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Post by David Sechrest on May 12, 2006 20:02:21 GMT -5
Yes, I know...the title of this folder is just a tad bit sensational, and it is supposed to be... I want to start off this folder with a very poor picture of the jail that once sat on the northest corner of 2nd and Jackson Sts. From the Evening Republican (The Republic), Friday, June 15, 1962: July 11 has been tentatively set as the date for occupancy of the new city-county law enforcement building, with a public open house expected to be held before that time. The $515,684 building on the southwest corner of the courthouse block just west of the present jail building is virtually completed with only minor finishing touches and erection of a radio tower for the poice department remaining to be done. The tentative July 11 "moving day" for the various city and county offices to occupy the building was set at a Tuesday meeting of the Columbus - Bartholomew County Building Authority. The Building Authority financed the law enforment building through a 20 year, $565,000 bond issue to be repaid by the city and the county on an annual cost of $18,425 to the city and $31,575 to the county. The repayment of the bonds was based on the percentage of the floor space the city and the county will use. The total ocst of the building contract was $465,525 with a contingency fund of about $22,225 and architectural and engineering fees of $27,934 bringing the total construction cost to about $515,684. In addition to the annual amount for repayment of the bonds, operation and maintenance costs for the building are expected to cost the city about $5,200 and the county $8,800 a year. For the city, the building will provide 234 sq. feet for parking meter repair, 180 sq. feet for Operation Life, 476 sq ft for the city police detectives, 756 sq ft for police officers lockers, 1,155 sq ft for police headquarters, and 644 sq ft for the municipal court. Floor space in the 3 story brick building for the county's use includes 327 sq ft for the bull pen, or open area between the individual cells but within the lockup area, 240 sq ft for the county Civil Defense, 450 sq ft for the sheriff's offices, 330 sq ft for the jail kitchen, 1206 sq ft for women's prison, and 3,290 sq ft for the men's prison. In addition, the building provides 7,866 sq ft for common use by the city and the county, including the garage area below the 1st floor and a state police room, making 17,154 sq ft in the building. The building will replace the present 85 year old jail, which has repeatedly been condemned by local grand juries as well as state agencies. The present jail will probably house just 18 prisoners while past records show an average of 22 prisoners a day for several months during the year. The new structure will provide six, 4-man cells housing 24 prisoners, two maximum security cells for men housing two prisoners, three juvenile male cells house 3 prisoners, one 4-woman cell, one maximum security cell for one woman prisoner, a juvenile female cell housing one prisoner, a female "drunk tank" housing 4 prisoners, a male "drunk cell" housing 12 prisoners, and a padded cell for one prisoner. This gives a total of 17 cells, housing 52 prisoners, and the capacity could be increased to 83 prisoners on a short duration basis. There is a little more to this article, but I'll not add it here. The numbers here will show you how the city of Columbus has grown since the article was written in 1962. It seems that, even back in 1962, overpopulation in our city/county jail was a problem. But, even with that said, Columbus was a much safer place to live in the 1960's... "...10-4..."
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Post by David Sechrest on May 12, 2006 20:22:12 GMT -5
For many years, the Goldsmith-Skillman case was remembered as the cause celebre in the local courts. Robert T. Skillman and Lambert N. Goldsmith, Jewish traveling men, played cards one afternoon in 1889 coming down from Indianapolis on the JM&I. The game ended in a quarrel, which grew more violent when the men left the train here. One accused the other of cheating and finally, standing on the platform, not far from the water tank, Goldsmith drew his revolver, fired several shots and Skillman was dead. Goldsmith claimed self defense, that Skillman had raised his grip and was about to crash it on his head. A long a bitter series of court trials followed, not ending till five years later, invoking all the technicalities that a skilled corps of lawyers could devise. Billy Everroad began the prosecution but before it was over, Wm. M. Waltman of Nashville (our counties were a combined court circuit) succeeded him and it was he who caused a yarn the lawyers never forgot when he declared that Goldsmith had used a "Smith & Western" revolver. Congressman George W. Cooper and his brother Cassuis Cooper, Francis T. Hord who afterwards was circuit judge, Dave Emig, and a Louisville attorney, Aaron Cohn, formed the defense battery. Judge Marshall Hacker for some reason disqualified himself and an attorney, L. J. Hackney, was named special judge to try the case. When the last of a series of trials was held in Shelby County, on change of venue, Goldsmith made his self-defense story stick and was acquitted. But the case was not over then. In 1894, the widow, Mrs. Skillman, sued Goldsmith for $10,000 damages for the loss of her husband and after this ground through the Kentucky courts for over a year or two longer, the same self-defense plea deprived her of any recovery.
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Post by David Sechrest on May 12, 2006 20:29:51 GMT -5
John B. Petilliot Sr., who had gravitated from the office of mayor, through saloon-keeping to raising a criminal son, once got in a fight with Columbus' most famous murderer, Buck McKinney, on November 20, 1857. Petilliot took a shot, missed, and McKinney, in reply, shot and killed Jacob Rubrecht, in Petilliot's saloon. McKinney was jailed and a mob formed to lynch him, but his attorney, Dave Emig, talked them out of it and he was slipped away to the Madison Jail. He escaped, had a short and bloody career of crime and landed back in our jail. Again, a mob came to lynch him, resulting in a guard killing a close friend of the sheriff. McKinney got life at Jeffersonville prison, killed a fellow convict, and eventually was pardoned by Govenor Hendricks as his last official act. Again in Columbus, he was shot in self-defense and then nearly beaten to death by his own sons for abusing their mother. He finally was admitted to the Soldier's Home at Marion, where he died December 8, 1899.
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Post by David Sechrest on May 12, 2006 20:35:37 GMT -5
On May 27, 1893, Ralph Drake, a brother of the respected contractor, Lester Drake, registered at the Plymate Boarding House, 630 Seventh St, just east of the Lutheran Center, with his mistress, Mrs. Ida Ward. At the dinner hour on June 1st, he fired several shots at her and then tried to kill himself, but made on ly a scalp wound. Dr. George T. MacCoy, who was passing the house at the time, was called in, found the woman dead and Drake's wound superficial. He pleaded insanity and alcoholism and Reverend Z. T. Sweeney appeared as a character witness. The woman's husband attended the trial but was not called. Drake served several years at Michigan City, and when he was discharged, his mother, waiting for him at the Pennsylvania Station, stepped on the tracks and was killed by the engine of the train on which he was riding.
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Post by David Sechrest on May 12, 2006 21:08:42 GMT -5
John Petilliot was a bad egg, although descended from an old family, his father, John B. Petilliot, having been mayor of Columbus in 1869. He lived with his mother, Mrs. Hannah Petilliot, and his brother, Louis A., foreman of the Republican, at 713 Ninth Street. John had worked as a painter but now was barkeeper at the Bissell Hotel (nw corner of 3rd and Franklin, later the Belvedere). Mary, his wife, had left him, sued for divorce, and was working as a waitress at the Western Hotel (sw corner of 2nd and Washington). John got tight on July 4th, 1890, went to the hotel dining room and shot her 4 or 5 times in the presence of the hostess, Mrs. Shepherdson, and several diners. He walked to the jail and surrendered, was indicted, and eventually tried before Judge Nelson Keyes, being prosecuted by Billy Everroad and defended by Beck & Davidson. He had a rather unique defense: that he was the son of a saloon keeper and grew up to see nothing wrong in getting drunk; and that Mary had ruined his life by infecting him with venereal disease and--after women were excluded from the courtroom--exhibited himself to prove it. He received a life sentence to Jeffersonville, was transferred to Michigan City in 1897, and 30 years later, pardoned on the intercession of Reverend Z. T. Sweeney. He spent his last days a broken old man, with a relative in Chicago. He once caused his sister Hannah to take a shot at Henry Palmer, the saloon keeper.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2006 14:14:04 GMT -5
The old jail at 2nd and Washington St. a short time be for the new jail was built behind it, the time would have been around 1960.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2006 15:04:54 GMT -5
The front of the old jail, this picture is dated May 1969 ??, what year was the old jail taken down. I did notice that the hood of the truck in the for ground is a 1964 Chevy.
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Post by David Sechrest on May 13, 2006 15:13:51 GMT -5
George, thanks for posting that pic of the "old jail." I wonder what the capacity was... By the way, the accounts of crime that I posted last night all came from Will Marsh's book I Discover Columbus. There were a few more cases discussed, but I grew tired and didn't post the accounts. There was one other account that was fairly interesting, with ties to Columbus and awe...what the heck...here it is... The Herman Mudgett Murder We narrowly missed providing one of the victims for Herman Mudgett, alias H. H. Holmes, probably the greatest of American murderers. This interesting gentleman operated in Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and Chicago just before the end of the century, his specialty being murders to collect insurance. By his own confession, which he wrote the night before his execution in the Philadelphia jail, as a newspaper feature to pay his attorneys, he had killed 28 people, but the police authenticated only 14, including that of the 3 Pietzel children who were butchered and their bodies burned in a house at Irvington (by the by, I lived next door to this house around 1979). He married a number of his victims before the insurance and murder. One, the last of his wives, was a young woman named Georgiana Yoke, a Franklin girl, who had cut quite a swath when she taught school in Columbus township in 1890. She, however, got out of his clutches, with a whole skin, even though Columbus got the publicity after his arrest.
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Post by David Sechrest on May 13, 2006 15:22:37 GMT -5
The history of the Bartholomew County Sheriff Department can be found by clicking on this link: bartholomewco.com/sheriff/history.phpDoes anyone know if there were any ties between our county and John Dillinger?
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Post by David Sechrest on May 13, 2006 15:48:48 GMT -5
A pictorial evolution of jails in Columbus. This page came from Columbus: 125 Years
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Post by David Sechrest on May 13, 2006 16:16:40 GMT -5
Excerpt from I Discover Columbus:
The very earliest I can remember, round 1888, peace and quiet were preserved in Columbus by the county sheriff and his two or three deputies, one of whom stayed at the jail to serve the grub the sheriff's wife cooked, and a city Marshal. My memory of the former is mainly that Sheriff Bill Smith's horse laugh carried two blocks further than Yank Schrieber's and he could spit tobacco further than any other county official; later sheriffs were J. W. Phillips and Irvin Cox. Of the latter, I remember only that he was always a deserving (usually) Democrat and during the years George Lewellen held the job, he walked home so regularly at 5:00 (every one else worked till 6) that the housewives set their clocks by him, after spending an arduous day ranging from the court house to 7th Street, watching for the petty crime that did not seem to exist. Frank Harvey, Bill Schooler, and Chris Vollmer were other Marshals of my day. The best City Marshal we ever had, I think, was Pat Hagerty, who not only was fearless, but had considerable detective sense. He held the office for several terms before Lewellen and eventually was drafted by one of the steel companies as a plant officer at McKee's Rocks, Pennsylvania. He and my dad were cronies and I remember when my mother's $180 gold watch was stolen May 15, 1889, Pat devised an elaborate scheme worthy of the great Sherlock, to find it. We had a suspicion that it had been taken by a young woman at Hope, who had worked occasionally at our house. Pat went up there in plain clothes, and canvassed every house in two blocks of the woman's home, on the pretense that he was a deputy tax assessor taking the makes and serial numbers of all watches. He got a lot of serial numbers but not my mother's watch. That never came back any more than did her wedding ring that was stolen by a tramp a year after her marriage, which dad replaced with a new one in 1900. That was still the day of the old half inch wide wedding rings and the gold in that one now rests, recast in modern form, on our oldest daughter's finger. Around 1895, the city added our first real police force of 4 men, all working the 12 hour night shift while the Marshal got his rest. And we usually did have some very good cops! John Ferguson, Newton Clark, George Smitha, who on September 29, 1905 had to kill a fleeing robber, William Allen, in what was then an open passage just west of the Ulrich Building; Roger Dixon, who, in his pre-alcoholic days, was an efficient and fearless officer, Ed Garrison, Dad Hoffman, who was not afraid of the devil, and the other Hoffman (no relation) the enormous Henry, good natured but peace preserving by his sheer majesty of size, who finally gave up copping to become a Prudential 10c-premium collector. And Jim Henry alternated between the police force and selling liquor. This force had no headquarters, either to keep their equipment or where they could be called when needed. Our morning paper had an all night force, and dad invited the police to make it their headquarters, where the few people who had phones could call for help. This required them to drop in frequently (especially on cold nights) and the big piles of newsprint were pretty comfortable beds. When George Caldwell became Mayor, he broke up that arrangement immediately by putting up a little 8 x 10 foot building just east of Crump's Theatre, between the then Donner Jewelry Store and Patterson's Livery Stable, with a telephone. But he did not have the nice piles of newsprint. The Smitha-Hoffman-Hoffman-Dixon force, which I consider the best of my time, was however, given to tippling. In 1902, just before the Republican took over the council, they all felt it their duty to spend part of 2 days in Elizabethtown pursuing a local thug, Leoti Gable, and getting howling drunk, all but Smitha. The new Council fired them all and put in Newt Clark, Charley Shepard, Curtis Vailes and Ed Christie. The J M & I, after it became part of the Pennsylvania, had its own quiet, efficient, unobtrusive force, mainly to protect against the petty thievery of freight cars and hold down the percentage between paying passengers and non-paying hobos who rode the rods. George Bassett served many years as a "merchant policeman" and night watchman for the stores. Lacking traffic, we had no traffic cops, and state police were not needed when it was an all day job to drive as far as the 20 miles to Nashville. We had a few major criminals and the few we had lacked the skill to long keep out of jail, and once in jail, they got an honest trial on the merits of their cases, not on the chessboard strategy of the present day army of skilled legal shysters and the judges who today put much more stress on the position of a comma in the indictment than on the possession of the swag in the prisoner's pocket. And once in the Pen, you stayed there. We were a law abiding community,--or some of us were...
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mrmoosey
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Post by mrmoosey on Aug 23, 2006 19:26:49 GMT -5
George, I think the old jail came down in 1969 but I'm not positive. My Dad was a city policeman so I used to be down there off and on to visit him. Dad also was on Operation Life when it first began. I remember when the weather was warm there was an old guy sat out in front of the jail. Seems there was a cage there with an animal in it too. Can't remember what kind. Eddie Jordan or Cleon Sweeney may remember it.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2006 19:39:41 GMT -5
MrMoosey,
Thanks very much for the date on the jail. I believe the animal in that cage was a monkey, there was one there at some time, also was J Walter Johns the sheriff at that time?. Did your dad work on operation life when it was at fire station # 3, if so I my have worked with him, I was with the fire dept. at the time. Also welcome aboard.
George
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Shelley Kazmierczak
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Post by Shelley Kazmierczak on Dec 28, 2006 21:24:54 GMT -5
I just read the brief article about the Mudgett Murder. I'm in the middle of a book entitled "The Devil in The White City" which is an account of the events surrounding this story. I too used to live in Irvington and would like to know what the address of the house is where the murders took place. Hope it wasn't our house! Could you please let me know?
ksjkaz@sbcglobal.net
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Post by Cindy Sorley on May 26, 2009 14:46:02 GMT -5
Hi, I am searching for any information on the murder of Donna Smith, the wife of Harry or Harrison Smith. Donna worked at the Pearl Street Cafe. He apparently went to visit her and she would not talk to him because she was busy. He killed her because they were going through a divorce or had recently divorced. I know NO dates. Harry fled to Alaska and lived under the name Donald Harrison for a year or more and was stopped for failing to stop at a stop light in California and sent back to Indiana where he did a number of years (15 - 25). At some point a niece took his sister to Columbus every week to visit him so I don't know if he served all the time in Columbus or what?
Any help would be appreciated.
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johnw
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Post by johnw on Dec 22, 2009 15:02:55 GMT -5
Hi, Im new to the site, this seems like the appropriate forum, Im looking for information, exact dates, names of victims/perpetrators, regarding 2 shootings, 1 of which was a murder, in the 400 block of 4th St, (4th and Sycamore), between 1974 and 1980. I searched at the library, but all they have are 3x5 cards with hand-written notes about historically significant events to cross reference to their microfish films. They show nothing about any shootings/murders. I know the name of the survivor of one of the shootings (Samantha Roy a beautician by trade), but I need the boyfriend name and exact date of this incident. The story on the first is, Ms Roy's boyfriend is released from Quinco against his will, he is highly destraught, an arguement ensues in their home, he forces a .22 into her mouth and fires 2 or more times. She survives due to heroic efforts by Police, Ambulance, and Emergency Room personnel. The boyfriend is later apprehended/prosecuted. In the second story a husband/wife, whose names and exact date of incident, I dont have, is divorcing after long marriage, she goes out to eat with friend, husband drives by, finds her car there, she is gone and slashes tires on her car that are facing the street . Upon her return, a neighbor lady shows her the tires, and as they are inspecting the damage, the husband lays a high powered rifle on the passenger window sill, drives up behind them and opens fire. The wife is struck in the back twice, killing her, and the neighbor escapes. The husband is found later in a farmers field having commited suicide. On this one I need the exact date, victim/perpetrator names. Ive been to the Library, the Republic, and Police Dept. Any help will be appreciated.
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Post by David Sechrest on Dec 23, 2009 1:03:31 GMT -5
John said: Any help will be appreciated.
John, I'm sorry, but I'm no help in this matter. I didn't live in Columbus during that time.
The only shooting I remember happened at Paul's Cafe on 2nd Street. I can't remember what year (1975? 1976?), but I happened to be in town that day and a bunch of us went there that night. Some of us took off before the person was shot. I can't remember if he lived or not, and I'm also uncertain as to why he was shot.
The only advice I may offer is to to go through the Republic on microfilm at the library.
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johnw
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Post by johnw on Jan 3, 2010 1:36:18 GMT -5
i already tried that approach, they aren't any help. to access microfisch you must go to info desk and ask for access to 3x5 cards. these have hand written notes about historically significant events that cross reference to microfisch rolls. the person keeping those records back then apparently didn't think these events were significant enough to be noteworthy. the only other option is to go through EVERY roll in the span from 1974-1979. not an easy undertaking! even today, if there were 2 shootings, next door from each other, less than 2 years apart, that would make big news so i'm very confused as to why there is no mention in those cards. i know these incidents happened, i lived in the neighborhood at the time. i also tried the Columbus Police Dept, but it seems all the Detectives and Patrol Officers on duty at these incidents are now retired or deceased. thank you for letting me post and for responding to my request.
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Post by Jason Hatton on Jan 5, 2010 9:37:52 GMT -5
i already tried that approach, they aren't any help. to access microfisch you must go to info desk and ask for access to 3x5 cards. these have hand written notes about historically significant events that cross reference to microfisch rolls. the person keeping those records back then apparently didn't think these events were significant enough to be noteworthy. the only other option is to go through EVERY roll in the span from 1974-1979. not an easy undertaking! even today, if there were 2 shootings, next door from each other, less than 2 years apart, that would make big news so i'm very confused as to why there is no mention in those cards. i know these incidents happened, i lived in the neighborhood at the time. I am sorry that you felt that we at the library were not any help. I checked our card index to The Republic and we do have a crime heading. However, it does not begin until Nov. 30, 1977. I did not see any headlines that appeared to match your inquiries. You are more than welcome to check again (there are 9 cards covering all crime stories from 11-30-1977 until Dec. 31, 1980- apparently there was a crime wave). There are many of what I would call smaller stories listed, so I am sure that if they would have taken place during this time period it would have been listed. So, at least your search can be narrowed down to between 1974 and Nov. 30, 1977. Unfortunately, you have discovered a black hole in terms of available information. Our indexing of The Republic does not start until 1976-1977. However, we have been indexing it faithfully since that point. As you say we started out indexing on 3 x 5 cards and somewhere 1996-1997 we started inputting the information into our computerized card catalog. We do have a part-time employee who is busily working to transfer all of the information contained on the 3 x 5 cards into our catalog. However, the pre-1976 information (while contained/preserved on the microfilm) remains almost impossible to access without an exact date. The Republic has made several strides in making the newspaper accessible online and now can be searched back to 1998. We continue to hope that they will go back further and make more of it searchable. Unfortunately, as you can imagine, it is a large undertaking to start indexing the newspaper pre-1976. We simply do not have the time or manpower to take on such a large project at this point in time. We would welcome it if someone or ones wanted to volunteer to take this project on. Until that happens, we are indeed stuck with the information that we have and yes that means searching through all of the reels from 1974-1977. Sorry! Please do let me know if I can be of further assitance. Jason Hatton Library Services Manager Bartholomew County Public Library 536 Fifth St. Columbus, IN 47201 jhatton@barth.lib.in.us
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Post by David Sechrest on Jan 7, 2010 12:16:50 GMT -5
johnw, believe me, I wish there was a way you could just go do a quick reference search on specific info, but even though our technological advances have changed the way in which we live, it still remains a difficult task to try and pinpoint certain information, such as your search.
The only advice I may offer is to go to the library and go through the papers. I would think this would have been front page news, but having said that, it could very well be that it was "second page" news. Columbus was a much different city in those days, as well as newspaper reporting. What sells newspapers today (I'm speaking of front page headlines here) isn't necessarily the same as it was back then. But having said that, if you really want to find that information, at this point, the reader at the Library is one of the best possibilities.
I asked a friend of mine who's lived in Columbus ever since the 1940's and he doesn't remember those events.
As Jason Hatton stated, the library is trying to index the newspaper articles. That is such a time consuming project. After I finished my index to the 2nd Bartholomew County book that I posted online, I met with Harry and Joe Harmon(sp?), and we discussed the possibility of indexing back issues of newspapers. It is a very tedious, time consuming project, with a great deal of your concentration attributed to detail oriented work. I think that, one day, it will happen, but we're just not there yet. Until then, we have to make due with the best possible way of researching that we can.
I wish you luck in your endeavor...
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