The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-03
Paris Says He Intends to Put Mary JOSt Death Before
 the Grand Jury
THINKS PARSONS SHOULD
 HAVE HAD SOME ATTENTION
Coroner Is Indignant That a Highly Esteemed Man Should Have Been Allowed to Die In the
 Patrol Wagon.

i "The death of Mary lost in the city 1 jail and the death of James Parsons, one l of Birmingham's most highly respected | citizens, in the patrol wagon illustrates l gross carelessness on the part of the po- l lice department" said Coroner ". D. l Paris last night, and l am going to
 submit the Mary Jost case to the grand ] jury for investigation.
 ] q have made an investigation of this | case, and everything have found out in- dicates criminal carelessness on the part ] of the police in my opinion. The facts
 in the case as brought out by my investi- 1 gation are that Mary Jost was arrested along with another woman. This other
 womans words to me regarding their ar-
 rest were that the Jost woman became sick, and that she was trying to get her ! home. At First avenue and Twenty-fourth
 street she stated that Mary lost became
 so sick that she could go no further, and | this woman went in search of a police man.
 "She further stated that she found a policeman and told him that Mary Jost was sick and unable to move, and asked him to call an ambulance and send her to a hospital or some place where she could be treated. Instead of sending for an
 ambulance he called the patrol wagon
 and sent both of them to the city jail. When they reached the jail Mary Jost
 was in an even worse condition, and it
 was necessary for her to be picked up
 bodily and carried upstairs to cell.
 Tn her cell it appears that she begged l for medical attention and moaned great deal. Other prisoners state that they l called the attention of the men in charge to the womans condition and her need
 of doctor but despite all of this abso-
 lutely no attention was paid to her.
 This appears to be one of the most in- 1 human cases with which I have come in 1 contact during my work as coronei, and | it is being investigated thoroughly by me, and the grand jury will have a chance to l act in the matter
 1 '"rhe Parsons case shows either an in-
 human spirit or lack of common sense on l the part of the arresting officer. MT. Par
 sons was not drinking man, and it ap- pears that he was stricken with an att
 tack of stomach trouble, causing him to | fall unconscious to the ground. He was a | man of good appearance, and this in itself should have caused the officer to think 1 that possibly he was sick, while getting
 close to him would have been sufficient to | tell that he was not intoxicated, for the | odor of the whisky would have betrayed l that fact if he had been drunk.
 1 "There is no doubt but there were ! number of doctors who could have been | secured by the officer within very | few moments, but 1t appears that noth- 1 ing was done in this direction. h. 1 stead the policeman simply sized him up as being drunk and called the patrol wagon The man was locked in the
 wagon and died before reaching the | iail. If this is not a case of criminal carelessness nothing is.
 l "There is another sad feature to this particular case. MT. Parsons was
 man of means and one of the best citi-
 zens of the community, and his death | in the patrol wagon was perhaps the 1 greatest injustice which could have be- fallen him, and matter which un- doubtedly hurt deeply the members of l his family.
 .'Personally, I have endeavored to get l the city officials to see that it's poverty | stricken sick sare better taken care of | I have urged that they not be placed i in the city jail, where they receive no attention, and have suggested that if the city is not able to give them proper medical attention that they place them in the basement of the courthouse until the county can arrange for them. Ths basement is warm and there they could be treated by the county physicians un- til the county ambulance removed them to the poor house or some, hospital. "The Board of Revenue has stated that it would care for any of these poor unfortunates and the Hillman hospital and poor house are at their disposal. In suggesting that they be placed in the courth ouse basement I do not near that they should be kept there for any length of time, but for only a few hours while some one deputized by the Board of Revenue was arranging for their placement
 "As it is at present the methods with which these poor sick unfortunates are handled by the city are entirely too lax"