The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1916-09-21
HE HAS SERVED 81 YEARS AND is
A PRIVILEGED CHARACTER IN
MANY RESPECTS = FIRST RE-
cEVED IN 1879.
YOUTHFUL ROMANCE is
THE CAUSE OF DOWNFALL
(BY PETER sTERLING).


RADIO State penitentiary is Jim Torres.
alias James Size, alias Santiago Tor
res. He is best known as Indian
jim" and altogether he has served
thirty-one years behind these prison
walls. If you have ever visited the
you have seen him. You couldn't help
it.
He is that dark-skinned, silvery-
haired Mexican with both legs off at
the knees who always comes out first
after the chapel exercises are over
When youth of twenty-four, after he
had served his first prison term, he
was hopping train out of Pueblo one
day when his foot slipped and he fell
under the heartless wheels, making
the amputation of both limbs neces-
sary.
He was received the first time on
April Is, 1879, his number being 1886
He had stolen some stuff down in
Bent county and was convicted on
April l. April FOOLS day" At that
time he was a cook, and said to have
been a good one
Jim SAYS that he was born in Tue
son, Arizona, in 1857, but he never
could tell the exact date.
Hardly had he been released from
this first time" than he was on the
road again for a similar offense. He
got two years this time. being convict
ed on July "a, 1882. and was received
the next day. After that dose he tried
to be good and was successful for
about five years. at least he was not
of time.
However, il was all too good to last
and on June II. 1889, he was again
convicted, this time under the name
old habit of accumulating and appro-
priating things for his own use to
which others laid prior claims. As
the offense multiplied so did the length
of the sentence and on this occasion
five years was allotted to the swarthy
son of Villas land. His legs, of course,
were off by this time and he was some
what of a curiosity.
Despite his uncUnstraIned reckless
ness on the outside, Jim was always
a model prisoner within the walls.
The good time" system had been
inaugurated just before his third SEN
tence and he was able to cut his five
years down considerably. But it didn't
do much good.
In the early part of 1893. one night
when well "jubilated" with surfeit
of glad OIL" he padded into a house
and cruelty murdered a man for whom
he had taken an almost inhuman dis
like. 1t was a heinous crime, one of
those blood curdling tales that always
get preferred front page position in
red ink papers.
Torres tried to get away, but he
couldn't make it. The loss of the
lower half of those limbs had given
him a great disadvantage in this re-
spect.
After sensational trial he was sem
fenced to death and taken to the death
cell in the penitentiary October 80,
1898. He was booked as Santiago"
Torres. Santiago being Spanish for
Jim, and he was given the number
3345, which he carries today and which
looks peculiar indeed in this day when
the latest number is close to the ten
thousand mark. Yet he takes great
pride in that number. because it is his
badge of seniority. 1t is the insignia
of a privileged character, which he is,
among all the guards and even in the
matter of prison discipline.
He lived in agony IN that enclosure
of lurid history, the death cell, for six
months. Many times during those
days he thought he heard the tramp,
tramp of the executioner and he lived
a veritabIe hell of horrible suspense.
Finally. on May 25, 1894, while his
heart was in his throat as an official
hand unlocked the cell door, he was
handed commutation of sentence to
life Imprisonment. the gift of Gevornor
o. II. Waite. He couldn't talk and tears
came to his eyes because the hope
eternal which he had abandoned came
suddenly to life. 1t still lives, but
with each year IL grows fainter and
fainter as under each administration
his application for pardon is turned