn't"
Not long after this experience the ward |
man had 10 stand trial on a charge of |
accepting protection money. AS every |
body knows. he is now on the outside" |
again. with view to new trial.
While Bissert was waiting IN the Tonbs, !
previous to being sent TO Sing Sing. the !
treatment accorded him was almost def !
erentiaI. He had expected that certain !
friends would stand by him and secure f.
comforts for him when he had TO so |
up the river" The friends are said TO |
have deserted him.
The only real friend that Bissert had |
while in Sing Sing. excepting members of |
his family was q young woman known |
20 the keepers as Little Dot" Her visits |
il is reported always oheered him; she |
brought him delicacies and nogrishing |
food.
The fortunes inflicted by the prison gang |
continued. however. to the end
After Bfssert had been long tire in /
prison. his former Captain. Diamond. call |
ed TO see him.
What about the promises the bank 1
account. the comforts and deiicacies-"
Bissert is said 20 have asked
The Captair-s reply Is net fort hcor,snr-