Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1926-07-31


ons is Withholding his real identity
and who due to his ability. served
during a course of ten years. in
his positions Gas an inmate) one Of
which has never been filed by any
other inmate of any race.
During this series he will dwell
intimately on certain phases Of pris-
on life that are rarely, If ever. dis
closed to the public.)
Continued from last week.
Before relating the nature of this
disaster and without attempting TO
throw the blame elsewhere as was
the one wholly to blame, / will nar-
rate few incidents leading there
to. The reader will say that
should have been strong enough to
resist temptation but, dear reader.
after all a human life is a very frail
thing. / had tried to reconcile my
self with my former wife, who was
living hundreds OF miles away.
begged and pleaded for picture Of
our dear little girl-a picture that
look at and work for but this was
denied me land in the face of dis
appointment i did what thousands
OF others are doing constantly. even
now in prohibition days. tried to
heal hearts wound by drowning
it in liquor.
lished and a responsible job on the
that which all persons seek-some
confidant, some mate, some one to
satisfy the leisure hours; being in
prison for long time did not kill
the desire for affection and this
sought. A paroled man, with a con
science. cannot force himself and at
tentions on the daughters of the
ultra-respectable. There is and was
but one solace. Those of loose and
Indifferent morals. With them no
questions are asked and a temper
airy solace is found, even though
sometimes at the sacrifice of ones
freedom, Such were my coming
lings when Armistice Day made all
the world kin, at least for that day.
Everybody was celebrating. / cell
ebrated and in that celebration I
law and when some time after the
effects had died away I found my
self In the county Jail. With such
awakening ! was utterly ashamed Of
myself. Ashamed that such an end
ing should come with such beau
tifu1 start and with such loyal
friends behind me. The friends were
real Even now they had not lost
In y,
tempted to square things up and
forget and forgive, but higher au-
thoritjes would not consent.
While / was on parole the Guber-
Material elections had been held. and
Mr.. Freesdorf lost out. The new
Governor did not reappoint him on
the Board of Control and as he was
merely acting Warden" and with
out such reappointment his power
had vanished. A new Warden was
in power and he would consent to
no arranging" matters. neither did
he want me brought back to Jack.
son as a parole violator as he said
it would have a bad moral effect on
the rest of the men there. He in
sisted that 1 stand. trial and if found
guilty he sent elsewhere in the State
fixed I was only too glad to 60
elsewhere as / did not have the
heart to face my fellow-prisoners, n
failure after such a glorious send
off. I awaited trial. At one juno
ture I became so disgusted with
myself that I purposely took an
overdose of nerve quieting drug in
an attempt to end it all. I merely
succeeded in terribly soaring the
other poor fellows in the Jail and
the Jail physician stated that the
only reason / lived was because
had taken too much In this frame
of mind j would have done anything
20 escape the ignomy of the dis
grace / was in and ii needed but
little coaxing on the part Of two
other fellow prisoners that If /
would secure some saws and some
acid they would make "break'
and take me with them.
] was well known and quite Don.
ular in the town and had droves of
friends call to see me daily. I told
them what to get and it was immed-
lately brought to me- The other
boys who knew how to use the stun
got busy and on a certain evening
70 "OiO w 81 thIOuSH IL rear VIII
dow, just at the beginning of dusk
and before we were locked into our
cells, being permitted to roam the
corridors, ETC., but fate was against
us for some "stool" tipped the plan
of and about fifteen minutes before
the regular lookup time we were all
ordered into our cells and the jail
deputies began systematic tapping
of all bars on the outer windows,
with the result that they soon dis
covered the tempered ones
The Jig was up. We were in for
1T. AS is always the case any pris-
oner in county Jail who has once
been in penitentiary. regardless of
the type of man he might be is the
one on whom they suspect any jail
delivery plans for that person is
presumed to be a ''hard nut" I'm
mediately they called the new War
den at the prison. He came at once
to the jail and of course I was &C
cused, No use to deny and / didn't.