1954 Through the Inmates Eyes

Bloody Angola Podcast by Woody Overton & Jim Chapman

In this episode of Bloody Angola: A Podcast by Woody Overton and Jim Chapman you are brought back to the 50's as Woody and Jim cover some of the more infamous stories regarding Louisiana State Penitentiary as told through the pages of the Angolite Prison Newspaper.

#TheAngolite #1954throughtheinmateseyes #bloodyangolapodcast #convict

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1954 THROUGH AN INMATES EYES: Bloody Angola Podcast Transcript

Jim: Hey everyone and welcome back to Bloody-

Woody: -Angola.

Jim: A podcast 142 years in the making.

Woody: The Complete Story of America's Bloodiest Prison.

Jim: And I'm Jim Chapman.

Woody: And I'm Woody Overton.

Jim: And we got some Angolites.

Woody: Right? I love these stories, man. True, true history from the past. Before we get started, we want to say our thoughts and prayers are with all our people in Florida and Georgia that are getting slammed right now, or got slammed yesterday and came ashore as a Category 3.

Jim: And continue to get slammed.

Woody: And it's just bad. And they said they haven't seen a storm like that in 125 years. So, just prayers for them. I guess you call it Idalia, I-D-A-L-I-A. It's just bad, prayer for them. We know what they're going through.

Jim: Yeah, we've been through a few of those ourselves. So, our hearts and prayers and thoughts are with those folks and the road to recovery. You will recover. It'll seem like you won't, but you'll come back. Look, we've done a lot of historical podcasts with relation to the Angolite, the prison weekly paper that Angola has put out for so many years. This is an award-winning paper all over the world.

Woody: And actually turned into a magazine because I had a subscription to it back in the 90s.

Jim: Absolutely. Some of the stories from back in the day, y'all, you just won't believe until we read them. We've had a lot of people ask for us to do another one. Got a lot of messages. So, we're bringing you another one today because we got our hands on a lot of them from the 50s and 60s. So, we kind of cherry pick what we feel like are the best stories out of those magazines, and we go over those with y'all. And I'll start it off. And this is an Angolite from April 21st, 1956.

Woody: Wow.

Jim: Yeah. That was a heck of a time in America, and even in Angola, as you're about to hear.

Woody: Definitely Bloody Angola, man.

Jim: Yes, for sure. And as a matter of fact, we're going to start off with a bloody story at Bloody Angola, and it was a headline. It said, "Two Dead, One Hurt. Tragedy trip hammered a triple blow at Angola last weekend, leaving two inmates dead and another maimed for life." It says one of the two dead suffered fatal injuries in an accident. The second died of a heart attack. Maimed with his right hand amputated at the wrist was a third.

Woody: Wow.

Jim: The dead Charles D. Clarkson, 24, of Caddo Parish. He had fallen under the wheels of a tractor last Friday. A broken rib punctured his lung. He died enroute to Charity Hospital, New Orleans. Lawrence Virgil Turley, 55, a carpenter, died Sunday afternoon at the General Hospital of a heart attack. Injured only a half hour after he had been assigned to work on the Mammoth Press at the Tag plant, Venice Landry, 20, had his right hand mangled under the giant bolster ram.

Woody: Wow.

Jim: Which is the thing, y'all, that stamps it.

Woody: Slams.

Jim: Yeah, slams that steel and stamps those plates. His hand was amputated at General Hospital Saturday. Pretty, pretty wild stuff going on at Angola. And look, these days, they don't give you those reports. Typically, you really got to dig for them.

Woody: The General Hospital really wasn't a hospital. That's when the nurse, the angel-- they call her angel, was there, there was no doctor and all that. It's crazy, right?

Jim: That's right.

Woody: And the language they use in these, y'all, is really comical.

Jim: And you've got to remember, this was a different time. So, you'll hear things like colored and whites.

Woody: It's their words, not ours.

Jim: That's right.

Woody: All right, so the next one says, "Two Fail in Brief Freedom. Wallace McDonald and Norman Stroupe are in a tight, locked cells today following a brief bid for liberty Tuesday night. Security officials said the two took off from the transportation department in Downtown Angola-" That's funny. "In Downtown Angola Tuesday about noon. They were recaptured within a six-hour period by local authorities, both formerly bedded down at Camp H2," the report said.

Jim: [laughs]

Woody: Kind of brief on that.

Jim: Yeah. Basically, they turned a jet-- and that's what I really like about these, is they do tell you about the escapes and stuff. I mean, they don't hold back.

Woody: Downtown Angola.

Jim: Yeah. [chuckles] Well, how about this one? "Cleaver in an attack tried," says, "John Newton, a new prison kitchen worker, was jailed Monday on a charge of felonious assault with a meat cleaver." Yes, sir. "Newton is said to have sliced Albert Johnson upside his head following an argument. Johnson was hospitalized with lacerations."

Woody: Jeez Louise.

Jim: Yeah. So, Mr. Johnson got a--

Woody: Meat cleaver to the head.

Jim: You don't attack people with meat cleavers.

Woody: Bloody Angola for sure.

Jim: That's right.

Woody: So crazy. And then this next one, y'all says, "Heavy equipment acts to rush free houses. Using earth from the miles long embankment of the old Louisiana and Arkansas right of way, the LSP Heavy Equipment department-" That's funny. "Under Superintendent Dennis Johnson was last week engaged in an all-out operation to fill a five-acre plot of ground for the construction of 21 new free personnel houses. The plot is located on the B-Line at the foot of the old receiving station hill. It is to be filled to a depth of 36 inches. Johnson says he expects his department will wind up with the earth fill operation within two weeks. Construction houses will then start, he said." It's funny. They're talking about building part of the B-Line, another 21 houses added.

Jim: Yeah. So, this is back, y'all, for those that may just be joining us, the B-Line is where all the free people live.

Woody: Inside the wire.

Jim: Inside the wire. And this was during the construction of that way back in 1956.

Woody: And my mama lived there during that time.

Jim: And we'll go on to another page of this one. And there's an article, it says, "More crippled birds. A second group of crippled pelicans, each with the wings broke by hail in the recent storm, were sighted last Sunday by deck passengers on the Angola ferry. The birds have roosted on the log a few feet from the shore and near the middle of the ferry landing. Observers said the wings will heal in time and that it is no rescue operation."

Woody: That's crazy.

Jim: And the reason we included that one is, it's interesting that they try to keep you up to date with what's going on the outside. And the only way they know that is to look out those bars in that wire and actually see it. A little story on pelicans. Who knew hail could injure their wings?

Woody: The news of the day, right?

Jim: Yeah.

Woody: All right. This one says, "O, let us spray. An old-fashioned mattress spraying bee was held at Camp E last Monday, under the eagle eye of the unit captain, A. Couvillon. The action was aimed at eliminating any wandering insects who had hoped to make the unit their dwelling place this summer."

[laughter]

Woody: It's spraying for bedbugs, basically.

Jim: Yeah.

Woody: That’s funny.

Jim: And something that you had to do up in Angola for sure.

Woody: It had to be really bad for them to do it for the convicts.

Jim: That's right. And then, we'll continue on. And there's one that says, "Falls upstairs, breaks his jaw."

Woody: Uh-oh.

Jim: That's right. "Joseph Tornabene, Camp H-1 juvenile, fell upstairs one day last week and broke his jaw in three places."

Woody: I bet that didn't happen.

Jim: [laughs] "The adolescent was returning to his bunk after a shower, according to the story told to the hospital. He was taken to Charity Hospital in New Orleans for treatment." So, they're basically trying to say--

Woody: They beat his ass.

Jim: [laughs] Broke his jaw--[crosstalk]

Woody: "You better tell them you fell up the stairs, boy."

Jim: Yeah, that's it.

Woody: That's funny.

Jim: Broke his jaw in three places from a slip. That was one that I really thought painted a picture of the times in prison.

Woody: Funny. I think that's when they had the convict guards too. All right, so here we go. The title of this is "Pocketed Razor Draws Jail Time." Says, "He told arresting officers he was just going to shave, but they didn't believe him. He is James B. Shivers of the STU, and he was caught with a straight razor. The board assessed a term on bread and duck because they said only blades for a razor are lawful."

Jim: [laughs] [crosstalk] Jesus Christ. And when they caught him, he said, "Well, I was just using it to shave."

Woody: "Yeah, I was just using it to shave."

Jim: "What's wrong with that?" All right, how about this one? "Fresh fish leave sheltered cloister as labor beckons. 34 fish, until recently swimming unfettered in the administration unit tank-" And, y'all, when they refer to fish, they're talking about new prisoners. "-At the General Hospital have been screened, tested, probed, and activated by members of the classifications board at a recent session. Purpose of the session was to ascertain whether the fish can earn his bed and board. A few whose records indicated they were unlikely to run were made trustys on the spot. Others who must wait and further test went on jobs under the gun. [crosstalk] 18 of the fish are today assigned to the Angola Cane Corn and Cotton Company as field laborers."

[laughter]

Jim: "In the number were those who will live at Camp A, H and H-2. Culinary work attracted three men, a clerkship and garage work for a third and a welding for a fourth." So, they were classifying them into jobs. And of all those people, 34 fish, only three were made trustys. So, that tells you most of them, they were like, "Eh, you're going to run--[crosstalk]"

Woody: Those three had probably been there before, and then the ones under the gun, that's the shittiest job in the world. Can you imagine, like this summer, when it's 105 and then 116 with a heat index out there all day long, swinging a hoe? That’s crazy.

Jim: Yeah, that’s insane.

Woody: But they did something to get there.

Jim: That's right.

Woody: This one says, "Brown bags chops. John Hunt told the man he was hungry, and he had purloined the poke chops-", and they spell it P-O-K-E, y'all, "-for a midnight snack. The man sighed and put his pencil in notebook and told John, 'Put them back.' But on going through the gate again, the same suspicious bulge was evident."

Jim: [laughs]

Woody: Right. "Searched for chops, were confiscated, as was also Hunt's trusty pass from Pine Ford dormitory, his mail is now being sent to the local jail."

Jim: Which means lockdown, basically.

Woody: That's funny.

Jim: They locked his ass down.

Woody: Extra poke chops out the kitchen.

Jim: Poke chops.

Woody: Poke chops.

Jim: Yeah. So that was from that one, and we're going to do another one here from August 11, 1956. And there's a headline on there. It says, "Angola's Informal Hot Seat. Someone at Angola that I'm not going to name, that I neither know nor care was almost burned to a cinder one day last week."

Woody: Uh-oh.

Jim: Oh, this guy must have been mad at him. "It seems that this 'worker' presumably was doing a little digging under the steel plate that separates the medium from the trusty compounds, which is located beneath the walkway directly below the snitch box at the medium security gate." So, this dude was digging a hole--[crosstalk]

Woody: He wanted to get out.

Jim: "He quit in a hurry-" it gets better, "-when a bolt of sizzling lightning momentarily blinded him and luckily did not fry his hide. His shovel had cut through one of nine cables, each of which was live with 2300 volts of crackling death."

Woody: What?

Jim: Yes, sir. "The soil around the cable was burned to charcoal, and if the lucky bum had come into contact with that current in that cable, they'd have been buried right there where they found him."

Woody: Wow.

Jim: "Take this information for what it's worth and continue grave digging. The Angolite or dig your own grave, literally, with the assurance that the Angolite will make your name famous throughout the state. It's up to you."

Woody: That’s funny.

Jim: [laughs] That guy was [unintelligible [00:15:55] trying to escape.

Woody: [crosstalk] -dig out and dug into the cable lines. [crosstalk] -signs you see, "Don't dig here." They didn't have those back then. Crazy. All right, here we go, Bloody Angola. So, this one's called "Dumbbell Opens Passoit's Scalp."

Jim: Uh-oh. [laughs]

Woody: "Veral Passoit, was removed from the cell block to the hospital, August 8th, with a head wound. Veral, who was removed from the cell block area, August 8th, with a head wound, which he claimed to have suffered when a weight he was lifting fell on his noggin. Hospital records show that he is getting along very nicely despite the 15 or 18 sutures required to close the clean tight wound."

Jim: Somebody hit him with a dumbbell. [laughs]

Woody: Hit him with a knife. Dumbbell wouldn't leave a clean, open wound, it'd be smashed.

Jim: Yeah.

Woody: But they weren't going to rat on each other.

Jim: Mm-hmm.

Woody: [crosstalk] -take your lick.

Jim: And y'all imagine this, now this is the 50s. These guys, there is no TV and all that. I mean, this is the only entertainment you get, and the only way you can keep up with what's going on in prison as an inmate.

Woody: It was a huge prison, right?

Jim: Yes. So, we'll move on. This is February 21st, 1959 edition. And the headline says, "New Prices at the Camp Store." And I really enjoyed this one because I'm going to give you actual prices, but it says, "Mr. James Thornton, Chief Administrative Officer, announced new price levels for many items at the camp store this week. And we have printed the price list on page 6." So, when you go to page six, I just highlighted some of these, and I'm going to read off to you that I found interesting. So, back in 1959, if you needed some Alka Seltzer, it was going to cost you 28 cents.

Woody: Really?

Jim: 28 cents. Cheez-It's, 10 cents.

Woody: I can't believe they still had Cheez-It back then.

Jim: Yeah. No, it surprised me. Cigarettes. You want some king size cigarettes? It's going to cost you 30 cents.

Woody: What?

Jim: So, if you want some kings and then some regulars, 29 cents.

Woody: Yeah, but that was their currency back then. That's what they paid each other with.

Jim: That's right. Community coffee, 40 cents.

Woody: Community coffee, way back then.

Jim: Way back then, and it was instant. Noxzema, 19 cents.

Woody: I was using Noxzema in prison.

Jim: [laughs] That's a great-- Look, they got nail clippers for 20 cents.

Woody: Keep yourself properly clean.

Jim: That's it. Potato chips, 5 cents.

Woody: Really?

Jim: Yeah. Shampoo, White Rain brand. Who knew that was around then? 41 cents. Rolling tobacco, 12 cents.

Woody: Wow. That's a big deal in prison too, when I used to be there and they still had cigarettes, you could tell who was a really poor convict because they had the Bugler in the can or that blue can. The Bugler was a yellow, red, white, blue, and the other one was just a light blue can. But they were the ones that couldn't afford the Camels or the Marlboros or whatever and had to roll their own cigarettes. And the ones who couldn't afford any of those, when the other ones would throw their butts out, they'd go pick up the butts and smoke the butts.

Jim: Oh, come on. Ugh. Toothpaste, everybody's got to have toothpaste. Well, it cost you 12 cents for Colgate.

Woody: Wow. It's cheap.

Jim: Yeah. Vicks salve, 35 cents. And they had Vaseline hair oil back then. That was 14 cents. So, I'm going to take this and I'm going to post it on the Patreon.

Woody: Yeah, because there's a lot of stuff.

Jim: Yeah, it's a lot of stuff, but pretty cool to go through. They got pork skins on here. They got all kinds of stuff. Liver pills.

Woody: Liver pills. [chuckles]

Jim: What they call hives, which are like crackers back then. So, we'll post that on there so you patron members can look through it and really have some fun.

Woody: Yeah, that's funny.

Jim: Checking that out. And we'll go to September 10th, 1955. Woody is going to start us off on that one.

Woody: All right. So, September 1955. "Airport here averages plane per day. Attendance at the Angola airport were a shade busy last week. Logged in and out were three planes." They were real busy, huh? "Monday, the Paul A. Lambert Cessna arrived and departed. Tuesday the Jas F. O'Neill craft. And Wednesday, a Red two plane bearing number N970246."

Jim: Oh, my God, they even knew the tag number.

Woody: [chuckles] I know my mom when she was on the parole board, they used to fly them around the state because more cost efficient and quicker to get them there and stuff. But I can't believe they had it back in the 50s.

Jim: Yeah, planes have been around a while. They were flying them in World War II and all.

Woody: Yeah, but not passenger planes.

Jim: Yeah.

Woody: I mean some, but I guess it was probably military surplus.

Jim: Yeah. "One on the lam still running," it says. "Police in four states--" and I'm going to look up this case, y'all, because I was like, wow, this would be a good one to cover. "Police in four states are today looking for Ray Coughron, 28, a 15-year termer, formerly domiciled at Camp H-2. Donning a correctional officer's uniform, Coughron quietly slipped out of the yard gate last Sunday. Bloodhounds failed to pick up his trail."

Woody: He must have somebody waiting on him.

Jim: Well, they have to have checked out [crosstalk] never heard of that.

Woody: I mean, he had a CO uniform and then he got out. And if the Angola Chase team couldn't get on him? He's gone.

Jim: Yeah. And he did.

Woody: If I was going to run, you--[crosstalk]

Jim: He got correctional officer's uniform. Must have worked in a laundry or something.

Woody: If I was going to run or you were going to run, you'd have somebody waiting on you, right?

Jim: Yeah.

Woody: I wouldn't be running those hills or trying to swim the river.

Jim: And I guarantee, y'all, one difference because I've read a lot of these Angolites between then and now is they don't post escapes in the Angolite anymore. They don't want any other prisoners reading that.

Woody: It's kind of like the mass shootings nowadays. We don't say the shooter's name. Like the one that just did it in Dollar Store, he copied the one in the same city five years before and mentioned it in his manifesto.

Jim: That's right.

Woody: But anyway. All right, so let's go to September 10th, 1955. That's 73 years ago, y'all, next week or the week after, says, "New laundry washes for all. For the first time in the history of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, a centrally located laundry is now handling washing and ironing for the entire institution."

Jim: Oh.

Woody: Right. "Today, wheels are rolling at the new prison and a crew of 15 men is daily turning out clean sheets, towels, pants, shirts, and personal linen of male inmates at all camps. The work formally had been done in part at the women's unit. The other part at individual camps. Set up in preparation for the time when all male inmates are housed at the new prison. The laundry, under the managership of Captain Bill Kerr, is currently turning out 1100 pounds of dry wash hourly. With the mangle of four ironing sheets, the plant will later on press pants and shirts. 'Ten pressing units have been ordered and are to be installed,' Captain Kerr said. A schedule has been worked out to handle washing five days per week. Saturday is general cleanup day for the plant. The plant at the woman's camp now handles only free personnel laundry."

[laughter]

Woody: They want to mix them up. That's your job. Another one building, they didn't have AC and they turned out 1100 pounds.

Jim: Oh, yeah.

Woody: It's crazy.

Jim: And it's interesting that back then, 1955 is when they started just finally having this main laundry facility for the--[crosstalk]

Woody: One thing they don't mention in there is underwear. So, when you get in, they give you prison-issued underwear. But when you do send your stuff into the laundry, most inmates keep their underwear and have their bitch wash them. That's why I say you'll be tossing salads and washing dirty drawers. They'll actually rent out their bitch to wash people's dirty underwear in their sinks. And they hand scrub them with soap and wash them and they hang them and make them fresh for whomever for like a couple of cigarettes.

Jim: Wow. There you go, straight from the wolf, right there. "Prison guard post reaching skyward," this one says. "Those new two-story steel skeletons you see poking skyward with the yellow-painted girders are indications it won't be long. They're the structural steel columns for the new guard towers at the new prison. Each will be complete with glassed-in cupola and searchlight."

Woody: And they're still there today.

Jim: And they're still there today. Yeah. They made them to last back in those days, but built those new guard towers way back then.

Woody: Yeah. The funny thing about those is when you go up in them, the outside doors lock, but they're manned 24/7, never take off. I've worked them before. You go in, they actually sit on the outside of the fence. So, inmates can't get to that door. So, you have to go to the door and holler up at the guard, the CO, and they lower you a key down and you unlock it and it's on a string. They pull it back up and you go in and you lock it from the inside. And it's got a spiral staircase. You come through, like a trap door, and it's a round room. That's where your rifle and your shotgun is and your lights and stuff like that.

Jim: Yeah.

Woody: It's pretty cool.

Jim: Awesome.

Woody: And then a telephone. That's the only other thing you have. You might have a radio, but pretty interesting. All right, so let's go to, again, on September 10th, 1955, says, "Free Ferry soon to open at St. Francisville. According to the Plainsman of Zachary-" That's the plainsman. It is the Zachary newspaper. "According to the Plainsman of Zachary, named The Feliciana, the vessel costs $200,000 and it may take a load off the Angola ferry. Visitors may enter via the front gate."

Jim: Interesting.

Woody: I have to ask my mom about that one because it didn't run for long.

Jim: Yeah.

Woody: Now, they have the ferry that still to this day that runs across into-- I think it might be [unintelligible 00:28:20]. It runs across the river and a lot of free people live over there. Or they'll drive into that ferry and the ferry drives them across and they come in. But this one would-- imagine how many COs lived in St. Francisville, which is back then, you had to take that long ass, hour-long road out, then get to St. Francisville another 10 or 15 minutes, I guess, they just ran them right up the river about a 15-minute ride.

Jim: Yeah. Back then you had to have a ferry to go across that.

Woody: Yeah. There's no bridges. You're right.

Jim: Continuing on. This one is hilarious, y'all. It says, "Voodoo-Hoodoo. You've seen those copper wire amulets and necklaces of beans and so on. Voodoo stuff, maybe. Anyway, Edward Harris of Camp A walked up to the man last week and said people were after him. He didn't elaborate whether he had been hexed or just plain conjured. They locked him up lightly in the sneezer until the bug doctor examines his head."

[laughter]

Woody: We'll call it [unintelligible 00:29:33] of a mental case. The man said, "They're after him, so lock him up."

Jim: The funny thing is with that particular deal is this guy's exposing him to the whole prison.

Woody: Yeah.

Jim: So, these guys, look, they gossip worse than anybody you've ever seen, and they're all nosy.

Woody: They've got nothing else to do.

Jim: That's right.

Woody: Basically, he went to the man and ratted himself out. Crazy. Put him in the sneezer.

Jim: Sneezer.

Woody: "Ex-guard hurt in camp fracas. Frank Peoples, who until last Saturday was a guard was busted back to trusty-ship that day." So, that means he was an inmate guard.

Jim: Yeah.

Woody: "The following morning, he was rushed to the General Hospital suffering with a knotted head."

[laughter]

Woody: "He's resting well on the colored ward today." Think about this, the prison guards and we talked about that was a way for them to save money and everything back then, but at nighttime, they might have had one CO per camp, in nighttime, they just locked them in. And the prison guards in there were like gods. And you can get one taken out, he got demoted, and he got his ass beat that night.

Jim: [laughs] Love that. And we got a couple on this page, and they're short, so I'm going to read a couple. I'll let Woody read a couple. The first says, "Bathing to be enforced." Yes. "Beware your long-eared scouts and men of wrath who nothing fear except a bath. White dormitory at the new prison were all set to give one of their number a dunking last week on account that he hadn't put the showers to use since he entered the joint, which is a violations of the rules, besides." [chuckles] So that was a little short one.

Woody: Even most of the convicts don't like a stinky ass.

Jim: That's right.

Woody: You get some people in there, not only have they not ever followed the rules in civilization, but they don't have any personal hygiene. So, I think what they're probably saying is the inmates drug them in there [crosstalk] ass down.

Jim: That's exactly what they did. Gave him a GI shower. [laughs]

Woody: [crosstalk] -stinky motherfucker.

Jim: They basically forced his ass take a bath. He must have been stinking. Imagine you're working out in those fields all day. Oh, my God.

Woody: Nasty. No deodorant and everything else.

Jim: You would think you'd want to take one. But anyhoo, "Localite knifed in camp affray. Henry Davis at Camp F underwent a ham stitching at the emergency ward of the General Hospital one day last week. Henny ran afoul of a knife in the hands of an unidentified assailant."

Woody: [crosstalk] -he's unidentified.

Jim: [laughs]

Woody: He ran afoul of him.

Jim: Yeah.

Woody: That's crazy.

Jim: Yeah. I love the way they wrote back then.

Woody: I love it.

Jim: It's a totally different dialect.

Woody: Nobody was ratting anybody out. They just did.

Jim: Yeah. Unidentified, I'm sure.

Woody: And again, this is still September 10th, 1955, and says, "Cuts out early, ends in jail. He was trying to get to camp early for dinner, Calvin Mitchell, a camp aid trusty, told officials last week. Cutting grass with a crew, Mitchell was missed at a field count. A chase ensued and the lad was found wondering. They put him in the hole, pending DB action." The disciplinary board, y'all. Crazy.

Jim: Yeah. Basically, he tried to say, "I was just hungry, going early to eat."

Woody: [crosstalk] -get that meal.

Jim: [laughs] Wandering.

Woody: The next one. "Pipe used in knotting spree. When Warren Guidry of Camp of F uses a pipe, he uses a big one. One and a half inches. One day last week, he wielded it with painful and telling effect upon the noggin of Manson Powell, authorities said. Guidry is awaiting the outcome of a trial. Powell is awaiting the taking off of bandages."

[laughter]

Woody: That's funniest shit.

Jim: That's crazy.

Woody: It's like every day, this one's getting knifed, this one's getting hit.

Jim: I'm telling you--

Woody: In the noggin.

Jim: Yes, the noggin. And look, we're going to go way back to 1954, November 27th. And the headline on this one really struck my interest. It says, "34 shot in rabies try-out."

Woody: What?

Jim: Yeah. Now, y'all got to remember there was a time there was no rabies shot. You got rabies, you just went nuts or whatever. And a lot of times when they would get these shots, they would try them out on like inmates.

Woody: New medical procedures.

Jim: Yeah. They would be the guinea pig.

Woody: Drug companies come in and basically pay the prison to get their test subjects.

Jim: Yeah. So, it says, "34 Angola inmates, six of them women, are today nursing slightly sore arms in what is said to have been the first guinea pig effort ever made here in the interest of medical science. The 34 last Saturday and Sunday were given the first of a series of inoculations aimed at testing a new type of vaccine for the treatment of rabies. All were volunteers," the prison management said.

Woody: Yeah, bet.

Jim: [laughs] They might have paid them something, I don’t know.

Woody: [crosstalk] -cigarette.

Jim: Yeah. "Under the auspice of the School of Medicine at Tulane University at New Orleans, the inoculations were given by Dr. DP. Conwell, a Tulane medical staffer." There you are, at the start of the rabies vaccine in history. And who knew Angola played such a big part in that?

Woody: Well, I had actually heard something before about them trying new procedures on convicts, because who were going to complain? And they gave them a couple of smokes. They were like, "Whatever."

Jim: That's it.

Woody: [crosstalk] "-anyway. Give me the shot." That's crazy. That shit wouldn't fly nowadays.

Jim: No.

Woody: All right, so let's take you to the next one we're going to do. And it says, "Count soars, official--" And that's spelled count soars, S-O-A-R-S, "Official sore," S-O-R-E, "Fresh fish may find no room." And then, y'all, we're talking about fresh inmates. "Today's inmate population swelled to a total of 2810, brought consternation to camp officials and worried frowns to the management last week. For the headcount is the highest here since the end of World War II, an authoritative source said. Already overcrowded at most units, Angola camp chiefs have been hard put to find sleeping room for their new borders. The count is suspected to hit 3000 by mid-year of 1955."

Jim: Dang.

Woody: That's crazy.

Jim: Yeah.

Woody: It's double that now.

Jim: And they've added on--

Woody: They've got a bunch of other prisons now too. They didn't have DCI and Winn and all those other prisons back then.

Jim: Yeah. And so, we're still in 1954. And it says, "Here's that stuff again. Like the old saying about the character who, every time he opened his mouth, put his foot in it, last week, The Angolite carried a story about a patch of that nauseous stuff, okra, [laughs] situated just outside the fence of the woman's camp. And proving that the dames don't look into other people's backyards, as soon as she had read the account, buxom Alice said-," buxom Alice, they called her buxom Alice. "Buxom Alice said, 'Where's the okra? Why, I just love okra.' Yesterday at all units the food service department ordered for supper, you guessed it, boiled okra." Yuck.

[laughter]

Woody: That's funny.

Jim: They didn't like that boiled okra.

Woody: They're feeding them-- [crosstalk]

Jim: I kind of like okra myself.

Woody: [crosstalk] -especially my [unintelligible 00:38:15]-- Didn't cost them a whole lot to feed them.

Jim: Buxom Alice, she liked her some okra.

Woody: Right. Buxom Alice. That's funny. Well, y'all, I'm going to read you these next two. "Four men fail to rise, shine. Captain says your neck is mine. Four localites who bed down at Camp A were collared by police at that unit one day last week and charged with failing to rise and shine in the morning, as is customary in places like this. The four, Claudius Wall, Victor Stewart, Howard D. Keyes, and Robert Lewis, were escorted to the camp lockup to weigh the action of the disciplinary board. Because the quartet was asleep when they should have been awake, the camp count was snafued. Nothing will irritate a prison management as much as a fouled-up count of heads, it was said."

[laughter]

Woody: You messed up the count, you were going in a hole. That still happens today. And these dudes just didn't want to get up. That's funny. All right.

Jim: Love it.

Woody: Let me read this one. "Loader whops, hurts worker. Sammy Robinson of Camp F was hospitalized Monday for injuries when he met up with a cane sling while working on a loader near the unit. Robinson is said to have been whopped about the head by the loader slings, which broke loose."

Jim: Oh, my God.

Woody: "He's on the colored ward." Wow. So, I guess one of the things flew off the machine or somebody probably hit him in the head with one of those [unintelligible 00:40:02]. That's crazy.

Jim: Yeah. They're not going to rat each other up.

Woody: Yeah.

Jim: All right, we'll go to 1955, June 18th, and this headline says "STU-", and I'm not sure what STU stands for.

Woody: It's going to be a Special Lockdown Unit.

Jim: There you go. "STU men stage short-lived buck. Residents of the STU, disgruntled over the quality and distribution of the food and a few other items, refused to enter their mess hall Wednesday evening, declaring a camp wide buck."

Woody: Uh-oh. That's right. "When the people came, however, the usual conversation settled everything." [laughs]

Woody: They're like, "I'm about to shoot your ass."

Jim: The usual conversation. I love it.

Woody: That's funny. So, bucking up, y'all, and I've been a part of a couple of them, but they were like, "Fuck it, we're not doing it, and we're going to protest." And Warden Burl Cain, we talked about this on an episode, came in. He said, "Give the first one--" They weren't going to work in a crawfish plant. "Give the first one a direct verbal order, and as soon as they say no, arrest them." You still get arrested. So, bucking up. And the usual conversation was had, probably the same thing, like back then, "We're going to shoot you if you don’t go to work."

June 18th, 1955. "A little girl wants her dog. Tuffy, where are you? A farm-wide search has failed to produce any sign of Tuffy, the six-year-old Boston terrier who was owned by plumber foreman, Harry Dwyer, who'd made his home at Camp E and claimed the yard there as his personal domain. Dwyer says he is sure Tuffy is not dead. His body would have been found by this time, he reasoned. Meanwhile, Tuffy's little mistress, eight-year-old Nickie Dwyer, sent the following message to the Angolite. 'My dog's name was Tuffy. He was eight years old at the time he disappeared. He was a faithful dog and I loved him so. I was raised with Tuffy. He was smarter than most dogs. I do have three other dogs, but they will never mean as much to me as Tuffy. Please bring him back to me, Nickie Dwyer.'"

[laughter]

Woody: I wonder if my momma knew her.

Jim: That's crazy. So, this was apparently a plumber foreman. He had a dog that hung out at the camps.

Woody: And they were all inside--[crosstalk]

Jim: Daughter sent a plea to the Angolite.

Woody: Let me do another real quick, says, "Stray dog round-up now in operation. In accordance with an order from the management, all stray dogs on the farm are being rounded up for disposal each evening. The drive will be in effect through July 4th." So, they were looking for--[crosstalk]

Jim: Oh, my God.

Woody: Stray dogs, they were killing their ass.

Jim: Yeah. For disposal.

Woody: Right.

Jim: That's crazy.

Woody: What if they cooked them?

Jim: 1955, y'all. All right, "What's in a name?" This was a good one. "James Williams, who boards at Camp I and has a Yankee accent, which he acquired in Madison County, Wisconsin, wishes the management would learn that he is not James A. Williams. It's a little confusing at first, but not so very difficult once you get the hang of it from Williams. 'Their James A. Williams lives at Camp A,' he explained earnestly, as our eyes began to get glassy. 'Like last October. I almost went to the Red Hats,' he continued. 'Or November, when they called me to the visiting room and walked me into a family of total strangers,' he continued. 'It's getting so I never know who I am, much less where I am.' Williams said it happened again last week. He came within a split second of appearing before the parole board with a lawyer and four relatives, but not his relatives. 'I keep wondering what's going to happen when this other boy's time is up,' he sighed, shaking his head dolefully. It is an interesting thought at that."

Woody: What was his name?

Jim: James A. Williams. But they had two James A. Williams.

Woody: They probably had five of them. He's from Wisconsin. Boy, you know he was doing a hard time [crosstalk] Wisconsin the other day, it was 50 degrees in the morning. I got in Louisiana, it was 100 degrees.

Jim: Come on. Jesus. Well, James A. Williams, hopefully they released the guy--

Woody: [crosstalk] -Madison County where the guy was from.

Jim: Wow.

Woody: All right. "Busy tag plant takes short order," from June 18th, 1955. "An order for 40 large game preserve signs, each with replicas of the bobwhite quail in the corners, was turned out on time by the tag plant last week. They are on 24-hour duty producing a million new auto licensed tags for 56."

Jim: Unbelievable.

Woody: "Plus hundreds of steel bunks for the new prison. Sheet metal gutters and what have you."

[laughter]

Woody: Most of these, y'all, are just like a little bitty short articles. All right, the next one says, "Knife victim has loss of memory." I can imagine. "Hyde Walker of Camp F was hospitalized Tuesday with superficial knife wounds on his left arm and shoulder. Stricken with a lapse of memory, says he was unable to recall how he got hurt. Security officials suggested that he might have got careless while shaving."

[laughter]

Jim: That is great.

Woody: They weren't even worried about him.

Jim: And they might have been the ones that hurt him. He might have got lax while shaving. Yeah, that's crazy. Here's one I found interesting. It says, "Dental clinic cracks own record. The biggest week in the history of the dental department went on record during the seven days from June 5th through the 11th of 1955, according to their bookkeeping department. The figures show a total of 115 patients were handled. Seven plates were complete and fitted, and 12 others were put into process. There were 51 extractions, 34 marked miscellaneous, and a variety of other entries." So basically, they're pulling teeth left and right. That one week, they pulled 51 teeth. I thought that was interesting.

Woody: [crosstalk] -too many feelings when they could just rip them out.

Jim: Yeah. And I'll give you this one. It says, "Two use razorblade, put cells in stitches. Two unidentified colored women from Camp D were treated for minor lacerations at the emergency ward last Tuesday. Weapons used is said to have been a razorblade. Following treatment for both, they were released and returned to camp." So, they tried to commit suicide. Two women.

Woody: I wonder if they got in a fight with each other. Maybe they did. Two unidentified women from Camp D were treated for minor-- They might have gotten in a knife fight with each other.

Jim: Maybe.

Woody: Maybe it was suicide. I don't know. All right, September 18th, 1954, y'all. "Uniforms for free personnel soon. For the first time in the history of Louisiana State Penitentiary, correctional officers will be garbed in uniforms." Wow, this is interesting. "'Hats, coats, trousers, and shirts are on order and will be issued,' Secretary Chief W. H. Maynard said Wednesday. The uniforms will be of a forest green hue with beige-colored shirts, the official said. There will be no badges, however, nor any marks of rank worn. A shoulder patch will designate the wearer as an LSP officer."

Jim: How about that?

Woody: 1954 is when they had got the first uniforms. That's crazy.

Jim: That's crazy. It had been around since 1901 as a state prison, and it took till 1954 to get-- so they just wore whatever they wanted, I guess. Button up shirts or something.

Woody: Blue jeans and something. Real quick, at the top of this page, it says, "Dixie's only prison weekly, The Angolite." And it gives Volume 2, number 41. Angola, Louisiana. September 18th, 1954, 10 pages. But then, it had this box that says "Warning!!!! Laggards are warned. Monday, September 20th is the deadline for filing your petition for the October Pardon Board. Don't get stuck out."

[laughter]

Jim: Even in Angola, inside of Angola, you have thieves that steal from other inmates. "Dees, the barber shop got looted. The barber is offering a reward." In this article, it says, "Yes, sir. It never rains, but when it rains, it pours. Seems a fella has to get down in bed sick to find out who his friends are. Monday, Dees, the rotund Camp E ex-barber, woke up one day at the General Hospital where he is suffering from a diabetic onset, to find out that his shop at Camp E had been burglarized. Missing, he said, is $300 worth of barber tools and unfurnished leather goods. Dees has posted a $25 reward for the arrest and conviction of the miscreant. Or, he'll pay it for the return of the goods, no questions asked."

Woody: $25 back then, shit, you can always buy a car for it.

Jim: Yeah. And he was basically saying, "Look, if you took it, if you just give it back to me, I'll give you $25, or I'll pay someone $25 to find out who it was."

Woody: That’s pretty much their craft. And each camp would have one. That's an esteemed position, most of them--

Jim: And $300 worth back then? Inside prison, that's a million dollars.

Woody: Yeah. September 18th, 1954. "Free inmate menus now the same. For what is believed to be the first time on Angola, menus for free personnel and inmates were identical last week, with the exception of breakfast. The innovation is by order of food services manager, J. H. Bonnette. A huge saving is expected to result from the consolidation, the food department said. Breakfast in the inmate dining rooms are planned, but for free personnel consists of short orders only."

[laughter]

Woody: I guess if you're free personnel, you can order your eggs over easy or whatever, and the rest of them are just getting shit on a shingle. That is funny.

Jim: Yeah. So, you actually have a choice if you're free personnel. If you're not free personnel, you get what they throw on that plate. I'm going to read a couple of these, and I'll let Woody read the last one we're going to do for you today. And this was a correction from Old Wooden Ear. And he says-- Old Wooden Ear. He says, "Irate Camp Fers have asked for a correction. Seems one Freddie Armstrong, whom The Angolite said last week had been stabbed in a humbug, was not from Camp F, but from Camp A. The Angolite is happy to make this correction and with the hope that if any others get stabbed at Camp F, they won't bleed."

Woody: That's funny.

Jim: Even The Angolite had to issue retractions. And then, this one says, "Escapee, guards play hide and seek. Guard lines were still out yesterday for Ulice Baker, 28, a colored Camp C trusty who was found to be missing last Saturday. Baker, serving a seven-year sentence, is thought to still be hiding somewhere on the farm." How about that? Look, they were escaping left and right back in them days.

Woody: The way it was they're still trying to, but they got a whole lot more security stuff in place, razor wire and all that and the wolfdogs. All right, this one says, big headlines, "Frazier is oldest! A glance at the records settled the question once and for all who's the convict with the longest time in point of service on Angola. Records showed Charlie Frazier--" We need to talk about him.

Jim: Yeah.

Woody: "Records show Charlie Frazier Camp H-2 hospital steward was received in September of 1933 with one sentence of 18 years, one of 28 years, and a life term, all stacked on top of the other. Charlie is registered number 23409, is the oldest on the books. His discharge date, however, is still 20 years away. The book says December 3rd, 1974." Now, look in the DOC, you're known by your inmate numbers. Now, they're alone. Fucking that means he was the 23409th inmate when he came in, ever to go to the gates of Angola. After the Civil War when they started.

Jim: And probably one of the most notorious-- really, in American history, there's a whole big, long story for Charlie Frazier, and we will tell his story one day. He's a tough one to research because this was so long ago, but I'm going to come up with some stuff for him. Just two quick short ones, and then we got to wrap it up for today. This one says, "Toe whacked off. Andrew Peters, a resident of the STU, lost the third toe on his right foot via surgery last week. The operation was performed at the Angola General Hospital." So, something happened, he had to whack his toe off.

Woody: He had diabetes or something.

Jim: And then, the one below it says, "Three and a hassle. Three juveniles at H-1 were sporting an assortment of moused eyes, puffed lips, and other sores today as the result of a free-for-all hassle last Tuesday. The trio, all of whom were unidentified, were given first aid, a piece of steak for their eyes and sent home--"

Woody: And they run a piece of steak with a baloney.

Jim: [laughs] Yeah, there was no steak, I can promise you.

Woody: We need to look in that too, because they're housing the juveniles there now and they're so fucking pissed off about it. But [crosstalk] back then they had women and juveniles too.

Woody: Yeah, they sure did. And so, we'll be bringing you stuff on that. Appreciate all you patrons out there that follow. Look, we dropped a bonus episode Monday just for patrons, where we covered the first 20 death row inmates that are requesting clemency and got those hearings. We went into an in-depth breakdown of each of those, dropped that on Monday. So, if you're not a patron, join Patreon, you can get that. Another quick announcement, Apple Podcast. For those that don't do Patreon for whatever reason, we're now on Apple Podcast as a subscription option as well. You just go to your Apple Podcast app, and you'll see it. I'm going to label all those. It'll say Apple Podcast Bonus Episode.

Woody: Yeah. Also, what happens on Apple Podcast, anytime you go to the Apple Podcast player, and you type in "Bloody Angola," it'll pull it up and it'll give you, like, I think it's free trial for whatever, for seven days. It'll list episodes and everything else. Pretty cool deal, I think.

Jim: If you're not and you want to try it, there's a free trial going on.

Woody: Some people [crosstalk] either they don't know what Patreon is or they don't want to use it. I have that on the regular Real Life Real Crime.

Jim: Well, some people want-- and they want to listen to their podcast through one particular app and not have to go different places. So, Apple Podcast enables that.

Woody: So, if you like it and you want to try it and then get your free seven-day trial and go listen to some bonus episodes because we got a ton of them.

Jim: We got a ton.

Woody: And thank y'all and we love you so much. We appreciate each and every one of you.

Jim: Yeah. And until next time, I'm Jim Chapman.

Woody: And I'm Woody Overton.

Jim: Your host of Bloody-

Woody: -Angola.

Jim: A podcast 142 years in the making.

Woody: The Complete Story of America's Bloodiest Prison.

Jim and Woody: Peace.

[Bloody Angola theme]

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