登陆注册
15314400000070

第70章

NOTED CONVICTS

At the present time there are fifty-six females who find homes in this living tomb. Two-thirds of them are colored. The greater portion are kept busy making underclothing for the prisoners. They are detained, during working hours, in a room, seated at tables, with a lady guard watching them. They are not allowed to converse with each other, only as they get permission from this officer. They are not permitted to see the male prisoners. In fact there is no way of entering the female prison from the male department. The dormitory is on the third floor. The female convicts wear striped calico dresses, the stripes running lengthwise. The female prison is kept scrupulously clean, which reflects great credit upon those having the management of this department.

In company with Doctor Lewellyn, the prison physician, I passed through the dormitory. Here I found a great curiosity. It was a baby prisoner, six months old. The little convict was born in the penitentiary. It is a colored child--its mother being a mulatto, who was sent to prison for fifteen years for murdering two of her children. When on the outside, she lived with her paramour, a white man, and, as fast as children were born to them, she would murder them in cold blood. The white man was tried also as accessory to the murder, but, owing to her refusal to testify against him, there was not sufficient evidence to convict him, and he was set at liberty. He often visits her at the prison, bringing her eatables, which are very much relished in the penitentiary. I saw also the notorious Sadie Hayes, who was sent up from St. Louis for killing a policeman. She was under the influence of strong drink, and, thus crazed with whisky, the officer tried to arrest her. She drew a razor, and began to slash away at the officer, and, in spite of his club and large, muscular frame, she soon cut him to pieces. He expired on the sidewalk, where the engagement took place. She was sent up for ninety-nine years, and has now been in prison about three years. She is one of the most desperate looking women I ever saw, and, when crazed with drink, becomes an infuriated demon. She is an adept in the use of the razor.

The oldest female prisoner is an aged German woman by the name of Oldstein, from Gasconade County. She has been in the penitentiary thirteen years, and, doubtless, would get a pardon if she had any place where she could make her home after securing her liberty. The old woman is entirely broken down and is a physical wreck. She spends the most of her time knitting. Aside from keeping her own bedding clean she is not required to perform any labor. She was charged with a cold-blooded murder. She, her husband and daughter murdered her daughter's husband. The old man was hung, the daughter was sent up for life, and died in a few months after entering prison. The old woman was sentenced to be hung also with her husband, but the governor commuted her sentence to that of life imprisonment. For thirteen long, dreary years she has lived behind these prison walls. She longs for death, but death refuses, as yet, to claim her as his own. Broken in health, friendless, penniless, this poor old woman is but another proof that "the way of the transgressor is hard." I also saw Anna Brown, another female prisoner, who, with her step-brother, planned and carried into execution a terrible cold-blooded murder. It was none other than the killing of her aged father. The boy was sent to prison for life and the woman received a sentence of forty-nine years. Her sentence might just as well have read "life imprisonment" as forty-nine years, for she cannot live but a few years longer in confinement. Nannie Stair is another interesting prisoner. She came from Vernon County. An old and crippled man was driving through the country. Night coming on found him near the house of the Stair family. He stopped and asked for a night's lodging. His request was granted. That was the old man's last night of earth. During the hours of the night Stair and his wife made their way into the bed-chamber where the helpless traveler lay asleep unconscious of his doom. It was not long until the husband sent an axe crushing through his brain, his wife standing by, a witness to the fearful deed. During the same night they dug his grave in the garden back of the house, and buried him. Next day the husband drove the murdered man's team to a town not far distant, and sold it. In a couple of weeks friends began to institute search for the missing man. He was traced to the home of the Stair family. The husband and wife being separated, and the officers telling the wife that shewould be let out of the scrape without much punishment in case she would tell all she knew, she informed them of all the details of the bloody deed, where the victim lay buried, and what disposition was made of the murdered man's team and money. The two were arrested, tried and convicted. The husband was hung, and the wife sent to the penitentiary for six years. Her time will now soon be served out, and she will once more be a free woman. The desire of this family to obtain filthy lucre was too great. Of the fifty-six female inmates of of the Missouri penitentiary, fifteen of them were sent for murder. Kansas City has several female representatives. It is stated, on good authority, that the sentences imposed by the judges of the Kansas City district are far more excessive than in any other portion of the State. I was told that a number of these female convicts were very desperate characters, while others of them, driven to deeds of desperation on account of poverty, committed acts that for a time placed them behind prison bolts and bars. Something should be done to aid these poor women, when their terms expire, to get a start in life. If something is not done for them, it will be but a short time when they will drift back again into crime and prison.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 夏梓曦的完美复仇

    夏梓曦的完美复仇

    她的父母被同一人杀害,她立志要报仇,因此她从以前的活泼变得冷漠了。
  • 诡物奇谈

    诡物奇谈

    民间就有一门神秘的职业,叫做法器商人!法器商人和道士同宗同源,却更强于道士。当遇到难以解决的灵异事件时,他们往往会挑选桃木,槐木,雷击木等等天然材料,花费无数时间,或雕或凿,制造出一种极为厉害的驱魔神像。据说神像开光之日,法器商人会请历史中的传奇人物进入雕像之中,赋予雕像一种超自然的力量。不但可以震慑鬼怪,还能调理风水,令人官运亨通,财源广进。这些传奇人物包括铁面无私的包拯,安家护院的秦琼,武财神关羽,江鬼神屈原等等。此法器商人店面虽小,吃的却是本事饭,每天上门的客人络绎不绝。我便有幸成为了一名法器商人,二十年来解决了阴童子,饿死鬼,吃人老井,冥婚纸人等等无数诡异事件。
  • 路过千万人,只为遇见你

    路过千万人,只为遇见你

    我来到这所校园,就明明中注定了我们的相遇,可我花光了所有的勇气也只是一场幻境,或许我们的缘分仅到刚好遇到。
  • 长留一梦

    长留一梦

    重臣第三子,放纵不羁,喝花酒抢花魁,欺男霸女。常常的一句话是“天塌了有我老爹顶,实在不行还有我的两个哥哥”最后上长留,一梦千古。改邪归正,一把剑一个人,行走江湖无人拦。“我想做的事,你是神仙你也拦不住”。
  • 江湖诡事

    江湖诡事

    妖宅里被绳索悬吊在棺材板上的尸体,临渊困龙的诡异布局,黑风沟里被七枚枣核钉封住的干尸,令人谈之色变的虺术,荒村凶地的内幕,目睹过百鬼夜行的恐怖经历,一切惊悚诡异都源于这山村凶宅里的秘密。
  • 陌路征途

    陌路征途

    没有多么高大上,这是一个平凡杀手逆袭男屌丝、迎娶白富美、走上事业巅峰的故事。
  • 重生之凤鸣

    重生之凤鸣

    前世,她身为一代巨星,红遍了全世界。五彩的灯光,疯狂的尖叫,谁又知道,在那绚烂的舞台上的美丽的人儿的眼底,那一抹深深的忧伤?今世,她出身没落人家,与“母亲”相依为命。原以为可以就这样度过自己的一生,可,这是命运吗?原本以为可以依靠的母亲却在她出生之际便已逝世。被遗弃在草屋中的她,被一位浓妆艳抹的女子带走。从此沦入了青楼。
  • 陪你从校服到婚纱

    陪你从校服到婚纱

    初中时代少不了那蠢蠢欲动的情意,可以说是世间最为纯洁的爱恋。没有那么多的阴谋算计,也没有那所谓的利益,身份............只因那惊心一瞥,她便付出了一切。不为什么,只因为是他。让我在那最美的年华,牵起你的手,陪你从校服到婚纱。
  • EXO之我要去有你的未来

    EXO之我要去有你的未来

    这篇文章是小婵转载的一边灿白cp文,原创大人已经给了授权。作为EXO-L大家一定都看过Moster的MV吧!那么这篇文就是有那个改的。以下是原创说的,加油,fighting。这里灿妍[鲜花]???????[鲜花]第一次写文不知道好不好如果有觉得可以修改的尽管提意见!根据Monster的MV改编加上很多很多的脑洞。数学课上文思如泉涌Hhh接下来就好好欣赏吧!
  • 我和权志龙的约定

    我和权志龙的约定

    16岁约定,我送给你的手链你还记得吗?好期待你说“嗯,我一直带到手上的哦~”“嗯,我……很开心你会一直带在手上”再次重逢的他们会怎么样吶?真是期待