Behind San Quentin's Walls

William B. Secrest

Description

San Quentin is one of the most famous prisons in American history, featured in countless movies and novels, yet few know its colorful early history. In Behind San Quentin’s Walls, noted Old West historian William B. Secrest reveals the beginning of San Quentin, from its unlikely start as a real estate scheme to its essential role in taming the lawless California of the Gold Rush era. Featuring numerous citations from contemporary accounts, plus period photos, illustrations, newspaper clippings, and maps, Behind San Quentin’s Walls chronicles the political calculations that created San Quentin; the outsize egos of the men who built it; the mismanagement and frequent escapes that marred San Quentin’s early years; and the notorious ruffians and cutthroats who were housed there. Filled with exciting true stories of gunfights, brawls, prison riots, daring escapes, and intrepid manhunts, Behind San Quentin’s Walls is a rip-roaring Wild West tale of how men and women with immense talent for both good and evil tamed a new state and each other.

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Kilotón
• Óxido de carbono (II)
• State
• General officer
• General
• United States
• West
• NV
• Local
• HI
• ID
• UT
• MT
• CA
• CO

Informations

• Publié par: Linden Publishing
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781610352673
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Behind San Quentin s Walls
The History of California s Legendary Prison and Its Inmates, 1851-1900
Behind San Quentin s Walls
The History of California s Legendary Prison and Its Inmates, 1851-1900
William B. Secrest
Behind San Quentin s Walls Copyright 2015 by William B. Secrest. All rights reserved.
Published by Craven Street Books An imprint of Linden Publishing 2006 South Mary Street, Fresno, California 93721 [phone] / [phone] CravenStreetBooks.com
Craven Street Books and Colophon are trademarks of Linden Publishing, Inc.
ISBN 978-1-61035-221-5
135798642
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Secrest, William B., 1957-
Behind San Quentin s walls : the history of California s legendary prison and its inmates, 1851-1900 / William B. Secrest.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61035-221-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. California State Prison at San Quentin--History. 2. Prisoners--California--San Quentin--History--19th century. 3. Prisons--California--San Quentin--History--19th century. I. Title.
HV9475.C3S766 2015
395 .979462--dc23
2015006209
For John Boessenecker . . .
premier Western historian and writer, thoughtful and generous friend
The Garden of Death
Safe bound by locking waters
Within the Golden Gate ,
A Fortress stands, remote and gray ,
A prison of the State .
The flanking walls that round it sweep
A massive portal scars ,
Where warders, grim, their vigils keep
With locks and bolts and bars-
And flaunting o er the battlements
Floats Freedom s stripes and stars!
In old San Quentin s garden
The morn is sweet with blooms:
A little square in God s pure air
Amid a thousand tombs:
And in a fountain s mirrored depths ,
As you are passing by .
Bare, mocking walls on either hand
Seem reaching to the sky-
And through that glimpse of paradise
A youth was led-to die .
Above San Quentin s garden
The loop-hole grates look down ,
Beyond the wall and castled keep
Where shotted cannon frown;
And just within a little gate
Along a steel-bound tier .
In cells of death, men hold their breath
When unseen steps draw near
For death is in the air they breathe ,
And in each sound they hear!
Through old San Quentin s garden
they led him, to his doom .
While rose and lily sighed for him
An exquisite perfume:
And in the prison-yard beyond ,
Men spoke with baited breath ,
Of laws that mock the law of God ,
And strangle men to death-
Of men who send God-given life
to godless, brutal death!
O er old San Quentin s garden
A stately pine-tree sighs .
A lonely captive from the wild
Where Tamalpais lies;
And seated by its rugged trunk
A convict, old and wan .
Was reading from a little book
He held in palsied hand;-
And on the title page I read:
The Brotherhood of Man.
From
Prison Verse
by Royall Douglas
No. 19173 San Quentin
The Alturia Press, 1911
Contents
The Garden of Death
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter One: The Journey of the Waban
Chapter Two: A Cellblock Called The Stones
Chapter Three: Breakouts and Bandit Gangs
Chapter Four: The Big Jailor
Chapter Five: The State Takes Over
Chapter Six: The Chellis Break
Chapter Seven: Those Troublesome Women
Chapter Eight: The Stage Robbers Ball
Chapter Nine: Escape as a Fine Art
Chapter Ten: Hanged by the Neck Until Dead
Chapter Eleven: The Incorrigibles
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
I must thank my son first of all. He perhaps sensed that I would someday write a history of San Quentin. Knowing my interest in the subject, over the years he has given me gifts of many rare prison documents that I would never have purchased for myself. He has also been my companion on research trips, a critic when needed, and always a ready source of ideas, history, and helpful suggestions.
A good friend of many years, John Boessenecker is a much respected historian, writer and collector. When informed that I was working on a history of San Quentin, he packaged up his own research on the subject and sent it right off to me. That s the kind of friend he is. John and Roger McGrath both read the manuscript with a critical eye, providing editing skills, broad historical knowledge, and much good advice.
Dick Nelson, who provided research materials over the years, originally agreed to read the manuscript and write the introduction. Both as guard and associate warden, Mr. Nelson was a leading spirit in founding the San Quentin Museum Association in 1986. Sadly, Mr. Nelson passed away before completion of the manuscript.
I am particularly grateful to Sean Ryan, a descendant of James Madison Estill, who provided me with genealogical sources, as well as a copy of his ancestor s daguerreotype portrait. My thanks also to Estill Putney, for sharing a treasured image with a stranger.
For over fifty years it has been my great pleasure to make periodic trips to Sacramento for research at the California State Library and the California State Archives. The knowledgeable staffs of both of these institutions have always promptly responded to my requests for material, whether by email or personal visits. My grateful thanks to you all.
I am also indebted to the late Kevin Mullen, the late Ron Mahoney, Angus McFarlane, Phil Reader, and the Society of California Pioneers.
I owe a particular debt to my wonderful wife who does all the work around the house so I can write. Thanks, Shirl. You will always be the light and love of my life.
-William B. Secrest
Foreword
For five decades now, Marine veteran Bill Secrest has written prolifically and well on the outlaws of California. His books include California Desperadoes ; Perilous Trails, Dangerous Men ; California Feuds ; and California Badmen . He knows the Golden State s gunfighters, highwaymen, train robbers, cattle rustlers, and other desperate characters like no one else. His research is prodigious. The California State Library and the California State Archives in Sacramento are his second home. I m surprised he s not charged rent.
Secrest has figuratively followed outlaws through the gold camps of the Sierra, up and down the San Joaquin and the Sacramento valleys, across San Francisco Bay, and through every nook and cranny of the Coastal Ranges. Now he has followed them into prison-and that prison is California s San Quentin. There s logic in this because an outlaw s story doesn t end when he s captured or even when he s tried and convicted. Many outlaws went in and out of San Quentin before they were killed or executed or straightened out. Many of the outlaws also spent more time on the inside than on the outside. The stories of the outlaws behind bars and the history of San Quentin were waiting to be well told. Bill Secrest has done it.
During the Gold Rush, most men who committed serious felonies were hanged. Those guilty of lesser crimes were branded and banished. In 1850, when California was admitted to the Union, the state thought that county jails would suffice to collectively serve as a state prison. A single facility would be expensive to build and maintain. Prisoners in county jails often became convict laborers, leased to private contractors. This helped to defray the cost of incarceration and lessen the burden on individual counties. The system might have continued for several years were it not for an ambitious Kentuckian, James Estill, who had a knack for ingratiating himself with all the right people.
Estill convinced the state legislature that he could build and maintain a prison and make the state a profit if he were awarded a state prison contract. Estill got the contract. Construction at Point San Quentin began during the fall of 1852. Most of the labor was performed by prisoners, housed at night in a ship anchored offshore. Although there were escapes by land and sea, pursuits, brawls, shootings, and death, the first cellblock- the Stones -was completed and occupied by January 1854. There were already a few women prisoners incarcerated, including Mary Ann Wilson, known as Scotch Mary. Two guards, Capt. Thompson and Lieut. Gray, were seen at different times entering her cell at night. It was thought that a shooting affray over the affections of Scotch Mary was imminent but she was pardoned after serving only three months of her one-year sentence.
By the spring of 1854, most of the construction of the prison had been completed. There was one glaring omission-no wall surrounded the facility. Together with San Quentin housing far more prisoners than anticipated, having fewer guards than necessary, and frequent dense fogs, this meant conditions were ideal for escapes. Until the very end of 1855 when a 20-foot-high wall was finally built, escapes occurred regularly and often involved the death and wounding of both guards and prisoners. A state investigative committee reported that 98 prisoners had escaped and only 41 had been recaptured.
Despite the wall, escapes continued, usually when prisoners were on a work detail outside the wall. There were also some extraordinarily ingenious escapes directly from prison cells. Although most prisoners seemed resigned to doing their time, there were some who began plotting escapes upon arrival. Conditions in San Quentin encouraged thoughts of escape. Food an