Category Archives: Crime & Courts
Your uncle killed my uncle
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Sammy Tucker was executed in Missouri’s gas chamber in 1963. I found this BCI card in the state archives and included it on a website I created some years ago. I posted the image a on Flickr.
I have no way to know if the comments below are legit but then, I have no reason to doubt them.
Ohio prison rules could limit inmates’ last words
The final words of condemned prisoners in Ohio could be edited or shortened under new state prison rules announced Thursday, six months after an inmate recited prayers for 17 minutes before he was executed. The man apologized for his crime, then recited the rosary and other prayers before he died, choking back tears as he repeatedly said the Hail Mary with rosary beads in one hand. At 17 minutes, it was the longest final statement by a condemned Ohio inmate since executions resumed 11 years ago.
via washingtonpost.com
In Missouri, judges now calculate cost of punishment
Missouri (where I live) isn’t known as a hot bed of technology. Or, perhaps it is and I was just unaware. Always a possibility. Anyway… I came across a fascinating story by Monica Davey (New York Times). Judges in Missouri are the first in the country to use a computer algorithm to compute the cost of the sentence they hand down. From Ms. Davey’s story:
“Months ago, members of the Missouri Sentencing Advisory Commission, a group of lawyers, judges and others established by state lawmakers years ago, voted to begin providing judges with the cost information on individual cases.
The concept is simple: Fill in an offender’s conviction code, criminal history and other background, and the program spits out a range of possible sentences, statistical information about the likelihood of Missouri criminals with similar profiles to commit more crimes, and, most controversially, the various options’ price tags.
For someone convicted of endangering the welfare of a child, for instance, a judge might learn that a three-year prison sentence would run more than $37,000 while probation would cost $6,770. A second-degree robber, a judge could be told, would carry a price tag of less than $9,000 for five years of intensive probation, but more than $50,000 for a comparable prison sentence. The bill for a murderer’s 30-year prison term: $504,690.”
This makes perfect sense to me. Good to see Missouri out in front on something like this.
Stagger Lee
This morning my friend Bob gave me a copy of the death certificate of Lee Shelton, who died in the prison here in Jefferson City, MO, of tuberculosis in 1912. Shelton was an African American cab driver and pimp convicted of murdering William “Billy” Lyons on Christmas Eve, 1895 in St. Louis, Missouri. [More on Shelton at Wikipedia]
The crime was immortalized in a popular song that has been recorded by numerous artists. Here are just a few:
- Grateful Dead
- Tom Jones
- Pat Boone
- James Brown
- Neil Diamond
- Fats Domino
- Dr. John
- Bob Dylan
- Duke Ellington
- Woody Guthrie
- Bill Haley & His Comets
- The Isley Brothers
- Huey Lewis and the News
- Taj Mahal
- Wilson Pickett
- Sam the Sham
- Ike and Tina Turner
You might need a Blip.fm account to listen to the two versions I’ve linked above.
“Falsely playing the race card”
A few weeks back I posted a few times on the Heather Ellis trial in Kennett, MO, my home town. The trial and the incident that started the whole thing (3 years ago?) left Kennett with a black eye (so to speak). The local prosecutor recused himself and Morley Swingle –the prosecuting attorney for Cape Girardeau County– took over. In an op-ed piece (?) in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mr. Swingle reflects on the trial and the incident that made it necessary:
“On a Saturday night in 2007 at the Wal-Mart in Kennett, Mo., Heather Ellis went into an angry tirade in the checkout line, grabbed another customer’s merchandise and pushed it away from the cash register, not just once, but four times.
When a manager told her to leave the store, she responded, “I’m not leaving and you can’t make me.” The police were called. They escorted her out of the store. Outside, she continued her angry rant. When an officer told her she would be arrested if she did not leave, she replied: “If you try to arrest me I’ll kick your [derriere].”
She was arrested. True to her word, she kicked the arresting officer and smacked another in the mouth, drawing blood.
Most people, after behaving so badly, would issue a few apologies and accept the prosecutor’s generous plea offer of probation to misdemeanor offenses. Instead, Ellis decided to claim to the national media that her arrest was based on “racism.”
Local bank phished. Again.
I received this text message last night. It never occurred to me it was anything but a scam. You call the number and some social engineer asks you for all kinds of questions about your accounts. And, yes, some number of clueless folks apparently called the number. The waitress at the Towne Grill said it was the lead story on the local radio station this morning.
I’d kind of like to know how they got my mobile number. Probably not that difficult. This same bank got hit by an email phishing scam a year or so back.
Missouri prison life in 1800’s
The Twin Hells, by John N. Reynolds, claims to be “A Thrilling Narrative of Life in the Kansas and Missouri Penitentiaries.” I haven’t read the entire account yet but will share this excerpt about the Missouri penitentiary:
“The inmates of the Missouri penitentiary are well clothed. In this respect, this prison has no rival. All the prisoners presented the appearance of being cleanly, so far as their clothing is concerned. All are dressed in stripes. None are exempt. Here are nearly two thousand men on an equality. None of them can look down upon others, and say, I am more nicely dressed than you. I never saw a convict dude in the entire lot. The prisoners are well fed. For breakfast, the bill of fare consists of bread, coffee, without milk or sugar, and hash. There is no change to this bill of fare. If the prisoner has been there for ten years, if not in the hospital, he has feasted upon hash every morning. Boiled meat, corn bread, potatoes and water makes up the dinner, and for supper the convict has bread, molasses and coffee. The principal objection to this diet is its monotony. Whenever a change of diet becomes a strict necessity, the prisoner is permitted to take a few meals in the hospital dining-room. Here he receives a first-class meal. This is a capital idea. A great deal of sickness is prevented by thus permitting the convict to have an occasional change of diet. On holidays, such as Thanksgiving day, Christmas, etc., an extra dinner is given, which is keenly relished by all. I have before me a statement of the expenses for a Sunday breakfast and dinner. There are only two meals given on Sunday. The hash was made up of 612 pounds of beef, 90 pounds of bacon, and 30 bushels of potatoes. Fifty-one pounds of coffee were used, and four and a half barrels of flour. The entire meal cost $68.38.”
It appears the account above is from the late 1800’s. I have not idea of the time period represented by the postcard below (from Bob Priddy’s extensive collection of Missouri postcards)
Updating MissouriDeathRow.com
MissouriDeathRow.com was one of the first websites I did. And it looks like it. This was before flickr and Typepad and such. So I’m doing a little make-over. Hope to have it complete by the end of the year.
I’m starting with images and documents related to those executed in Missouri’s gas chamber. First time out, I just posted photos of the condemned. This time I’m posting the… not sure what to call it… the record or card for each inmate [flickr slideshow].
I scanned these from the state archives. For some reason, I find them fascinating.
The state archive has a file on each of the inmates executed in the gas chamber. I spent a week going through these, scanning as much as time allowed. Letters, notes, telegrams…
On June 24, 1962, Odom and another Death Row inmate attempted an escape. Odom’s file contained a report by the guard on duty at the time. I’ve also included (from his appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court) a description of the crime for which Odom was executed.
Third-world Crime and Punishment
From the monthly newsletter written by my brother and his wife:
“During Medieval times when there was a theft in a village, the people set up a “Hue and Cry”. This meant yelling, “Thief!” at the top of one’s lungs so that the other villagers would be alerted and the thief would be caught. The system worked so well that often the hue and cry would be heard several miles away from the scene of the actual theft.
Here in Indonesia, a third-world country, there is also a system of “Hue and Cry”. Only, the word thief is changed to the Indonesian word for thief, “Maling”. As we and I sat down to lunch today, we heard the local “hue and cry” of “Maling! Maling!” and we ran outside to see who the thief was. He was a cowardly one; that was evident by the way he yanked the necklace off my next door neighbor’s neck and continued on his way ON HIS MOTORCYCLE!
This is a frequent occurrence in this country and if/when the thief is caught, he is usually beaten by the crowd while waiting for the police to show up. He then may or may not receive a fair trial, depending on how much money the family can put up for his bail.”