The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-09-15
PRISON HIS MAKING
George Hardy Leaves Cell a
Man of Education.
From a Sullen Brute He Is
Now a Scholar.
Spent Twenty-eight Years Be-
Spent Twenty eight Years Be-
hind the Bars.
Comes Out a Reformed Man and
With a Profession.

Jackson, Mich, Sept. S.-Twenty-
eight years of prison life have trans
formed George Hardy, who was pardon
ed Yesterday He entered the peniten-
tiary at the age of twenty-five an ig-
der. He leaves it with good education
consersant with the classics of English
literature and qualified to call himself
a skilled engineer He is now fifty
years old, and better fitted to make
a career for himself than if he had
never fallen into the clutches of the
law, but had drifted through life in
the aimless, shiftless way in which he
began.
For many years past Hardy has been
called the "model prisoner" of the insti-
tuition He has served as assistant to
the prison engineer, and has profted by
the opportunity to perfect himself in
all the difficult technicalities of the en-
gineering profession. If he had receiv-
ed full pardon he would have at once
entered into the employment of an en-
gineering firm in ST Louis at a salary
of $4,000 a year, but the parole upon
which he is freed requires that he re-
main within the state.
Assurances had been given to Hardy
last December that the pardon board
had recommended parole, and that
Governor Bliss would sign the necessary
communication of his sentence. But Bliss
passed out of office without signing the
papers, and the slow process of red tape
robbed the convict of six months of
freedom
In this, however, he was fortunate, for
a few days after he was to have been
released his brother and sister in law
formerly his own wife-were found
murdered in their beds, under circum-
stances which would have been difficult
for him to explain if he had been at
Suspicion would naturally have centered
upon him, and circumstantial evidence
might have fixed guilt upon him for
second time.
Hardy, whose years and long sentence
sit lightly upon him, was etfervescent
with happiness all morning. Beaming
with smiles, he busted about the insti-
tuition, greeting his friends and saying
goodbye to his fellow prisoners, among
whom he has been extremely popular.
81 am ready to begin life over again"
he said, "and am confident L will sue
ma of ex convict will be upon me. At
least / know how to use my freedom
better than | did before | was convict
ed / shall go directly to Marshall,
Mich, where my best friend, f. w.
Court, lives. | shall remain with him
until my plans for future employment
are made. | have not yet decided which
occupation | will follow, for my mind
is in a whirl. l shall probably devote
some time in an effort to bring the muir
derers of my brother and his wife to
Justice"
Hardy was convicted of the murder of
Mrs. Leonard, an aged woman, at Duck
Lake, in Calhoun county. He had been
drinking in a nearby fishing shack with
a stranger, said to be from Chicago, and
divulged the fact that the woman had
500 in her possession. He left the
place, and the woman was murdered
shortly afterward He claims the strang
er committed the crime, and gave him
800 to remain silent