Out of the Box » State Convict Road Camp

I Scream, You Scream, We All Steal Ice Cream!

Roger — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:02:45 +0000

On the afternoon of 18 April 1924, an Imperial Ice Cream Company truck got stuck in the mud on the road between Winchester and Front Royal. The driver left the truck to telephone the company’s Winchester plant for help to get the truck out of the mud. When the driver returned ten minutes later, he saw that a “gang of convicts, in charge of a guard, had climbed on the truck and stolen from it five quarts of brick ice cream and ten dozen Chocolate Coated Ice Cream bars” worth $6.50. The guard told the driver that “he couldn’t do anything with the convicts, as they were in for stealing at the time.” Or so A.W. Warne, Manager of the Virginia Division, claimed in two letters to Major R.M. Youell, Virginia Penitentiary Superintendent. Outraged, Warne demanded an investigation and financial restitution. He added that “it seems to me a deplorable state of affairs when a guard in charge of a gang of convicts does not have enough control over the convicts, or himself, to prevent the stealing” of ice cream. A subsequent investigation by Penitentiary officials tells a completely different story.

A week after the alleged incident, Superintendent Youell ordered J.W. Johnson, the officer in charge of State Convict Road Force Camp 29, to investigate. Johnson’s reply on 29 April 1924 reported that the driver “has certainly made a very incorrect statement.” The ice cream truck, Johnson wrote, “backed off an embankment very nearly a mile from camp” and the driver “left his truck, walked to camp to get me to let him have one of the state trucks” to pull his back on the road. Johnson sent a truck driver and two foremen to assist. No prisoners were involved and the ice cream truck driver gave the guards three boxes of ice cream bars. Johnson could not contain his anger. “I think the truck driver that made this false statement about the prisoners stealing ice cream,” Johnson wrote, “is far worse than any of them.” He added that “I wish I could get this man, if he could be called a man, I would make him prove his statement if I had to spend a months [sic] salary in doing so.” Johnson’s wish went unfulfilled. By early June 1924, the driver had left the Imperial Ice Cream Company.

Transcript of of J.W. Johnson letter to Superintendent R.M. Youell, 29 April 1924

The State Convict Road Force was created by the General Assembly in 1906 as part of the Withers-Lassiter “good roads” law that created the State Highway Commission. The Penitentiary was responsible for creating, administrating, and supplying mobile convict road camps for use by the Highway Commission. The camps were manned by felons from the Penitentiary and by misdemeanants from local jails. The number and location of camps changed based upon the needs of the State Highway Commission. Records of the State Convict Road Force are part of the recently processed Virginia Penitentiary collection (accession 41558).

Roger Christman, Senior State Records Archivist

Walk Like a Man? One-Legged Prisoner Escapes Road Camp

Roger — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:00:59 +0000

On Sunday 20 January 1907, Ed Baker, a “one leg Italian” with “a bad face”, escaped from the State Convict Road Force camp near Williamsburg. Baker, one of the camp cooks, made his break at 6:07 a.m. when a guard sent him to get some wood. The alarm was sounded at 6:15 and a manhunt begun. Baker, who had a wooden leg and only an eight-minute head start, was not easy to recapture. The Virginia Gazette reported that Baker was pursued by several guards as well as local citizens and students for nearly nine hours. Baker was finally caught at 3 pm by guard R.F. Morris – 20 miles from the camp! The guard in charge of Baker when he escaped was fired. That evening camp Sgt. W.B. Pattie wrote Penitentiary Superintendent E.F. Morgan that ”a man who can’t hold 4 men with a shot gun & pistol is no good to me.” Baker was also punished. Even though Baker only had one leg, Pattie “put a ball and chain on that and will give him 39 [lashes] in the morning.”

Letter from W.B. Pattie, dated 20 January 1907 to Capt E.F. Morgan

The State Convict Road Force was created by the General Assembly in 1906 as part of the Withers-Lassiter “good roads” law that created the State Highway Commission. The Penitentiary was responsible for creating, administrating and supplying mobile convict road camps for use by the Highway Commission. The camps were manned by felons from the Penitentiary and by misdemeanants from local jails. The number and location of camps changed based upon the needs of the State Highway Commission. Records of the State Convict Road Force are part of the recently processed Virginia Penitentiary collection.

-Roger Christman, Senior State Records Archivist

Mug Shot Monday: Bob Addison, No. 35074

Roger — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Welcome to Mug Shot Monday! This is the latest entry in a series of posts highlighting inmate mug shots in the records of the Virginia Penitentiary.

On 16 May 1936 at 8:15 PM, Bob Addison, #35074, a prisoner assigned to Camp 16 of the State Convict Road Force located in Fauquier County, escaped. Addison used a fake shackle to fasten himself to the chain that bound all the inmates together at night. He quickly used an iron bar to open the back cell door, fled into the night and disappeared without a trace. Addison remained a fugitive for the next 30 years until his past finally caught up with him.

Bob Addison was born in Tazewell County in July 1913. In May 1932, at the age of 19, Addison was convicted in Tazewell County of assault with a knife and sentenced to four years in the Virginia Penitentiary. He served 2 1/2 years and was released. Addison got in trouble again in 1935 in Russell County. He was arrested for cutting another man with a knife but escaped prior to his trial and fled to West Virginia. He met a girl, Edna Sanders, whom he married in October 1935. Addison used his real name during the ceremony and was captured five days later. He was tried in December 1935 in Russell County and received a five year sentence for malicious wounding with an additional year added for a second conviction.

After his escape in 1936, Addison found his wife and moved to Kentucky and changed his name to Elbert Roy Clark. For the next 30 years, the Clark’s lived in Kentucky and West Virginia and raised their six children. In mid-1966 an unidentified person made the connection between Addison and Clark which led to his arrest by the FBI on 27 December 1966. Addison waived extradition and was returned to the Virginia Penitentiary on 3 January 1967. After an outpouring of letters recommending clemency, including one from the Governor of West Virginia, Virginia Governor Mills E. Godwin, Jr. pardoned Addison on 27 January 1967.

Next Week: Benjamin Gilbert

-Roger Christman, Senior State Records Archivist