Sunday, December 28, 2014

Notable James Brown OSP

James Brown was the name of a Portuguese sailor who set sail out of Boston with a crew of sailors in 1867. Two of the crew members went missing, the captain of the ship searched the boat and found James Brown sucking blood from one of the dead crew members. He found the second man laying lifeless on the boat with no blood. Brown was convicted of murder and was ordered to be hanged. President Andrew Jackson got involved and gave the man life in prison in Ohio. In 1892 he was transfered to the National Assylum in Washington, D.C.

Notable John Hunt Morgan OSP

John Hunt Morgan

MVCWRT logoJohn Hunt Morgan was born 1 June 1825 in Huntsville, Alabama. He was the first of ten children born to Calvin and Henrietta Hunt Morgan. His parents’ choice of the name John Hunt, after his maternal grandfather, was a distinct break with the southern tradition of naming the first son after the paternal JH Morgangrandfather, the second after the maternal grandfather and the third after the father. This break with tradition was the beginning of an orientation toward the Hunts that was to influence every aspect of John Morgan’s life.
In early 1831, Calvin Morgan made a decision that was to draw his family even closer to his in-laws and set the stage for his eldest son’s future. After his business, Morgan’s Apothecary, failed and his house was almost sold for back taxes, he accepted an offer from his father-in-law to work as manager of one of the Hunt farms in Fayette county, Kentucky. He moved his wife and four children to a large farmhouse near Lexington and, in return for managing the farm as John Wesley Hunt’s agent, he was provided with a suitable income from the proceeds of the farm.
Although the farm, called Shadeland for the grove of oak and ash trees that surrounded the house, was small by plantation standards, it prospered under Calvin’s management and became a showplace for livestock, including thoroughbred horses, cattle and hogs; and for crops such as hemp, hay and grain. It also allowed Calvin and his family to gain acceptance in Lexington society and provided an excellent place to raise a family that, by 1845, numbered eight children (two daughters died of cholera in 1833).
Once the Morgan family settled in at Shadeland and adjusted to their new life, John and his siblings had a normal plantation childhood. A slave named Bouvette, whom the children affectionately called "Aunt Betty," handled their early teaching. When the children reached school age they studied at home with Calvin or hired tutors. When the children weren’t studying, there were many things for them to do. John and his brother Cal had access to some of the finest horses in the world and spent many hours riding and racing across the grounds of Shadeland. They also did a lot of hunting and soon became excellent horsemen and marksmen.
When John H. Morgan was seventeen, it was decided that he had learned all that he could at home and should pursue a more formal education. At his grandfather’s urging, he enrolled at Transylvania University, which was near Hopemont, the Hunt family home in Lexington. John moved to Hopemont and, his grandfather hoped, would continue the Hunt family tradition of attending Transylvania. John was unable to live up to his grandfather’s expectations, however, and soon became involved in such unacceptable activities as playing boyish pranks, gathering with other students on the campus lawn to swear at passers-by, and dueling. The latter activity ended his academic career at Transylvania. John challenged one of his Adelphi Society fraternity brothers to a duel for a reason that is long-since forgotten. Although neither man was seriously injured, word of the duel soon spread. When university officials heard of it, they suspended John for the remainder of the semester and only reprimanded the other man. John believed that this was unfair and never returned to Transylvania.
After leaving the university, John was faced with the prospect of choosing a career. In doing this, he had to decide upon something that would not only provide him with a living, but also be in keeping with his family’s social status. Business seemed the most logical choice but the Morgans were unable to help and his Grandfather Hunt had a policy of not lending money to relatives and not going into business with them. His only alternative was to follow the Morgan tradition of military service. He applied for a commission as a lieutenant in the Marine Corps but was turned down due to a lack of openings. At this point in his life, John Hunt Morgan spent two years "finding himself."
In the Spring of 1846, John got his first chance at military service. He and his brother Cal enlisted in Captain Beard’s company of Colonel Marshall’s regiment of cavalry after the United States declared war with Mexico. They were soon joined by their Uncle Alexander Morgan. John was elected second lieutenant and Cal and Alexander served as privates.  The unit soon left for Mexico but it took them almost six months to get there and, in the words of John Hunt Morgan, they "didn’t see much of war." They did, however, arrive in time to take part in the battle of Buena Vista. Captain Beard’s company saw fierce action during the battle and accounted themselves well. John and Cal came through the battle unharmed but their Uncle Alexander was killed. After Buena Vista, Marshall’s regiment didn’t see combat again for the remainder of their enlistment. On 7 June 1847, they were mustered out in New Orleans and, on 19 June, they returned to Lexington by train. They were met with a hero’s welcome and soon settled back into everyday life.
When John Morgan returned to civilian life, he was still a man without a vocation. He had enjoyed military life so much that he soon formed a volunteer cavalry company of his own. He petitioned the War Department to muster it into service and send it to Mexico but they refused. His company broke up and he applied for a commission in the regular army, only to be refused again. Once it became apparent that a return to the military was out of the question, John began to look in other directions and entered into a business partnership with his friend Sanders Bruce.
The partnership of Morgan & Bruce was a prosperous one. They began as retailers but soon expanded into other things, including breeding and training racehorses and renting slaves to local farms and factories. John’s first business venture was the beginning of a successful career for him but, more importantly perhaps, it provided him with a bride. Shortly after the partnership began, he began calling on Sander’s sister Rebecca and, on 21 November 1848, they were married. The newlyweds moved into the Bruce family mansion with Becky’s widowed mother, the business continued to prosper, and the future looked bright.
In 1849, the the death of his Grandfather Hunt opened up new business opportunities for John. His mother, Henrietta, inherited Hopemont along with other Hunt properties and a sizeable amount of money. She apparently didn’t follow her father’s policy of not doing business with family. She loaned John and his brother Cal enough money to start a hemp manufacturing business which, like all of his enterprises, soon prospered.
At this point in his life, John Hunt Morgan should have been a happy man. He was a successful businessman, he had a pleasant, pretty wife and, to all appearances, he was living the perfect life. In reality, his business and public life were going well but his personal life had begun to deteriorate. In September 1853, Becky gave birth to a stillborn son. From that point until her death in 1861, she remained in ill health and was never able to have any more children. The loss of their son and Becky’s health combined with growing political differences over slavery between John and his in-laws to create problems that they were never quite able to overcome.
In the years after John left the military, his desire for a service career still remained and, in 1852, he formed an artillery company, which became part of the Kentucky State militia. As his home life grew worse, he spent much of his free time drilling with his company. This lasted until 1854 when the state legislature disbanded the militia. Many Kentuckians were upset with this and formed volunteer companies to replace the militia. Even though these companies had no state or federal affiliation, they provided an opportunity for those who wished to serve and John Morgan jumped at the chance to form a company. He raised an infantry company of about sixty men and called it the Lexington Rifles. He designed uniforms for the company and hired a Polish soldier of fortune to serve as drill instructor. The Rifles worked hard to become one of the best drilled companies in the state and, in their fancy green and gold uniforms, they were the pride of Lexington.
John Morgan’s life in the late 1850’s was divided between his successful business, drilling with the Lexington Rifles and the many other activities of Lexington society. It was overshadowed, however, by the political differences that continued to grow, not only in his family, but throughout Kentucky and the nation. The growing strife over slavery, states’ rights and other issues became a part of everyday life. By 1860, the differences had become so strong that there was talk of war between North and South.
When war finally came with the secession of eleven Southern states from the Union and the bombardment of Fort Sumter, South Carolina in April 1861, John wanted to go south and offer the service of the Lexington Rifles to the Confederacy. His wife’s health had taken a turn for the worse, however, and he was unable to go. In July Becky died and, by September, John had cast his lot with the Confederacy.
When an order was issued that all state guard units such as the Lexington Rifles must disband and turn their rifles over to Federal authorities, John Morgan decided to take the rifles and go south. On the night of 20 September 1861, he gathered the fifty men who remained in the Rifles at the local armory. They split into two groups. One group loaded the rifles onto two wagons and slipped out of town while the other group drilled noisily inside the armory to give the impression that the whole company was still in Lexington. The two groups met later, outside of town, and traveled south to the Confederate lines at Green River.
On the journey south, Morgan and his men were joined by another militia unit and by many individuals who wished to go south and join the Confederacy. These men elected him as their captain and, when he entered the Confederate camp on 30 September, he was in command of about two hundred men. Since there were many other units and individuals coming to the camp from all parts of the state, it was almost a month before Morgan and his men were mustered into service. During the time before he was mustered in, Morgan became bored with camp life. To relieve this boredom, he began to make "scouts" into enemy territory. It was on these forays that he developed many of the guerrilla tactics that he and his men would use throughout the war.
By the time that John Hunt Morgan was sworn into Confederate service on 27 October 1861 and elected captain of a cavalry company, he had acquired a taste for guerrilla warfare and soon became quite good at it. He and his men spent much of the Winter of 1861-62 raiding in Kentucky and Tennessee. They burned bridges and railroad trestles, cut telegraph lines, disrupted Union supply lines and generally wreaked havoc on Union forces in the West. Two of the activities in which they participated, killing Union pickets and dressing in Union uniforms to pass through the lines, were considered violations of the rules of "civilized" warfare and particularly angered Northerners. Morgan, however, saw nothing wrong with these activities and just considered them part of war.
During this period of operations in Kentucky and Tennessee, two major events occurred in John Morgan’s life. On 27 February 1862, he moved his headquarters to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It was there that he met Martha "Matty" Ready who would become his second wife in December of that year. Effective 4 April, he was promoted to colonel, which, considering the size of his command and his rather unimpressive record, was quite an accomplishment.
About the time that his promotion became effective, Morgan left his men in Huntsville, Alabama under the command of Lieutenant Basil Duke who was his second in command and also his brother-in-law. He traveled by train to Richmond for a much-needed leave but was recalled to join the unit at Corinth, Mississippi almost before the leave began.21 By the time Morgan was able to rejoin his men, they had advanced with the Confederate army under General Albert S. Johnston to Pittsburg Landing Tennessee.
The battle that occurred there on 6 and 7 April 1862 became known as Shiloh (after a small church in the area) and could have been the turning point of the war in the West for the South. General Johnston’s army took the offensive on the morning of 6 April. They fought fiercely all day and, by early afternoon, had driven the Federals back almost to the Tennessee River. All that was needed to destroy the Federals was to continue the drive and push them into the rain-swollen river. At that point, they would have been forced to surrender and would probably have never posed any great threat in the West again. The drive ended short of the river, however, about two o’clock in the afternoon after Johnston was killed and none of the other commanders seized the initiative to continue it.
After the battle of Shiloh, the Confederate army, under General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, withdrew to Corinth and went into camp. Morgan still had no taste for camp life and requested permission to take his men back north into Tennessee and Kentucky. When permission was granted, he wasted no time in moving back into Tennessee. By 6 May, they had reached Lebanon, intending to camp for the night before moving on toward Kentucky. They were caught by surprise during the night and Morgan was lucky to escape with about fifty men. This small group did make it to Kentucky where they burned a train and did some other minor damage near Cave City. This raid really didn’t accomplish much, considering that most of Morgan’s command was either captured or scattered at Lebanon, but the newspapers made much more of it than it really was. Morgan made the most of the newspaper coverage and convinced his superiors to give him another command.
Once he received his new command and gathered what could be found of his old one, John Morgan made plans to undertake a major raid. This raid occurred in July 1862 and was a thousand-mile journey through much of Kentucky.24 The raid was so successful that it enabled Morgan to gain approval for two other major raids in 1862, including one on Gallatin, Tennessee in late summer and another into Kentucky at Christmas. His successes on these raids gained Morgan a promotion to brigadier general in December and set the stage for the greatest adventure of his career.

The Great Indiana/Ohio Raid, July, 1863
In June 1863, John Morgan approached his immediate superior, General Joseph Wheeler, with the idea of a raid on Louisville, Kentucky. Wheeler gained approval for Morgan to take 1500 men into Kentucky and Morgan immediately asked for 2000. The request for an additional 500 men was granted and Morgan began to finalize his plans. He originally started the raid in late June but was delayed over a week guarding against Union cavalry that was supposedly moving toward Knoxville. The cavalry never came and, on 2 July, Morgan started north with 2460 men (almost 500 more than were authorized) on what would become one of the most talked-about adventures of the war.
The unit’s first objective was to cross the Cumberland River. The area around the Cumberland should have been guarded by a Union brigade from General Henry M. Judah’s Third Division, but Judah feared an attack by Morgan and called all of his troops in to prepare for it.26 Morgan had no intention of attacking an entire division and crossed the Cumberland right from where the Union troops had moved. After crossing the river, Morgan passed through Columbia to a place called Tebbs’ Bend. There he encountered a force from the 25th Michigan, which had taken up a strong defensive position. His men attacked the position but soon saw that it was a lost cause and broke off the fight. From Tebbs’ Bend they moved to Lebanon, Kentucky.
At Lebanon they came up against about 400 men from the 20th Kentucky. They trapped these men in the railroad depot but the building was well fortified and the fight lasted six hours. In the end, Morgan won the fight, but at a high personal cost. His youngest brother Tom was killed in the last charge of the day.
After the battle at Lebanon, Morgan continued north, still giving his superiors and the enemy the impression that he was headed for Louisville. South of Louisville, however, he turned his men to the northwest and crossed the Ohio River at Brandenburg, entering Indiana on 8 July.
By the time Morgan entered Indiana, he was causing quite a commotion. General Judah, realizing that he had let Morgan escape in Kentucky, dispatched a force of 2500 men under the command of General Edward H. Hobson to catch the raiders. These men made good time and soon closed the gap between them and Morgan to less than 24 hours. The governor of Indiana mustered all able-bodied white males into service and soon had almost 65,000 militia looking for Morgan.28 The Confederates managed to stay ahead of their pursuers, however, and spent the next five days destroying bridges and railroad tracks, robbing local government treasuries, and generally striking fear among the citizens of Southern Indiana.
On 13 July, Morgan crossed the Ohio line near Harrison. He knew that a large Federal army under General Burnside was stationed in that part of Ohio to protect Cincinnati and would most likely be in the city itself or in Hamilton. With this in mind, he began one of the greatest cavalry rides in history. He and his men passed between Cincinnati and Hamilton and traveled 95 miles around the city in 32 hours. Once he made it past Cincinnati, Morgan believed that the hardest part of the raid was over and all that was left was an easy ride to the southern tip of Ohio where he and his men would cross the river into West Virginia.
From 14-18 July, Morgan and his men moved steadily toward the ford at Buffington Island, Ohio. If everything had gone as planned, they would have crossed the river on the 18th or 19th and, most likely, travelled back to Kentucky unmolested. Several things went wrong, though, and Buffington Island was, for the most part, the end of the raid. In the last days of the raid, Morgan made no effort to hide his destination. Because of this, Burnside was able to move a gunboat into the river near the ford and station a militia regiment from Marietta at the ford. He was also able to move Judah’s cavalry from Louisville to Cincinnati to Portsmouth, Ohio, which put them in a position to join with Hobson’s men and prevent Morgan’s retreat. Burnside’s accurate assessment of the situation and his movement of these troops set the trap for Morgan’s capture.
When Morgan’s command approached the ford, they saw the Marietta militia and, since it was growing dark, decided not to attack this force until morning. The militia, on the other hand, had no desire to face Morgan’s men and slipped away during the night. When the Confederates awoke, they found the ford unguarded and prepared to cross. Before the crossing began, though, the Federal gunboat moved into sight and opened fire. This signaled Judah’s men to begin their attack and Morgan found himself trapped.
Although the fight at Buffington Island should have been the end, Morgan made one last try at escape. 700 men under Basil Duke were captured at the ford but Morgan and rMorgan's monumentoughly 1500 others escaped in the only direction still open - north. They attempted to cross the river again at a ford near Belleville, West Virginia, but were once again stopped by the Federal gunboat. About 300 men did make the crossing, but Morgan was forced to take the other 1200 on north.
After the failed crossing at Belleville, Morgan and the remainder of his command continued north with the hope of crossing into Pennsylvania. They kept up their journey until 26 July when, men and horses exhausted, Morgan decided to surrender. He contacted the local militia commander at New Lisbon (now Lisbon), Ohio and asked for terms. This was the best thing that he could do since the militia officer, Captain Burbeck, might grant his men a parole but no regular Federal officer would. Captain Burbeck accepted Morgan’s surrender and agreed to a parole but before it could be carried out, regular Federal cavalry commanded by General James M. Schackleford arrived. Shackleford refused the parole and, on 26 July 1863 near West Point, Ohio, General John Hunt Morgan and the remainder of his men were captured, ending the great Indiana/Ohio raid.

After the Raid
After their capture, the enlisted men of Morgan’s command were transferred to military prisons as prisoners of war. The officers, however, were treated as civil criminals and imprisoned at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. This brought about cries of outrage from Southerners, but it really worked to the officers’ advantage. If they had been treated as prisoners of war, they would have been taken to the Confederate Officers’ Prison at Johnson’s Island, Ohio. This was an island in Lake Erie from which there was little chance of escape. The Ohio penitentiary was not escape-proof, however, and on 27 November 1863, seven men including John Morgan tunneled out of the prison and escaped south.
By Christmas, Morgan was back in Virginia. After the first of the year, he went to Richmond to try to gain another command. He issued a call for any men of his old command who were still in the south to join him again. These men and many others flocked to Morgan and he soon had a new command. With this new command, Morgan returned to the western theatre and was soon ready for action again.
Morgan made one last major raid into Kentucky in June, 1864. After this, he concentrated his operations in Tennessee and Western Virginia and, on 4 September 1864 near Greenville, Tennessee, he was caught by surprise by a Union force under command of Captain C. C. Wilcox. Morgan and his staff were roused from sleep by the approaching Federals and, since they were unarmed, attempted to slip out of town. Before they could escape, however, they were observed by Private Andrew J. Campbell. Campbell ordered them to halt and, when Morgan kept walking, Campbell shot and killed him.
The death of Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan not only cost the South a great military leader but it also brought to an end one of the most colorful chapters of the war. This loss was best described by his brother-in-law, Basil Duke, who said: "When he died, the glory and chivalry seemed gone from the struggle"

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Warden Richard Stadden OSP

Richard Stadden

Birth: 13 Mar 1804 in Licking Co., Ohio
Death: 8 Jan 1861 in Ft. Scott, Kansas

Burial: Evergreen Cemetery, Fort Scott, Bourbon County, Kansas, USA

Marriage Rachel Martin b: 12 FEB 1808 in Redford, Bedford Co., Pa  d: about 1878
Married: 29 Jan 1824 in Licking Co., Ohio

Father: John Stadden b: 4 SEP 1778
Mother: Elizabeth Green b: ABT 1783 in , Loudon, VA
 

Children
Isaac Stadden b: 28 Mar 1834 in Newark OH d: about 1888
William Stadden b: 3 SEP 1826 in Newark, Licking, OH d: about 1873

Elizabeth STADDEN b: ABT. 1837 in Licking County, OH
Thomas STADDEN b: ABT. 1841 in Licking County, OH d: about 1914
Louisa STADDEN b: ABT. 1844 in Licking County, OH

Captain Richard Stadden was in the 2nd and 4th Ohio Infantry in Mexican War commanded by Col. Erwin with Gen Scott from Vera Cruz to City of Mexico. he lived in Mexico for two years. Capt also Col. in Mexican War, 1843. He was one of pioneers of Licking Co., Ohio and served in both the House of Representatives and Senate of the General Assembly of Ohio. He moved to Ottawa, IL and then to Ft. Scott, Kansas in 1857. He opened a law office with Judge Seth Farwell. Took a claim in Rockford Valley about 15 miles from Ft. Scott, his family lived there, built a mill for griding grain, people went for miles to grind their own grain, it was one of the first mills in this part of the state. 







Friday, December 26, 2014

Warden W.B. Van Hook OSP

William B Vanhook
1795 - 1871

Born  26 Oct 1795  Cincinnati, Hamilton Co., OH
Died  8 Sep 1871  Hamilton, Butler Co., OH
Buried  9 Sep 1871  Greenwood Cemetery, Butler Co., OH Plot: Hill Section, Lot 523
Father  Dr. Benjamin Rush Vanhook, b. Abt 1775, d. 1839, Cumberland Co., NJ
Mother  Catherine, d. Bef 1800
Married  Abt 1795

Family 
Julia Ann Stephens, Elizabethtown, Essex Co., NJ, d. 17 May 1882, Hamilton, Butler Co., OH

1850 US Census - Fairfield, Butler Co., OH
Wm. B. VanHook, 50, carpenter, b. OH
Julia VanHook, 48, b. OH
Julia VanHook, 15, b. OH
Frances VanHook, 12, b. OH

1860 US Census - Hamilton, Butler Co., OH
W.B. VanHook, 60, b. OH
Julia VanHook, 58, b. OH
Frances VanHook, 15, b. OH

1870 US Census - Hamilton, Butler Co., OH
William B. VanHook, 73, b. OH
Julia VanHook, 64, b. NJ
Hannah VanHook, 25, b. OH

1880 US Census - Dist 34, Hamilton, Butler Co., OH
Julia VanHook, mother-in-law, age 88, b. NJ
living with Delos and F. Spaulding (her daughter Frances)

Children
1. Mary Vanhook, b. Abt 1825, Ohio
2. Margaret Malinda Vanhook, b. 3 Sep 1829, Ohio, d. 25 Aug 1906, Miami Co., OH
3. Susan Vanhook, b. Aug 1832, Butler Co., OH, d. 22 Jan 1916, Butler Co., OH
4. Julia Vanhook, b. 16 Jun 1835, Hamilton Co., OH, d. 26 Jan 1908, Everett, Middlesex Co., MA
5. Catherine Frances Vanhook, b. Nov 1845, Hamilton Co., OH
6. Charles S. Vanhook, Greenwood Cemetery, Butler Co., OH

Notes
Greenwood Cemetery Association
Name: W. B. VAN HOOK
Location: HIL 523 Original Interment #: 3808 Owner: VAN HOOK, WILLIAM Military, General; buried across from the public receiving vault bldg.
Age: 76
Comments: HIL 523 Original Interment #: 3808
Place of birth: HAMILTON, OHIO
Gender: Male
Veteran: No
Place of death: CINCINNATI, OHIO
Date of death: 09/08/1871
Father name: B.F. VAN HOOK
Mother name: C. VAN HOOK
Service date: 09/09/1871
Cremated: No

WILLIAM B. VAN HOOK.
William B. VAN HOOK was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, on the twenty-sixth day of October, 1795. His parents were Dr. Benjamin F. VAN HOOK and Catherine VAN HOOK, who were Hollanders, and who had emigrated from New Jersey to the North-west Territory at a very early period. Mr. VAN HOOK remained in Cincinnati until the last war with Great Britain, when he enlisted as a private in Captain David OLIVER's company, and served as a soldier until peace was declared. He moved from Cincinnati to Hamilton in the year 1818, where he continued to reside until his death, which took place in 1871.

He was by trade a carpenter, which he followed for many years. He had more than ordinary skill as a mechanic and builder. About 1818 he and the late James B. THOMAS went from Hamilton to New Orleans on a flat-boat, where they remained for several months, working together at the carpenter business. Mr. Van Hook and the late Colonel BALL, of Trenton, walked all the way back to Hamilton through the then Indian country. He was shortly afterwards married to Julia Ann STEPHENS, who survived him, and who died in June, 1882.

In early life Mr. VAN HOOK exhibited quite a taste for the the theater, and, as an amateur, played with and assisted the since eminent tragedian, Edwin FORREST. The circumstances are related elsewhere. Mr. FORREST never forgot his old friend, and never visited Cincinnati afterwards without sending for him.

Mr. VAN HOOK was a man of more than ordinary merit, and filled with ability offices of public trust. For several years he was a member of the Ohio Legislature; was speaker of the House of Representatives, and was warden of the Ohio penitentiary. He was at various times a member and president of the city council of Hamilton. During the late rebellion he was deputy provost marshal of the Third Congressional District. In politics he was always an unwavering and ardent Democrat, but during the war of the Rebellion acted with the Union party. For more than half a century he was a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity. He died at his home in Hamilton, Ohio. At the time of his death he was probably the oldest citizen of this place. He was a highly respected, useful, and honored citizen.

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 315

CHAPTER X.

STATE BUILDINGS, GOVERNORS, BENEFICES, LOCAL EVENTS.

January- 26, 1838, the legislature passed an act providing for the erection of a new state house on the public square in Columbus, which was the occasion of a grand illumination of the city. Colonel Noble, who kept the National Hotel, where the Neil House now stands, had the candles in his front windows so arranged as to form letters and spell NEW STATE HOUSE. In pursuance of said act, Joseph Ridgway, Jr., of Columbus, William A. Adams, of Zanesville, and William B. Van Hook. of Butler county. were, by joint resolution, appointed commissioner: for carrying the law into effect. They were required to give notice to certain newspapers, and offer a premium of five hundred dollars for the best plan, to be approved by the legislature, upon which said house should be erected. A number of plans were furnished by various competitors for the premium and Henry Walters of Cincinnati received the premium, though his plan was not adopted; but from the various plans furnished, the commissioners formed and adopted one somewhat different from any of the plans presented.

The Legislature Balks.

In the spring of 1839 the commissioners appointed William B. Van Hook, one of their own body, superintendent of the work. The high board fence was put up, and a good work shop erected on the square, and other

MASONIC LODGE.
In the year 1811 the Grand Lodge of the State of Ohio, at Chillicothe, granted a dispensation or charter, authorizing the establishment of a lodge of Freemasons at Hamilton. The dispensation was signed by Lewis CASS, grand mater, and Henry BRUSH, grand secretary, and dated the 7th of September, 1811. On the 10th of October, 1811, a number of Freemasons met at the tavern then kept by William MURRAY, on the south-west corner of Dayton and Water Streets, in Hamilton, and organized themselves into a lodge, by the name of "Washington Lodge, No. 17," the first officers of which were Joseph HOUGH, worshipful master; Thomas BLAIR, senior warden; Matthew HUESTON, junior warden; Robert TAYLOR, senior deacon; Joseph POTTER, junior deacon; William WALLACE, Tyler; John TAYLOR, treasurer, and Alexander SACKETT, secretary.

At that time not more than nine Freemasons were known to reside in Hamilton or the vicinity; but soon after the establishment of the lodge a number of persons joined, and were initiated into the mysteries of the craft, so that they shortly became respectable as to numbers and standing in society. They continued to hold their meetings at the house of William MURRAY for several years. The lodge was then removed to the house on the south-west corner of Second and Basin Streets, where a tavern was then kept by Thomas BLAIR, and afterward by James WILSON.

Afterwards they leased from the Hamilton Literary Society the second story of a building erecting for an academy on lot No. 140, at the intersection of Dayton and Third Streets, then belonging to the literary society, on condition that they would erect and finish the second story, and maintain it in good repair at their own expense. This they fitted up in a neat and tasteful manner, and the lodge was removed to that room, where it was continued until 1831. A school was kept in the lower apartment. The building standing in an isolated place, some evil-disposed persons broke open the room, carried away their jewels, and injured the furniture. This induced them to remove to a more secure place. Accordingly, on the 1st of April, 1831, they leased the fourth story of the Hamilton Hotel for a term of twenty years, at a rent of eighteen dollars per year, which they forthwith fitted up in a neat and appropriate manner for the accommodation of the lodge.

The number in 1843 attending the lodge, as actual members, was forty. In addition to these, there were about fifty more who belonged to the order, but were not in the habit of attending regularly, making in all about ninety Freemasons within the jurisdiction of the lodge.

The excitement as to Masonry and anti-Masonry which prevailed in several parts of the United States from 1827 to 1836, did not agitate (at least to any considerable extent) the neighborhood of Hamilton. The fraternity was not interfered with by the community.

The worthy masters have been Thomas BLAIR, Samuel BAYLESS, Joseph HOUGH, Joseph BENHAM, Alexander PROUDFIT, Lewis WEST, Daniel MILLIKIN, Charles K. SMITH, William B. VAN HOOK, Jesse CORWIN, John H. DUBBS, T. M. THOMAS, Elijah VANCE, Thomas REED, Benjamin F. RALEIGH, William SHEELEY, Isaac ROBERTSON, George W. LOUTHAN, William C. HUNTER, John M. PARKS, H. H. WALLACE, George W. DYE, John B. LAWDER, John CRANE, William FENN, J. CONOVER, and Allen ANDREWS. There are other Masonic institutions here, but we have been unable to get information about them.

A History and Biographical Cyclopaedia of Butler County Ohio, With Illustrations and Sketches of its Representative Men and Pioneers - Cincinnati Ohio. Western Biographical Publishing Company, 1882.

JOHN CRANE.

Major John CRANE was born in the State of New Jersey in 1796, and died on the 16th of March, 1864. He came with his family to this county in the first quarter of the century, and first settled in Jacksonburg, where in 1818 a post-office was established, he becoming the first postmaster. In 1825 he was elected a county commissioner, serving in this capacity for three years. In 1828 he was a member of the Ohio Legislature, having as a fellow-member Fergus ANDERSON, of this county. From 1841 to 1845 he was coroner. Major CRANE removed to Hamilton in 1825, keeping for several years a hotel in the frame building on the corner fronting the public square. During his residence in this town he was engaged for several years in the grocery and liquor business, in company with William B. VAN HOOK, and was at the same time city inspector. About 1855 he prepared with great labor and expense a useful map of this county. Being a loser by it to the amount of five hundred. dollars. He was for several years the commandant of a splendid battalion of uniformed light infantry. One of the companies, known as the Miami Guards, was composed of the finest young men in Hamilton. Major Crane had taken the lodge, chapter, and encampment degrees of Masonry. He was a Knight Templar, becoming such in the year 1827, in Lebanon. For a few years before his death he resided in Covington, Kentucky, but his remains were brought here, and he was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

THOMAS V. HOWELL.
Thomas V. HOWELL, the leading dry-goods merchant of Hamilton, was born in this city, in what is now the First Ward, September 28, 1826. He is the son of Hezekiah and Sarah A. (VIRGIN) HOWELL. Mrs. HOWELL was the daughter of Thomas VIRGIN, an early settler in Liberty Township, and afterward in the War of 1812. He was killed by Indians, on the Rocky Mountains. Mr. HOWELL received a limited education in the common schools, and when from ten to twelve years of age entered the employment of George P. BELL, a prominent merchant, and continued with him some ten years, when he wen6t to Cincinnati, with the firm of REILLY & WOODS. He returned to Hamilton, and entered the employment of BROWN & LEIGH, remaining there until March, 1849, when, in company with D. G. LEIGH, they purchased the business of William B. VAN HOOK, and began the firm of LEIGH & HOWELL, under which title they traded for two and a half years. Mr. LEIGH then sold out to John DYE, and the new firm of HOWELL & DYE was formed.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Thomas Garvin Akiki (escapee)

Thomas Garvin Akiki

Born: February 9, 1943
Father: Ellis Garwin Akiki
Born: Ohio
Mother: Jane Lucille Akiki
Maiden Name: Fincham
Born: Ohio

OSP History

 


Perhaps the most impressive institutional building in the entire state, the old Ohio Penitentiary stood on Spring Street just west of downtown Columbus for 164 years, from 1834 until 1998.

The first inmates who marched across the river from the original log-built prison in 1834 arrived at an edifice barely begun. A wall circumscribed the grounds, as it would until nearly the end of the following century. Inmates built their own stone cellhouses on the 22-acre site allocated along Spring Street at North Street. This included a separate facility for women, completed in 1837 within the main wall. Women were incarcerated here, separately within the same facility, until 1913, when the new women's prison opened at Marysville.

Not long after the original prisoners arrived the Pen began to grow rapidly, after a model established by Philadelphia's Eastern State. The prison was nearly as old as the new capital city. It was an era of prisons built in the middle of big cities--or what would become big cities. Columbus barely qualified as a city at all, but it was the planned and laid-out capital of Ohio, after Chillicothe and Zanesville had their turns. One of the first projects to make use of convict labor was the marble State House less than a mile away.

At that time the Ohio Penitentiary functioned as a federal and territorial prison as well; no federal prison system existed outside the use of state facilities. Ohio was a western state, and as such accepted many prisoners from the distant plains, deserts, mountains, and Pacific sea coast; inmates from the territories were brought in up the river or via roads and canals--then, later on, by train. A railroad bridge across the Scioto brought nearly all convicts directly to their new home.

The Penitentiary's heyday was perhaps the years around 1900, when it was something of a tourist attraction, and held up as a "model" prison--largely due to the efforts of Warden E.G. Coffin (1896-1900). Coffin was a nationally recognized expert on penology; he traveled the nation touring jails and prisons and offering his expertise to state boards and panels of review. His speeches and essays were even published in book form, though how much of this was simply the result of rigorous self-promotion is hard to say.

Whichever it was, the Pen became a point of pride to the city and the state, and was featured in tours and sold on postcards. It remained a popular stop on tours of Columbus, as well as a major employer and a visual landmark of the riverfront and downtown. In 1908 it was described as the world's largest prison by H.M. Fogle. (His wonderful book on the prison, and its executed criminals, can be read by visiting my page about (and transcription of) Palace of Death.)

Not surprisingly, the reality of the Penitentiary was immensely different from the image civic leaders wanted to project--for the guards and superintendents as well as the convicts. Overcrowding was a problem nearly from the start. Disease ran rampant; rats and insects were ever present inhabitants, and the efficiency with which they conducted disease throughout the facility could be overwhelming. In 1849, for instance, a cholera epidemic burned through the prison, killing 121 in just a few short months. As long as it all stayed inside, and didn't affect the good citizens of the city, no one worried much about conditions behind the walls.

Built to hold 1,500 prisoners, the institution exceeded that number before even fifty years had passed. In 1893 a superintendent wrote of the wretched conditions for those incarcerated there at the time--all 1,900 of them. Bad though this is (overcrowding is a serious problem too often ignored or dismissed), it was nothing compared to what was to come. At its peak in 1955, the prison complex held 5,235 inmates--well over triple capacity and approaching quadruple.

 

Wardens of OSP

Wardens of the
Ohio State Penitentiary
Nathaniel Medbury - 1834-1838
W.B. Van Hook - 1838-1841
Richard Stadden - 1841-1843
John Patterson - 1843-1846
Laurin Dewey - 1846-1850
Samuel Atkinson - 1850-1851
Dan W. Brown - 1851-1852
A.G. Dimmock - 1852-1854
Samuel Wilson - 1854-1855
J.B. Buttles - 1855-1856
John Ewing - 1856-1858
L.G. Van Slyke - 1858-1860
John A. Prentice - 1860-1862
Nathaniel Merion - 1862-1864
John A. Prentice - 1864-1866
C.C. Walcutt - 1866-1869
Raymond Burr - 1869-1872
G.S. Innes - 1872-1875
John G. Grove - 1875 - 1878
J.H. McWhorter - 1878-1879
B.F. Dyer - 1879-1880
Noah Thomas - 1880-1884
Isaac Peetry - 1884-1886
E.G. Coffin - 1886-1890
B.F. Dyer - 1890-1892
C.C. James - 1892-1896
E.G. Coffin - 1896-1900
W.N. Darby - 1900-1903
EA. Hershey - 1903-1904
O.B. Gould - 1904-1909
T.H.B. Jones - 1909-1913
D.E. Thomas - 1913-1935
J.C. Woodard - 1935-1939
F.D. Henderson - 1939-1948
R.W. Alvis - 1948-1959
B.C. Sacks - 1959-1961
E.L. Maxwell - 1961-1968
H.J. Cardwell 1968-1973
L.G. Ridenour 1973-1973
S.M. Patterson 1973-1976
N.E. Kette 1976-1978
D.R. McKeen 1978-1980
L.G. Ridenour 1980-1984

 

Demolition of OSP

Demolition

The Penitentiary was closed down in 1979 but stood empty for nearly twenty years, during which it was employed as a Halloween "haunted house" attraction--but not much more. It also enjoyed a reputation as the most notable haunted site in the city. The cavernous old prison was rumored to be layered with spirits from every conceivable source and era in its long history. The 315 people deliberately killed in the Annex, still pacing their Death Row cells or retracing their final walk. The 300+ dead in the fire of 1930, many of them roasted alive in their cells--men whose ghosts are said to howl and shriek, accompanied by a burning smell and phantom smoke. Suicides without number, still to be seen hanging from ceiling pipes or window bars. Countless stabbings and beatings, inmates killed by other inmates. Not to mention all the deaths from illness or old age, other causes.

In the mid-1990s my friend Rookie had the opportunity to infiltrate the place and look around. He described towering cell blocks, a flooded basement, a rack of keys, and paintings and murals done by the prisoners. He also said that it was possible to sit with your back against one wall of a cell and touch your feet to the other, which makes you think about what it must have been like to live out your life in such a room. Visit his page on it at Illicit Ohio.

The Columbus Landmarks Foundation finally took action to preserve the ruined prison in the mid-1990s, when it was clear that moneyed interests (mainly Nationwide) were eager to demolish it and develop the land. Shockingly, big money won the day, and after clearing a very few injunctions, demolition crews moved in and tore the place down in 1998.

Today this part of Spring Street is the Arena District, home to Nationwide Arena and Huntington Stadium. On the site of the main Penitentiary building you'll find the Arena Grand Movie Theater and a parking garage. I've heard that one wall of the theater's high-ceilinged lobby is an original, but I'm not sure. One thing has survived, however: the ghost stories. There are reports that Nationwide Arena is troubled by eerie sounds and spectral sights, including the ghostly echoes of the terrible prison fire. Some things just refuse to be forgotten.

Executions at OSP


The Death House
 
View Pictures of the men and women on ODRC Site. 

Executions at the Pen are frequently mentioned as a source of the hauntings in the building. Between 1885 and 1963 there were 343 legally sanctioned executions at the Ohio Penitentiary. Twenty-eight were hangings; 315 were electrocutions. Three of the condemned were women. All of them took place in precisely the same spot in the Death House; when they retired the gallows, the electric chair was mounted directly beneath its trap door.

Photographs show the chair and the gallows trap directly above it. Less likely are some of the bits of death row folklore that grow up in every death penalty state. There's the one about the chair being built from the gallows wood; the tale of the carpenter trustee who eventually went to his death in the electric chair he built; the myth of the automatic pardon for anyone who survived the execution process, or did so three times. It is true that Ohio administered the second legal electrocution ever; the first was at New York's Auburn Prison, on August 6, 1890--by all accounts a gruesome event. Ohio, the second state to adopt the method, performed its first on April 21, 1897, running deadly current through a man named William Haas.

The Penitentiary was finished and had been in operation fifty years before legal executions were moved inside its walls. Before that, most hangings were carried out no more than a week from the day the judge passed sentence, and some happened within twenty-four hours. Most, however, were delayed long enough to allow people time to plan to come and see what were then public executions--"necktie parties" that were such a highlight of the social calendar. The authorities allowed the general public to witness the death of a condemned criminal in part to satisfy the legal preference for witnesses, and partially for the same reason parents brought their young children: to serve as deterrence, a lesson for those who might stray from the straight and narrow.
There was a religious aspect to the public hanging, an element of civic duty, and a public warning. But most of all it was a fair and a festival, a public exhibition with vendors cooking food and selling homemade crafts and telling fortunes; kids ran and played; musicians sometimes performed. All in preparation for the public executions. Sometimes crudely printed pamphlets were sold or handed out in the crowd, giving a time schedule of events, as well as brief details of the trial and a lurid description of the events surrounding the crime. It was a combination of bloodlust and boredom that brought families by the wagonful in from farms and crossroads villages sometimes a hundred miles distant, just to get a look at a dead man walking, as it were, up the steps onto the scaffolding and to view the expression on his face as the noose was pulled over his head and tightened just the right amount, with the knot in exactly the proper position behind an ear. Hands were tied behind the back, legs usually bound as well. At the appointed hour, after having been prayed with and given a last benediction by the clergyman of their faith, the condemned was permitted to offer last words. Prayers and exhortations of innocence were the most common, with the occasional warning to young men not to make the same mistakes he had and to steer clear of whiskey and loose women--which is still excellent advice. Last words generally spoken above the heads of a crowd gone silent for that very purpose.
Usually a hood was fitted over the head, but not always. Then a somber-faced court official (the executioner, who else?) would release the trap door, and the condemned would plummet through toward the ground, only to be jerked short, and then commence a violent death dance, arrested somewhat by rope tied around the legs. In many ways hanging can be considered the most humane way to have your government murder you; reports from the brink say the sudden tightening of the noose causes instantaneous blackout and an end to all consciousness, including pain. Hanging is a genuine science; the height, weight, and size of the condemned must be taken into account and the hanging rope measured accordingly. A rope properly measured snaps the neck between two upper vertebrae, killing instantly. Too short a rope and no one knows if the instant blackout happens, but the visuals are stomach-turning: the person chokes to death slowly, strangling audibly and kicking and swinging on the rope, seemingly clinging to life the whole time. And if the rope is too long, the head is simply pulled off the body. (This happened to outlaw "Black Jack" Ketchum in 1901 in New Mexico Territory; Black Jack was a member of the Hole in the Wall Gang made famous in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But it happened to hundreds of others as well, and often spoiled spectators' enjoyment of the day's public hanging.) Interesting side note: Hangings, even when performed properly, are messy affairs. The bladder and bowels evacuate immediately, leaving a pile of wet shit. Most of the audience at a necktie party was too far back to notice, however, and most people still don't know that hangings (as well as many deaths in the electric chair) have this effect.
At any rate, until July 31, 1885, Ohio's legal executions were hangings conducted on courthouse lawns or specially designated spots. Ohio's capital city held its necktie parties at the southwest corner of Mound and Scioto Streets. Whole families traveled two or three counties on foot or by horse or buggy. As ghoulish as it sounds, watching someone hanged was pure entertainment, and not an everyday occurrence. They even took the condemned out of the State Pen to be killed. One example is a double hanging on February 9, 1844: William Clark and Esther Foster, both inmates of the ten-year-old Pen. William had killed a guard with an axe; Esther beat a fellow female prisoner to death with a shovel.

After June 1885 they moved the Mound Street gallows into the Penitentiary (not literally; most likely a new scaffold was built for each public hanging). Thus made private and given stricter protocols, the noose began to claim more victims. When Valentne Wagoner took the plunge in 1885 he became the first of many, many victims of Ohio's capital punishment statute. The last to hang was William Paul, on April 26, 1896. The first to die in Old Sparky was, as mentioned, William Haas, almost exactly one year later (April 21, 1897). The electric chair remained busy until 1963, when Donald Reinbolt became its 315th and final casualty. When executions resumed in Ohio it wasn't until 1999, when the Ohio Pen was just a memory and Death Row had long since been moved to Lucasville, and lethal injection tables had replaced gallows and electric chairs. It was in Lucasville that Wilford Berry, Jr. waived his remaining appeals and volunteered for his lethal injection. That was in 1999; since then Ohio has resumed executing prisoners with regularity.
Of the several books written about the Pen, most were written around the turn of the century--a time when the state took great pride in its large, modern prison. Most are a kind of survey of the facility and general description of its operations, and therefore not terribly compelling reading. But there is one exception: Palace of Death, a 1908 book by H.M. Fogle. Each chapter is about a different man executed in the Ohio Penitentiary's Death House. It offers an amazingly detailed report on the circumstances of the crime, the arrest, the trial, the sentence, the convict's time in prison--and, most dramatically, the execution itself. The first fifty-nine executions carried out at the Pen are detailed in chapters that read like short stories, made all the more interesting because the author didn't seem to have to worry about libel or the presumption of innocence. It's a fairly vicious book, as you might expect (and painfully racist), but it's utterly compelling reading. You can read more about it--and read entire chapters--by clicking here.
Palace of Death:
A True Tale of 59 Executed Murderers 
 

Morgan Raiders at OSP

Morgan's Raiders


The Ohio Pen was used to house notable prisoners of the Civil War. While the majority in central Ohio were shunted off to Camp Chase, the walls and cells were thought necessary to confine Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and his officers, participants in Morgan's Raid. His "daring" (most historians tend to call it "foolish" these days) raid into Indiana and Ohio was sanctioned by no superior officer and accomplished nothing except to irritate and frighten rural northerners and reinforce Unionist views.

In the summer of 1863, hoping to divert Union resources around the time of the crucial battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Brig. Gen. John H. Morgan (an Alabaman by birth but a longtime resident of Lexington, KY) crossed the Ohio River without orders west of New Albany, Indiana, and rode across the southern part of the state. He engaged Home Guard soldiers at Corydon, killing five of them while losing eleven of his own men.
Crossing the state line north of Cincinnati, he marauded through rural south-central Ohio and made his way north into what is today Belmont County. Attempting to move into West Virginia on June 19, about 900 of his men encountered Union gunboats at Buffington Island and were decimated. Fewer than 200 escaped, including Mogan himself, while about 700 spent the remainder of the war as prisoners at Chicago's Camp Douglas.

On July 26, 1863, John Hunt Morgan and what remained of his command surrendered at a place in Columbiana County near Salineville or Lisbon (then called New Lisbon). This, the Ohio River at Buffington Island, and the location of a skirmish near Old Washington all occasionally claim to be the site of the "Northernmost Battle of the Civil War."

Morgan and several of his officers--including Confederate spy Thomas Hines--were incarcerated in the Ohio Penitentiary. As prisoners of war, and officers (though officers of a nation never recognized by ours, which has always confused the issue in my mind), they were treated surprisingly well. They were never assigned inmate numbers; were allowed to wear their own clothes; and guards addressed them by their military ranks--or even as "Sir," in Morgan's case. By all accounts Morgan and his men had an easy stay at the Pen--so easy that they cut it short by escaping.

Morgan and his men had broken through into a ventilation crawlspace which ran beneath the main block, and on the night of November 27, 1863, they escaped using a rope made of prison blankets and a bent poker rod. After midnight they boarded a train at the Columbus depot bound for Cincinnati, leaping off just before it reached its destination, where they would have been identified and re-arrested. They hired a small boat to reach Kentucky and were conducted south by sympathizers, eventually reaching Confederate territory again. Although "Morgan's Raid" (and his prison break and flight to safety) made big headlines and looms fairly large in history, it accomplished next to nothing, and was actually done in direct violation of General Braxton Bragg's standing order not to cross the Ohio River.
 

Notables Inmates at OSP

Any prison that functions for so many years winds up housing some notable inmates. The Ohio Pen had its share--some famous, some notorious, some just weird or interesting. Here's a list of notable Ohio Penitentiary inmates in no particular order.
Guests of the State
John Hunt Morgan
Confederate cavalry general who led a "raid" north of the Ohio River; after his capture in Columbiana County he escaped from the Pen and fled back to the south. 

James Brown
No, not the Godfather of Soul--though I can't help picturing him. This James Brown was a vampire...in a way. Really he was more of an interesting psychotic. In 1866 he was a sailor on an American vessel in the Indian Ocean when he murdered one of his shipmates and drank the guy's blood. Brown was placed under arrest by the captain, brought back to Massachusetts, and convicted of murder. In those enlightened days they didn't think much of insanity as a defense for any crime, even when it was so clearly the major factor involved--but then again, Jeffrey Dahmer couldn't get an insanity verdict in 1992, and he went much further. At any rate, vampire James Brown was a federal prisoner because of the nautical scene of his crime, and he wound up at the Ohio Penitentiary. Not much information is available about him beyond that, though it can probably be assumed that he gave up blood-drinking cold turkey.

O. Henry
The name William Sidney Porter doesn't ring many bells, but that's what famous short story writer O. Henry was known as when he became inmate #30664 in 1898. Porter was a federal prisoner from Texas. He was convicted of embezzlement (a crime he most likely didn't commit at all; an audit years after his time as a teller and bookkeeper at the First National Bank of Austin turned up discrepancies and they gladly laid the blame at his feet). He was already an experienced writer when he turned himself in and was admitted to the big house on March 25, 1898. Inside he worked as the night druggist (he was a licensed pharmacist) and got his own room, never having to live in the common cell block. One of the many stories he wrote at the Pen, "Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking," was the first to bear the O. Henry pseudonym. He's best known for "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Ransom of Red Chief." The prison baseball field completed in 1970 was named O. Henry Field.

Chester Himes
Well-known black writer of the civil rights era. His work was infrequently political; mostly he wrote hard-boiled crime fiction and detective stories. Born in Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1909, he moved with his family to Pine Bluff, Arkansas--and then finally to Cleveland after a horrifying experience in the unreconstructed, racist South. (Gunpowder exploded in his brother's eyes during a school science experiment, and he was rushed to the nearest hospital, where a doctor refused to treat him--and possibly save his eyesight--because he was a black child at a whites-only emergency room.) After he was kicked out of OSU during his freshman year for playing a prank, things seemed to go downhill; he was arrested and convicted of armed robbery in 1928, and sent to the Ohio Pen to serve his 20-25 year sentence (incarceration and hard labor). Once there he found writing to be his best escape, a way to earn respect from guards and prisoners alike and also avoid violence. He started out with short stories, mainly published in something called The Bronzeman, then in 1934 made his first sale to Esquire. A close friendship with Langston Hughes opened some doors in the literary world, and helped him publish his best-known works: the novel If He Hollers Let Him Go, and the Harlem Detective series of violent, racially charged police mysteries (subsequently made into films such as Cotton Comes to Harlem and A Rage in Harlem). One of his early Esquire stories, "To What Red Hell" (1934), concerned the catastrophic 1930 fire at the Ohio Penitentiary.

Charles Makley and Harry Pierpont
Close friends and associates of John Dillinger. They participated extensively in his crime spree, robbing banks and shooting it out with the police. When Dillinger was arrested in 1933 and held in the county jail in Lima, Ohio, Makley and Pierpont (along with confederate Russell Clark) set out to free him. In the process, Pierpont fatally shot Allen County Sheriff Jesse Sarber. Apprehended in Tucson, Arizona, in January 1934, they were extradited to Indiana and then Ohio, where guilty verdicts were handed down. Both Makley and Pierpont were sentenced to die in the electric chair for their part in Sheriff Sarber's murder. They were transferred to Columbus on March 27, 1934, along with Clark, who had received a life sentence. But death row didn't suit the two partners, and they worked out an audacious escape. Taking a page from John Dillinger's book, Makley and Pierpont carved model guns from bars of soap, blackened them with shoe polish, and made a run for it on September 22. After assaulting a guard and trying to free Russell Clark (he chose to stay in his cell), they were confronted by guards with real, non-soap guns, and were gunned down in the corridor. Makley was killed; Pierpont was badly wounded, but survived to meet his end in Old Sparky at last on October 17.

Sam Sheppard
One of the most famous wrongful convictions in the long and storied history of American injustice is the case of Dr. Sam Sheppard. A respected citizen of Bay Village (a rich suburb just west of Cleveland) and a talented osteopath and neurosurgeon, he seemed about as unlikely a murder suspect as imaginable. But that's exactly what he became overnight in 1954. In the early morning hours of the Fourth of July, an unknown intruder (a "bushy-haired man") beat Dr. Sheppard unconscious (twice!)--and bludgeoned Marilyn Sheppard to death. Prosecutors had no interest in the bushy-haired man, instead deciding to pin the whole thing on Sam, who was thought to have sufficient motive because of an affair he was having with a nurse and Marilyn's recent pregnancy. The judge told columnist Dorothy Kilgallen before the trial that Sheppard was "guilty as hell," so he saw no reason to sequester the jury--this during a time when all the local newspapers were expressing similarly biased opinions on each day's front page. Predictably, on December 21, 1954 the jury returned a guilty verdict: Murder in the Second Degree, Life in Prison. Two and a half weeks after the verdict, Dr. Sheppard's mother shot herself in the head, and eleven days after that, his father died from a bleeding gastric ulcer. Dr. Sam Sheppard's luck only changed when he got a new lawyer, an up-and-comer named F. Lee Bailey who started to file intelligent, effective appeals. The court's bias, the failure to sequester, a near-total absence of blood spatter on Dr. Sheppard, specific injuries sustained by Marilyn and Sam, and an anomalous blood type present at the crime scene--all had been blithely overlooked. Once Bailey succeeded in getting a new trial (thanks in part to Earl Warren's Supreme Court, which upheld the decision to grant one), Sam Sheppard was found not guilty and freed. A corrrupt legal system had cost him ten full years of his life. Afterward he became a kind of celebrity; although the producers always denied it, the TV show The Fugitive (and later, the movie) was clearly based on his story. The major difference, of course, is that Dr. Richard Kimble (a doctor who awakens to an intruder in his home, is knocked out by him, and then finds that the man has killed his wife) escapes from the prison transport in a fluke accident and goes on the run to seek out the real killer. Nothing so cinematic happened to Sheppard. Also, the real killer in his case merely had "bushy hair," which is nowhere near as interesting as The Fugitive's one-armed man. (Incidentally, Mr. Bushy Hair has quite likely been identified. A convicted murderer named Richard Eberling, a handyman and window washer who worked for the doctor on occasion, boasted of the crime to fellow inmates and eventually confessed to Sheppard's son in 1993 when the son set out to clear his father's name for good. F. Lee Bailey, however, still believes a female neighbor responsible.)

James H. Snook
Executed after a very brief stay in 1930, Dr. James H. Snook was convicted of the murder of young Theora Hix. Snook was a professor at OSU and Hix was a student he had an affair with; once things went bad he drove her to the outskirts of the city and beat her to death with a hammer. The torrid details--particularly the sex stuff--made for a sensational trial, the saga of which is still fascinating reading.