The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-01-07
HE PRAISES BLEASE
PARDONED SAFE CRACKER
THINKS WELL OF HIM.
Oakland Sammy" the Burglar, Par
doned by Blease, is Found to
Have Acids and Saw.

Oakland Sammy" the burglar
and safe-blower who was pardoned
by Gov. Blcase, has been taken to
Montgomery, Ala, for trial on a
charge Of robbing a safe near there
A dispatch from Montgomery says
roundly scoring jail and prison con-
ditions in South Carolina, James P
Kelly, alias Oakland Sammy, finds
the Montgomery jail a veritable
haven and harDor. Kelly was brought
back to Montgomery Sunday night
to answer the charge of burglarizing
the Marion post Office in 1901.
Post Office Inspector Gregory also
comes in for a full share of the ami
mostly of the man whose career in
twenty years has been one which, if
known, would probably marvel the
most extraordinary stories contained
in the widest detective books. When
Kelly was searched soon after his
arrival at Montgomery, small jag
saw and a small bottle of fluid, ap-
parently OF an explosive character,
was found in the pocket of one of his
coats.
Arrested just as he reached the
gate of a South Carolina convict
camp after his parole by Governor
Rlease, and placed under guard in a
Jail, officers at Montgomery are at a
loss to know how it was possible for
the prisoner to secure implements,
which but for the vigilance of Cap
tain Cheney. of the local Jail, might
have permitted another daring es-
cape from the jail.
Kelly himself retains-s obviously
silent as to the saw and bottle of
acid, disclaiming all knowledge of its
possession, and declaring that he
does not know where the articles
came from. Could the five years
which the prisoner spent in a South
Carolina convict camp be erased from
his life, he declares he would not fear
the sentence which awaits him in
case he IS found guilty of robbing the
Marion post office.
"Those five years have been like
HI and have prepared me for. any
thing that may come" said the pris-
oner to a reporter. "Many of the
reports about me being mixed up in
a jail breaking in Florida are false
and other things are false and hatch
ed up by the officials who seek to
gain a reputation at my expense. ]
know nothing about the burning of a
Jail in Florida, and neither have I
been charged with. any other: ertMes
.sl,sn tha ones n Alabama and the
one for which I have just completed
a sentence in South Carolina.
"After my years in that terrible
place in South Carolina, had hoped
to go free and settle down, to estab-
lish myself as respectable man.
had hoped that the laws of South
Carolina would prevent me from be-
ing taken from that State, and al
though I knew Of the charge hang
ing over me in Alabama, I thought to
live this down and become respect
able. am not a bad sort, and If
those officials who have been on my
trail for number of years had let
me alone in South Carolina I would
soon live everything down and be-
come good man"
Kelly has nothing but words OF
praise for Gov. Cole Blease, and
nothing but words of condemnation
for the prison conditions in South
Carolina. He declares that it was his
coed behavior and efforts to do right
while confined in the South Carolina
convict camps which attracted the at
tention of Gov. Blease and caused
him to be paroled.
"You and the rest Of the world
this kind of living. The prisons OF
South Carolina are dirty and Shiny,
and terrible enough to make a de-
mon of any human being. Thank
God, 7 have lived through it without
becoming worse and if I ever get a
chance I am going to be- good: Be
caues it don't pay to be otherwise y
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