Inmates of the Idaho Penitentiary 1864-1947 - Idaho State Historical ...

IDAHO STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY19151916Oscar Neilsen (no. 2309) was convicted of burglary after being “discovered in a dry goods store on a Sunday morning standing nearthe shirt counter where working mens’ shirts were kept, picking out a shirt for himself.” According to the prosecutor, “There wasno evidence of any intention to get anything but things which he needed for himself.”1917Lee Ross (no. 2402) was convicted of burglary, and his father (Daniel Ross no. 2401), brother (J D Ross no. 2403), and stepmother(Mamie Ross no. 2404) of receiving stolen property, thus, reportedly, bringing an end to a string of burglaries in Albion, Marshfield, andsurrounding areas of Cassia county. Mamie Ross was pardoned 10 months later, so that she could care for her “infant child.”191819191920Lee Roy Rice’s (no. 2738) mother senthim a lock of her hair with a letter:“Abner got up & beat it three weeksago last night at about 11 oclock andleft me with just 20¢ and not a speck offeed for the stock and I have sure hadsome time to get things straightenedout. George Philips and Jack Murphyhas been helping me to put in somegarden and water the stock for meand George went after a load of hayfor me so the stock wouldent starve.I wouldent mind it so much if my leaseon the place was all paid so they couldnot set me out of a home.”Gust Haraldson (no. 2828) began a two-year term in the penitentiary for beinga member of the International Workers of the World while employed on theconstruction of the “North & South State Highway.” Haraldson “was indifferent asto the purposes of the organization as long as he secured employment,” accordingto the prosecuting attorney and Second District judge who, along with the sheriff ofIdaho county, offered character references.192119221923Otto Weibel (no. 3106) was transferredto the “Idaho State Sanitarium” inNampa on the recommendation of theprison physician. Thirty-six years laterin 1959, the institution’s superintendentattempted to return Weibel to thepenitentiary stating: “Otto’s hearingdifficulty has, no doubt, handicappedhis learning to a great extent... There isnothing in this which would make himeligible for continued care at a schoolfor a mentally deficient person.” Inresponse, the Board of Correctiongranted Weibel a discharge, postdatedto 1936, on the expiration of hismaximum sentence.Seventeen-year old Lester Thompson(no. 3288, later no. 4372) set fire tothe floor of the Idaho Industrial Schooladministration building. While theFremont county prosecutor arguedthat Thompson “has frankly confessedhis faults and there is, of course, achance for reformation,” prison intakerecords classed him as a “criminal type”because of the shape of his ears (beingsmall and “close to head”).Frank Coleman (no. 3244) wasincarcerated for stealing 28 sacks ofgrain, after a series of misfortunes:Drought in 1918 forced his familyto leave a farm in Iona. In 1920 theReclamation Project denied waterto the parcel of land he filed underthe Cary Act in King Hill. In 1922,a series of miscommunications witha Fairfield “real estate man” left hisfamily homeless. The prosecutingattorney wrote: “Upon beingaccused he immediately confessed,saying that he was up against it, andmade no plea for mercy whatever. Icannot understand him he seemedwilling and ready to go to the pen.”1924After two years’ in prison for murder, Dong Sing (no. 3171) and Lo Ming (no. 3172) were pardoned. Petitioners successfully arguedthat the trial and subsequent appeal to the Supreme Court had been prejudiced, “as is usual in all Chinese murder trials.”During negotiations to deport Rebecca Chacon (no. 3044) at her own expense, federal immigration officials offered to reduce costsby not hiring a female guard, if Chacon would “guarantee to make no complaint of her treatment by Immigration officers.”While at home in Emmett on parole, Sam Galdus (no. 2928) received a curt letter admitting that the penitentiary had failed toinform him that he had been “released under expiration of sentence” seven months earlier: “The Attorney General called us up andrequested that we write you. So you are Free. Very truly yours, WARDEN.”xviii