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You are now listening to True Murder, the most shocking killers in true crime history and the authors that have written about them Gasey, Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker DTK. Every week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host, journalist and author Dan Zupanski, Good Evening.
From eighteen ninety five to nineteen thirty seven, ninety three men were hanged at California's full State prison, and this book is the first to tell all of their stories, recounting long forgotten tales of murder and swift justice or
sometimes swift injustice that hanged an innocent man. Based on a treasury of historical information that has been hidden from the public for nearly seventy years, the full stories of these ninety three executed men are presented in this collection, including their origins, their crimes, the investigations that brought them to justice, their trials, and their deaths at the gallows.
This wealth of previously unpublished historical detail gives a vivid view of the sociology of early twentieth century crime and of the resulting prison life.
Readers take a trip.
Back in time to the hard boiled early twentieth century California that inspired the novels of Dashiell Hammett and countless other crime writers. Illustrated throughout with authentic and haunting prison photo graphs of each of the condemned men, the crimes and punishments of a vanished era are brought into a sharp and realistic light. The book that we're featuring the seating is Fulsom's ninety three, The Life and Crimes of Fulsome Prisms Executed Men, with my special guest journalist and
author April More. Welcome to the program and thank you for agreeing to this interview. April More, thank you for having me.
Thank you very much.
Fascinating book and it takes us of myself and the reader back in time to turn of the century, so not the former one, the one before that. So for this book, it's incredible how you came to write this book. So let's go back and talk about your great great aunt Betty and who she was and her husband Tom, before we talk about the faithful day that you at your great great aunt Betty's.
Came to begin your.
Journey into this incredible story of Folsom's ninety three. So first tell us about your great great aunt Betty and her husband Tom.
Well, my aunt Betty was certainly a character. She lived in la where most of my mother's side of the family lived, and she was married to Tom, who was about thirty years older than her, and she met him when she was a teenager. And he was a bookie, and he also owned some gambling clubs, and I know he'd had some dealings in Vegas with some hotels and such.
And at some point in the nineteen forties, Tom went to fulsome to collect from an inmate who owned him, and he left with a box of mugshots of all ninety three men who were executed at Fulsom. Also in the box was a forty page text chronicling the history of Fulsom from oh the eighteen fifties when it was
first discussed, and then up until nineteen forty three. So Tom didn't really know what to do with these, I mean, according to Betty, he really he didn't know what to do with them, and he put them in a box, stuck them in a closet and forgot about them, basically, and he'd passed away in nineteen seventy nine, and Betty found them, of course, and she didn't really know what
to do with them either, but she kept them. She hung on to them, and so, oh gosh, mid eighties, late eighties, when I was probably ten or twelve, she would bring them out, and my sister and I would thumb through them and make up stories about them. And you know, they were creepy, they were funny. They had just looks on some of their faces were scary and funny. And at the time I really had no idea where
folsome was or what it was about. But all we knew was that we had these creepy photos that my aunt had.
Okay, so you're you're a young girl when you become fascinated with this, and you said in your book Very Interesting, that your great aunt was a very very flamboyant person very very striking and very interesting personality. And then one day she came and brought out the box and you took a look at it. So tell us how you come to be a writer, and and then how this project come to fruition for you in terms of the genesis of this whole sort turning into a book and you turning into an all.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Well, I hadn't really thought about the photos for years, and I had been writing off and on short stories, articles, and had written a novel, and so I was playing around writing and I've always enjoyed it. My father was a writer, and so it was kind of just something I did and I enjoyed it. But I had I didn't really have anything that I was working on at
the time. So in two thousand and eight, I was going through some of my father's, my late father's writings, and I came across a copy of the text and because he was going to possibly write about it and he didn't, he wasn't able to do that, and so I thought, oh God, I haven't thought of these photos. I haven't seen these photos. I wonder if anyone has some still, because my aunt had passed away by that time. So I called my grandfather and I asked him, said, hey,
you know, how about those fulsome mug shots? He still got those somewhere, And of course he was like, oh, I was so close to throwing these out. Oh I'm so glad you didn't. He said, well, you know, I don't know what you want with these these ugly mugs, but they're yours. So he sent them to me along with the original text that they came with. And I had really no idea what I was going to find.
I had no agenda, no expectations. I just was interested in checking them out because really at the time, we didn't have Google and when I was a kid, and I had no idea what I was what I would find. So all of the photographs have the man's name, when he was received at the prison, his date of execution, so I had a lot of information to go on and so I plugged it. One of the guys, I plugged his name into Google and ended up coming back with many newspaper articles, some Google books that have in
his case mentioned. So it was kind of exciting. I was like, oh, this is kind of neat, And just the more I searched, the more I found, and I just went through one by one and got as much as I could.
Yes, fascinating.
Now for this book, you have you outline in your book, one of the very first stories is talking about the gang Wars in eighteen ninety two in downtown Sacramento, with the bing Hongkong and the Chi Hongkong societies and the murder of a merchant named Lee Gong. But you also weave throughout this book, of course, the history, the fascinating history that was eighteen ninety five and previous to nineteen hundred and then shortly after and this story goes to
nineteen thirty seven. So tell us about the situation for Asians in California, their conditions and how are they legally regarded and why at that time. So tell us a little give us a little bit of the history that's included before we talk about the particular case of the murder of Lie Gong.
Sure, yeah, certainly. You know, with the gold rush, it brought in people from all over and a lot of Asians came to strike it rich. And I don't think California or anybody really was ready for that. And there was a lot of anti Chinese, anti Asian sentiment, and they were a lot of them were used at force labor, and so many came through Angel Island, which is basically an island outside California where immigrants were channeled through and many spent it was more like a prison before they
were allowed to come into California. So it was it was incredibly harsh to be to be an immigrant in California at that time. There was so much anti Asian sentiment as far as taking jobs, and when you have money and gold involved, there's competition, and it was it wasn't a good time. I don't think a very good time for immigrants in California.
Now, this store merchant was Lee Gong, and apparently at that time, with the two societies, of course you have to have allegiance to one of the societies. So there was talk that this was maybe the reason for the murder. But tell us about the murder itself. And his wife's name was ah Wah. I hope I didn't mispronounce that, but that's her name, and he's forty five years old at that time.
So tell us about the situation.
As you outline in the book about Lie Gong and his wife is a couple daughters. So tell us about the circumstances around before and during this murder.
So, Lie Gong was a cigar store owner and his apartment was attached above from what I understand, was above the store. And two men came into this store and
all Wong ah Wah was in the also. She was behind the counter and her husband was in an adjacent room, but there was a window into the other room where he was sitting, and two men came in and asked for cigars, and according to the wife, she turned her back to retrieve a cigar, and one of the men pointed a gun through the window and shot her husband
and then fled the store. And the family's cook apparently came out and he had a gun and he shot his gun in the air, and he couldn't find the assailants. But the wife said that one of the men had a scar down the side of his face. So police were searching for a man with a scar, and they
found a man. He was she Jen Hayne was in in someone's house smoking opium, and he had he had just arrived in Sacramento just a day earlier, I believe, And but according to witness testimony, Hain had been in this house all day long, all evening and hadn't left. So there was a so much conflicting testimony as to whether this man was there or was not there and what happened. This gun shot had sparked another riot among
the two Chinese gangs. So there was a lot of gunfire and a lot of just chaos going on, and police rounded up Hayin and another man and brought them to the jail, and a lot of people were saying, that's not the right man, that's not the right man. And over the course of I think it was about a year a year and a half before the case, they didn't want to trial, and by that time the cook he had he was nowhere to be found anymore.
And I believed shortly after the child, the wife also left and it was rumored that she ran away with the cook and that the cook her husband. So that was the That was a sentiment among most of the Chinese during that time regarding the case.
What you includes, sorry, go ahead, Oh.
No, I'm just saying there there was no other physical evidence to link Chinhne to the crime, and a lot of inconsistent testimony, and frankly, I don't know that he really received a fair trial.
There was a witness Nam yes so Jim that led police initially to Hayne, and also there was controversy eventually with ah Wab with the eyewitness testimony. Wasn't there there was supposed to be you know, irrefutable evidence, because he'd have this major scar on the side of his head. So there was, like you said, there's many people saying that they got the wrong man. But what was his wife testimony in terms of who had actually killed her husband?
She you know, she didn't know his name, she didn't know who he was. That she saw this scar and it could have been someone we really don't know. Uh, it was really based on her testimony. So and yet there was no other But there are witnesses that said he was never he was never even near the cigar shop. He was never even in the cigar shop. Even the man he was convicted with, you know, he said he wasn't eve there he had. The man that he was convicted with had been shot in the leg from a
previous riot and was in bed at the time. So to me, it feels like there's there was a lot of unanswered questions, and there's a lot of going through the trial transcripts, there was a lot of questions that the prosecution never addressed, which I found interesting and and just so much to me, a lot of doubt when you have so many witnesses collaborating with Hain and you
know he basically had an alibi. But and it could have been that she had seen this man the day before or the day of and saw the scar and and considered him the perfect scapegoat.
Mm hmm.
It was interesting too that you include in your book that this is how the newspapers reported. Quote one of the daughters exhibited as much feeling and agony as any white child under the circumstances.
Kind of explained, Yeah, and that and that's how reporters did, and they how they treated minorities, and the language they use is just, you know, heinous, It was as awful. So there really a lot of minorities, especially the Chinese, you know, once they were arrested for something, they really they couldn't win. They when they when you have the media and with anything even today, and you have the media projecting you as as this. You know, they called
Indians half breeds and these horrible names. You really you don't stand a chance.
Right right.
What's interesting too is that the very first execution in fulsome prison is also comes with it controversy of somebody being executed wrongfully.
Again.
I just thought that that was very ironic, mm hmm. Very first, and you already got controversy right away with with the execution, right, you know.
And I'm sure the information. I tried to find as much information as I could to present it. But in my eyes, I am not so sure that yeah, that he did it. So just based on the trial transcripts, certainly reasonable.
Doubt, right, certainly.
Now you include in your book to the actual event itself, the death by hanging. So tell us a little bit about the ritual itself that started in eighteen ninety five with their first execution. Tell us a little bit about what actually happens. What did actually happen.
When they prepare for a hanging. Yes, well it's typically done, and they start preparing weeks weeks ahead as far as getting a rope, and that was typically made of hemp.
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Stretching it and soaking it in water and stretching it. And I don't know all the mathematical formulas involved, but they had to know the man's weight and height, and so much of that went into how long the rope was cut, how many and how high it had to be strung up. There is certainly a science to it.
So once the rope is prepared, the men who are on death row at Folshoom at least they were in condemned condemned row, which I also called the back alley, and you would start out there are two tiers of cells and of these window lists, they're these rooms that had no windows. The doors were solid, and they would start at the bottom and work their way as executions took place, they would work their way to the next cell and the next cell until they're at the top
and closest to the gallows. And so when you knew when your neighbor was executed, and you would be moving to the next cell, and you're beginning closer and closer.
Well, the next important story that you included this is about Ivan Kovalev. In eighteen ninety three, he and nine other men had escaped Siberia's Saghalian prison and made their way to San Francisco.
And when they came, they of course wanted up.
Of course they lied about who they were apparently, and and so tell us a little bit about how they came to not how they came to San Francisco, but what happened once they did get to San Francisco, involving the media and of course the authorities and anthon.
This is certainly a case where the media worked in their favor. These are men who claim to be political
prisoners in Russia. And uh, there had been an author who had visited the prison like a year earlier and had reported on all these horrible abuses at this prison and the conditions and and so when the US got wind of this, and then they hear these these ten poor prisoners you know, out at sea for have her many days arrived in San Francisco, they there was a lot of you know, they felt sorry for them and felt, you know, we need to give them asylum and give
them a home, and even Russia. I was saying, no, you know, you guys, just send these guys back. The US said, you know, well, well we'll take care of this well, and and they did. And then you know, they they they let these men free, go free. They they I saw a reference that they they put them in on display at a five and die museum and
and then they pretty much then disappeared into society. However, many of them within the next year were back in prison, and ivan Kovalev was probably the worst of the worst. Uh And he and a couple of other Russians murdered a couple, very brutally murdered a couple who an elderly couple who owned a store and their their house. Their apartment was above the store.
Now, by this time, his of favor with the media was probably over. So tell us how the media now treated ivan Kovalev, given now that he was up for murder and these other some of the other prisoners, Like you say, within a couple of years, a year or two, a lot of them were back in folsome.
Oh yeah, absolutely, I mean the sentiment towards them. And you know, I'm one eight, and they and they, and of course they all came out and said, oh, how could you guys do this? How could how could the US let these criminals into the country. So it uh suddenly nobody wanted to have anything to do with letting them in. And we're quite angry. And I mean it was such a vicious, horrible crime too that I think they obviously regretted their decision, but nothing they could do about it at that point.
And he was caught of inadvertently too, with some of the bounty from from the theft, because this was about this woman had a lot of money and a lot of jewelry, so well there was a lot of jewelry, and they found jewelry after they had found this, you know, not so careful criminal intoxicated, and then they found the jewelry in the jail cell.
So right, So he had been arrested for this early conduct and over new years and had been in prison or had been in jail overnight, and he knew he was probably going to get searched, and he put a watch that way he had stolen from the victim and hid it in his cell. And so when he left, he left, and so they didn't find it till later, but eventually, you know, eventually they were able to figure out who he was by talking to people, talking to people who knew this particular alias that he used, so
they were able to locate him. And at the time too, he was wearing clothing from the husband, wearing suspenders and pants and a jacket, so he was certain he's wearing the evidence.
So his trial progressed. Of course, he how did he plead? But the inevitable obviously he was executed. So tell us just a little bit about the trial and the wrap.
Up and then.
Right, well, he claimed he didn't do it. He of course, he blamed his partners for so that he was just there. He was there, but he didn't didn't take any part in it. There was from what I understand, he didn't speak He spoke very little English and spoke through an interpreter. So I think I can imagine that was a difficult for people listening for the jury, uh, to to keep up.
And but he admitted it. He said that he was present when it when the murder took place, and uh, and he basically he kind of lost his mind too. He he was the reporters were saying that he was a walking dead man. And you can kind of tell from the picture he was very his face was very sunken in and and uh, I think he was very haunted by what he had done and his uh when he was offered whiskey right before his execution, he opted
for a glass of milk instead. So and and he was called a cringing coward and was weak and trembling on the on the gallows, and and didn't say a word before he fell through the trap.
As we spoke about in the before the program, it seemed it was fascinating to me that there was even despite the heinous nature of a lot of these criminals, hence they were executed, but there still was a code of honor or manliness attached to how you went to those gallows. So just tell us a little bit about that.
Oh sure, I mean you had you have a little pride your uh what, no matter what you were in there for, whether you were guilty or innocent. And men would be oftentimes, you know, their hands would be tied behind their backs and maybe walking to the gallows, and they have a cigarette hanging out of their mouths, And and I think they wanted to show that they weren't scared, and many of them, I think did that. Others I
think were, you know, the the horrible. I would imagine the feeling of walking to your death, but I was, you know, And I have to hand it to some of them, because they did, if you want to call it, you know, I took it like a man. And it was their last opportunity to say be words. Not always, but they would, you know, say oh so long, boys, or you know, or something to that nature. But you know, and I was amazed by many when I was reading about the accounts of their execution, how strong willed many
of them were. Even those who went to their death claiming their innocence, they were calm and collected.
It's fascinating.
This is one of the more most important stories in the book, and also it has repercussions later and importance. Later is July twenty seventh, nineteen year oh three.
Warden.
You introduced these wardens that, as we talked about before, they are weaved through this.
Through the entire book.
As well as being law reformers, governors that at that time that were in control of the state, and these wardens that were highly regarded wardens at these major prisons dealing with the most serious criminals. So you talk about a warden, Thomas Wilkinson, and you talk about the day they met with guards and inmates in the captain's office, right, and they were acting like a sort of a court
hearing for inmates. And so tell us about what happened with these seven or eight convicts in this office that day.
Okay, So it was it was customary for Wilkinson to meet with convicts in the captain's office to hear about any insubordinate acts, anything, any infractions, and you know, punishments would be meted out and and they would be on their way and.
So and it.
And it certainly was a oh, a controversial method for for a lot of wardens to be doing this because they didn't have weapons, they didn't have anything like that. And but you know, he took that, he took that risk. And so there was about seven inmates who had conspired beforehand to take the warden and his guard's hostage, and
and they did. They stormed the office and one would one grab the warden, one grab There was a couple of the guards in into the office and they had razor blades and and you know prison made knives and it was it was pure chaos and is according to Wilkinson, there was blood, blood falling in all directions and uh, chairs were flying when one guard got beat with a chair, I believe, and and it was just it was just, ma'am.
And what they the ultimate goal for the convicts were at the time now fulsom didn't have walls around they were. There was a river, the American rivers on one side, and then there the other three sides were uh, there was there was no wall. There was what was called the deadline, and convicts knew you didn't cross that line or one of the tower guards was gonna let you
know with his his gun. So what the convicts had hoped to do and what they ultimately succeeded in doing, was using the guards and the warden as human shields. And they got to the armory and the warden told the armory guards to let these guys in, drop the key down, and they stormed the armory, loaded themselves full of weapons, and proceeded to basically walk out of the prison with these guards and the warden as their shields. And they escaped about a mile away and they did
let the warden go. They changed, they made them change clothes. So they sent the warden back in his underwear. And uh they sent a few a couple of the guards back, one of one one was a sonographer, which was the warden's grandson, I believe, And they did keep a few more. They kept I think five guards hostage. And and so
they they succeeded. And let's see, they see there was thirteen prisoners total had escaped, and uh so, of course the the National Guard was called and and it was it was a very intense manhunt for actually a couple of months.
And five convicts you say, were never never caught.
Never recaptured, right, two of them were killed and five are never recaptured. And then the remaining ones were captured. They were brought back to fulsome but right, we don't know whatever happened to the five of them.
It was interesting too, is that they there were reports that the escaped convicts were very polite to the people that they robbed.
Yeah, many of the newspaper reports were all consistent saying that they were juvial. They were I think they're just so thrilled to be out a wholesome uh that they would. Actually they actually left money to those some of the farmers who fed them. And really the farmers had no choice because they had weapons. But they were they were very polite and cordial and in fact many and there's a couple of them who insisted that none of them be violent. So it was certainly not what you would expect.
No, there were two guards that again are prominent in this story and not just in this one story but throughout this whole book as PJ. Cochrane guard and R. J. Murphy, which happened to be one of the hostages along with Wilkinson. Initially, there was criticism right after this, and we're talking major criticism of the warden's policy that not to shoot.
To kill despite these shields.
So tell us what the criticism was and what they had said they should have done with the guards as human shields.
Right, So, the the the prison board of directors was, you know, they were incredibly well, they were angry at the the way Wilkinson had conducted business, allowing and maids into the office and and and doing that sort of thing. But to to not to tell their guards not to shoot, that was the whole The idea is that you do everything you cannot to get not to let prisoners escape, and if that means putting yourself in danger, then then.
So be it.
And and that was that was a very harsh criticism from the from the prison board, that that never should have happened, and they never should have gotten to the armory, and they never should have given up the key, because there were guards who said they had a clear shot of a a few of the inmates but were ordered not to shoot. So things could have turned out differently had he been allowed to.
You talk about a trustee named Joseph Casey. So in the end he gets pardoned for his compassion towards the garden, his role in helping the other side, as it were.
PJ.
Cochrane in the end becomes very important captain of the guard. So let's talk about PJ. Cochrane and after this what he's is he known for in terms of the treatment of prisoners. So we can get into some of the things like the straight jacket and some of the other the other things that were the rigor in fulsome prison at that time.
Right, it's certainly de pant On who you talked to. There were many written accounts from former in mates at the time, who would who thought Cochrane was basically a guard of torture and because at this time corporal punishment was still in vogue and and and used, And Cochran's job was to lace up the straight jackets, which was pretty horrendous. UH, punishment met it out in those days.
And there was an inmate named Jack Black who had written his memoir and had spent much time in fulsome and talked about how many of the inmates hated Cochrane and and many and during this particular riot, UH, many of the escapees targeted Cochrane because of the punishments he had quite.
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You talk about the Jake Oppenheimer and he talks about he was stood the punishment for one hundred and ten hours of the straight jack, and you talk about it. They used to call it the bag. It's like a corset, like very very tight. It was so tight that they would often get permanent in crippling paralysis out of the deal or be crippled from the ordeal itself, and some even died talking about pouring the Epsen salts down their
throats at the same time. And then something called the Iron Maiden virtual vice and the hooks so where prisoners were pulled apart. So this one went on for at least till nineteen twelve you say, at.
Least even probably beyond that a little bit. I'm sure prisons got away with it as long as they possibly could without somebody uh noticing. But yeah, I mean these were common punishments. And I'm sure there are many others that I don't know about, but uh, the straight jacket
was certainly a common one. And they would strip the inmates down, uh and put the straight jacket on them and tighten it with they would stick a piece of wood like a baton, and they threw the loops and would tighten it and tighten it, and and uh they would The inmates would lose almost really all feeling in their in their bodies and their limbs, and they couldn't go to the bathroom, they couldn't eat, they couldn't drink, they couldn't do anything. They would just lay them on
the floor. And yeah, many of them were permanently disfigured or died from this, uh, very common punishment. So maybe I can't imagine.
No, in your book, you have a very very fascinating story that seems and again what I thought in your book was is that even though it's over one hundred years before, there seems to be parallels and very very commonalities with how lawyers act, how defendants act, how murderers act.
And then the psychopathic tendencies that these they have to deny, deny.
So let's talk about Adolph Julius Weber, who is twenty years old, nineteen oh six in Auburn, California, wealthy family, his mother Mary's, sister Bertha, and brother Earl caught in a fire. So tell us a little bit about this fascinating story.
Adolf Weber. He was probably one of the most fascinating to me in the book. Twenty years old, very wealthy, prominent family and just outside Auburn, California. And he was a little odd, a little detached nature kind of kid. He wasn't always that way, but he kind of developed into this odd, odd teenager that a lot of people steered away from. And in say nineteen oh four, his neighbors found his house on fire, basically, and the house
was boarded up. We're all closed up, locked up, the windows, doors, everything, and so they thought the family was away, and so they broke windows to get into at least try to get out some furniture and save what they could, and they stumbled upon the bodies of Mary Weber and Bertha Weber, the mother and her daughter Bertha. And then they also found the body of Earl who was six years old.
And and Adolph was under a tree basically watching the scene unfold, which is where he was found by by people. And he had a cut on his hand that was bleeding.
Uh.
And but he couldn't really say what happened. He said that he had to get into the house, he had to save as his mother. But you know, be given his detached nature, no one really saw this as odd, uh, just because he was an odd character. But what turned out once the the fire had by the next day, they found the body of his father with a bullet wound, and then his mother and sister also had bullets in
him as well. So it had turned quickly to what may have been an accident a fire was a cover up of a murder.
Also, at the same time, there's a bizarre bank robbery that had occurred previously, where this brazen robber jumped over the counter, stole six thousand dollars, shot at a clerk, and escaped with a horse and cart into the hills. The officials officially eventually found the band it's false beard shirt and overalls. Tell us what the connection is with this bank robbery and this murder.
Well, the money was found buried outside of the weber barn, so the money that was stolen and that. So once they found the money, it was pretty easy to kind of put the dots together and determine that this agile robber was likely the same. Well, it was likely ate off and there was a I'm trying to remembercause some of the I know there was a there was a gun used at the bank robbery, and then a gun used for the murders. And there was a gun store owner who was able to identify Aidolf as the one
who purchased the gun from him. So, but once they found the money buried, they pretty much knew that Adolf was behind the robbery about six months earlier, and it was proposed that the reason he killed his family was because his father his parents had found out about the robbery and he wanted to silence them.
Basically, it's interesting too what money did for you at that time, not so dissimilar to what money can do for you in terms of defense now. For robbing the bank, he settled out of court, returning sixty seven hundred dollars he had received, and at the law at the time, he received seventy one thousand dollars from his father's estate.
Right, yeah, I mean at the time, there were no laws. There was nothing that could stand in the way from someone a murderer inheriting the fortune of those he murdered. And because of that, there was a law enacted to prevent anything like that from ever happening again. So yeah, it was insane. It was insane. The money that he inherited basically paid for his defense.
And his defense too was really Again what again parallels to today was that it was very ambitious. They said he was paranoid and hallucinated in an insane at the time of the murder. Was he had nervous symptoms and they talked about sexual drive.
And so it really was.
They tried as hard as they could. It was a vigorous defense, wasn't it.
It really was. And the thing was that there was there really was no physical evidence that linked him to the murders whatsoever, And it was all circumstantial. However, you know, he did it. It was just it was it all led to him and his you know, and there was some eyewitness testimony of his behavior and where he was. You know, he said he went for this job and this woman saw him and she happened to be a prostitute.
So they tried. Of course, the defense tried to discredit her because of her profession, but even I mean even his defense, and they didn't really have a lot. He didn't really have He didn't have an alibi, but there were so many things that pointed to him doing it, from the people he ran into in town to his behavior. It just but you know, he continued to proclaim his innocence to the end.
Yeah, that's amazing.
Your next story or part of your book, you talk about California again at this time in the Pacific Electric Railway offering low cost mass transit to the southern part of the state, and they talk about a San Jose air show in nineteen ten, the first motion picture in Los Angeles in nineteen ten, and then the mining explosion.
We already talked about Angel Island and what that ended up being, but there was sort of a they consider this under governor Hiram Johnston became a governor and then talked about how it was considered a progressive era unprecedented reform against the railroads corruptive regime. But also what that led to in terms of rights for women and also prison reform. So tell us a little bit about that.
Yeah, I mean it was that was such as a big time for California during during that time because you had the railroads. It was such a monopoly and they controlled the waterways, they controlled uh so much. And the citizens were sick of it. They're tired of it, and they know women suffrage and uh, you know, they were
looking for change. They were looking for some forward thinking and tired of the status quo, and so you know, and and minorities were rising and demanding rights and just alongside the women, and and as far as the prison goes, uh, it was also a time to reform prisons and the treatment that the inmates were receiving, and and so it was it was a huge time for California during that that that era.
It's interesting the reforms included. It seems amazing that they were they were that insightful at that time that there was parole now was available for low risk offenders, and they separated they thought, way, we should separate first time offenders from hardened convicts, and they abolished corporal punishment in prison and and built a farm, making the prison self sustaining. So the system under James A. Johnston warden and Hiram Johnston very interesting.
And in these.
Reforms he was such a reformer. He was moved to San quent and implemented reforms there. So these really the people that were wardens and the governors at the time were major prison reformers.
Well, yeah, some of them were, not all of them, but those two absolutely, and especially Johnston he uh he was still well respected and in the in the prison penal system. And uh, not only did he go to San Quininey also all was at Alcatraz. So yeah, he saw he saw how you treat people and and and what you're going to get in return. And so you know, he knew that you shooting with somebody with respects, regardless of what they did, regardless of why they were in prison,
you're going to get respect back. And and that was something I think previous wardens didn't quite understand. I mean, to them, these these prisoners were were there for reason, They're there to be punished and and and the more that they rebelled the worst. The punishment would and there was no mutual respect, and then there was always chaos.
There are riots, there are uprisings. But Johnson sawt differently, where you you give these inmates something, I don't know if you want to call it, give them something they live for, but you you give them something, they'll give you something back. And it created an environment where there could be peace finally, at least for a little while in a very volatile place.
Yeah, you talk about James A.
Johnston did more changes at Folsome in one year than anyone else in history. And we talked interesting, you're talking about humane treatment. This is an extreme example of.
That.
In terms of.
Jacob Jacob Oppenheim, we talked about him before and during the one hundred and ten hours of the Straight Jacket, and he was in solitary for years.
So they called him the human Tagger.
And apparently him and Warden Johnston, you know, they weren't friends, but they came friendly and john and the Human Tagger was called the worst criminal in California. They spent eighteen years in solitary. So tell us about a little bit about this condemned man, because he's there's a very interesting and complex character and a very good writer in terms
of he wrote an autobiography called The Condemned Man. So tell us more about this fascinating interaction with Human Tagger Oppenheimer and Warden Johnston.
Right, he was that he was probably of my if I had to pick a favorite, operenhimers probably my favorite, just because he was so fascinating and for what he had been through, for what he had been dealt. He had this and the fact that he was in solitary confinement for about sixteen eighteen years was his amazing insight
into the outside world and the human psyche. And and his writings were beautiful and poiant and insightful and very unlikely, I expose you would expect of someone who spent so much time in solitary and who was also considered the human Tiger, and that he had this vision that he ripped people apart, and it really it really wasn't the case. And Johnson saw this in him. He saw that this is a human being, and there's a reason that maybe he is this way. There's a reason he lashes out.
And you know, he approached him human to human and to find out really more about him, and they did end up kind of striking up this friendship which then also led to Oppenheimer. I think it demystified him in a way to the next warden who came in after Johnston, because he I think they under they were able to understand Oppenheimer a little more based on Johnston's experiences with him.
Well, the Human Tagger though too was didn't like his confines, so he wanted to escape. He had pioneered this use of sort of like a Morse code with certain taps meaning certain things. And so he tried to escape, and the guy that ratted him out, he killed them. And so he would talk about why he killed all those men.
He said self defense, right, yeah.
Yeah, I mean he says, you know, they goaded him, They egged him on, and and I think Oppenheimer had become this, I don't know, this strange figure in this prison because he bounced back from San Quentin to fulsome back and forth and kind of became this legendary figure I think to some of the inmates. And and he was a slight of stature. He is a small man, and and you know, I think a lot of the inmates probably goaded him. And not to say that it
was right, what Oppenheimer had done. But in a way he kind of was this cage tiger that when he was let out, he he had revenge to to act out, so he had and he had a lot of time on his hands, so he had a lot of time to plan and these types of things. So he was he was a fascinating figure.
Yeah, he said.
It was like eloquent writer too, it seems. And and also that he had a certain charm. There was four thousand people at that time that signed documents not wanting him to be executed to Governor Johnson. And his lawyer, which was a really good lawyer at that time, worked pro bono for six years on his behalf right.
He really believed in him, and and yeah, he was. He had a lot of supporters outside of the prison and certainly a lot of women admirers who sent him flowers and chocolates and things like that. But there was a lot of people, including like his attorney, who really believed he kind of got the raw end of the deal and that you know, he deserved much better treatment
than what he was given. So and his his lawyer believed in him and believed in his case and believe that he at least deserved to be not in solitary confinement anymore, and he deserved to be with the other inmates and to have more of a life that other than living in this small, lightless cage.
Basically, yeah, we don't have enough time to go through all of the stories, but one that we really want to talk about too is a little bit about sort of a modern application of the working criminals working outside of a prison. And in nineteen fourteen they started work on the California highways, which was really interesting. You talk about they would work two days, get one day off
their sentence. But just what I found interesting was that they you said that had ten thousand inmates worked over this period of time, and one hundred and two escaped and never were captured.
Tell us a little bit about this.
Well, I wish I knew more about that, but I mean, I think it was pretty amazing accomplishment to have that many inmates out outside of the prison walls, ten thousand, and only having one hundred of them actually escape, and many of them just walked away from what they were doing. They walked away from the building, the roads and were
never heard from again. Likely most of them who were taking part of this program were pretty low level criminals who were were eventually probably serving short sentences perhaps or who weren't considered danger to society. But you know, I mean it happened, and I mean it was probably very tempting for them to be able to do that. So but what it's it was a very successful program. And even today, Department of Corrections uses inmates for various forestry
and fire protection projects and park maintenance. So so it's certainly been a program that's been around for a long time and and has proven to be successful.
One of the more interesting historical facts that I found in your book, which again very very fascinating, was you talk about the Industrial Workers of the World and a uniform wage that they worked for in nineteen oh five, and they're the only union at that time that that would welcome all races and immigrants. But what I thought most fascinating is that you talk about how they were lynched, tortured, and imprisoned because they wouldn't support World War.
One, right right exactly. And you know, they did accept minorities, and they did so they certainly with that alone, were considered outcasts in our way, and there was a stigma attached to these workers that they were sugs, and I'm patriotic, and you know that they were always out for trouble and and know it was unfortunate that that stigma was attached to those particular workers.
You also talk about prohibition in nineteen nineteen and all the corruption that went from there and how that affected the prison population and society. And also the golden age of the klu Klux Klan with apparently four to five million members in nineteen twenty five. So that's very, very interesting, and an anti lynching bill defeated in nineteen twenty two, twenty three, and twenty four. That's an anti lynching bill, folks. Let's get to one of the most colorful characters in
your book, and especially because of the crime. And I can't believe I'm reading this crime that many years ago, because it sounds like something that could happen right about now. And that's Alex Kells in nineteen twenty four, a wealthy butcher and his associate Edward master b I believe, So tell us about Lodi, California and Alex Kels.
Well, Alex Kells, he was a very successful butcher in Lodia, California, and he, however, was in debt apparently, so he had to sign him the best way out. Well, I should back up. He he was married and had a nine year old daughter, and his wife was pregnant. So what
Kel's decided to do was stage his own death. And what he had done was he had met Edward Missourvei at a unemployment agency and told him that he could use some work on his ranch and he would pay him room and board, and I think it was like two fifty a day, two dollars and fifty cents a day. And later that evening they found Kel's car backed into a haystack. It was on fire, and there was a body in the back seat, and his personal effects such
as keys, were in the pockets. So what happened was that Kels killed this man, put him in the car, set the car on fire, and left. And he was on h for a few months. And and what's interesting too, is that somebody he knew recognized him in Nevada, and the poor man thought he had seen a ghost. And and but Alex Kells kept on and eventually was found uh in a in Eureka, California, ready to commit suicide.
And when he was found. He was actually found by law enforcement from Lodi, who he knew and had known for years, and they brought him back to Lodi, and he had just asked that no one tell his wife that he was alive. So it was fascinating to me that for months his wife did not know that he was alive and sitting in jail, uh, you know, pleaded guilty and was going to be hanged. And she was pregnant,
and nobody wanted to tell her this because she was pregnant. Obviously, they they thought it was a danger to her health and the help of the baby, so to be, this town kind of conspired together to protect this woman from the truth. So it was it was just a fascinating to me.
It's interesting, despite the betrayal of her husband, she's a staunch supporter, not wanting him to be executed and claimed he was insane, and and she worked to appeal to the governor.
Right she did. She she spent a lot of time at the Governor's office, even right up until you know,
even on Christmas Eve, she was there. And I mean that she knows so much more, but nobody asked her and so she you know, she said she's very very bitter really that she was not told sooner that her husband was had been captured, and that there were these months that went by where she could have presented evidence that supported this theory that he was insane, that there that he wasn't right in the head, and that there was a lot of things that happened that she felt
that he exhibited a lot of these hallucinations and paranoia that would for her explain why he had had killed this man.
Very interesting too, that she received forty two thousand dollars from insurance policies eventually.
See how she did. See how these laws are changed, can't you?
Oh? Yeah, absolutely, just by right, I could say obviously it was fraud to get insurance money, and yet here she was able to collect a good portion of it.
Let's talk about before we have to let you go about PJ. Cochrane. He was killed at a rock quarry.
In nineteen twenty four and he had worked between he had worked at Folsom between eighteen ninety one and nineteen twenty four. So then also tell us just a little bit about nineteen twenty seven what the impetus was for, or you talk about the habitual criminal legislation the very similar to the three strikes and you're out now. So tell us a little bit about what seemed to happen there and that the new law.
Yeah, the habitual crime was to I'm trying to find I haven't looked at this in a while. It was to keep habitual criminals kind of like well what you see mandatory tentency and laws today and two basically keep habitual criminals in as long as they possibly could, and kind of much like the three strikes your outlaw. I haven't looked this up in so long, and we have to excuse me for well, that's okay, answer what.
You did talk about that it was just the you know, the times, and Fulsome was expanded to fit more inmates, so there was, and you talk about the advent of automobile parks. So we don't again, we don't have enough time to go into all of these fascinating stories. But you talk about the again, the years nineteen thirty seven, executions were were not done anymore by hanging. So tell us about the end of that era at Folsome and what it transpired or what it transformed to was the next step.
So in May of nineteen thirty seven, California had decided to abandon hanging and all executions would take place at San Clinton at the gas chamber. So, you know, it was said that the gas chamber would be more humane and that hanging wouldn't be hanging with so violent of an act that and that the gas chamber would be much more calm and soothing, and that it was a better way to execute inmates, which really was quite the opposite.
It was pray is from what history has said, it's a very awful, very painful way to die, was in the gas chamber. But regardless, Governor James Ralph Junior vetoed saying that the gas chamber will be experimenting with human misery. Uh, whereas San Quinton Warden basically said that the purpose is to remove these convicted people from society, and how it's done mattered very little. So it eventually has now changed the lethal injection and it's still still is occurring at
San Quentin. But FOLSOM did their last execution in nineteen thirty seven.
It's ironic that there's still there's still debate and also issue and problems with execution.
Isn't there? Yeah?
Absolutely, I mean I you know, if you ask me, there's just really probably no humane, clean, simple way to execute someone. And and there's it's such a each each method is so has its own flaws and uh and like now it's there's lethal injection is very uh tend
to be flawed and botched. A lot of the inmates who are drug users have very unusual veins, so it's very difficult for people to administer that the drugs, and oftentimes the drugs don't do what they are supposed to do because they give them three drugs and one is supposed to render them unconscious, and uh, it doesn't always happen. And so when they give them the next drug, there they're experiencing the pain of their bodies shutting down when
they shouldn't be. So so many things have happened, Power outages have occurred. You have people who are administering these are nervous, and some have been even intoxicated, and states don't require someone to even stay with the inmates to even ensure deep unconsciousness. So and sometimes these drugs can paralyze them so they're unable to speak or move and
no one would know that they're still awake. So there's just I think there's a lot to be still figured out with this, and again, just doing a lot of the research with my book, I really feel there was you know, eight or nine of these men who were innocent. So I think until there's you know, we can ensure that everyone who's on death row is truly guilty. I think, right, It's just it's too much to gamble with.
Well, the advent of any kind of wrongful conviction in terms of someone being killed on that wrongful conviction, I guess throws out the whole idea that you know, you rather let nine guilty gold than rather one innocent be convicted. While I mean, I guess that's his lip service. Before I let you go, I just wanted to mention to the readers. I just again to implore them that this
book is chock full of these fascinating stories. And I'll just leave our audience with this headline for the story about Alfred Bollinger and his wife Eva and somebody named Alex Summers, and the headline in a newspaper was missus Eva Ballinger of Marysville tells her harrowing experiences as bride of men with bloodlinew was the headline where a woman ends up having the misfortune of having four out of her five husbands being killers. You know, what are the odds.
So again, if you think some of this stuff is new, it's old. So it's a very very fascinating book including all of these stories and then the historical background that is necessary to really fully understand the times and the feelings and the emotions at that time and how things changed from really harsh treatment to a rehabilitation method basically imprisoned, self sustaining farms, payment of prisoners, freedom rights for prisoners.
So very very interesting story of you included all of this and a wonderful, wonderful trip down memory lane in terms of true crime. So I want to thank you very much for that.
Thank you.
Now, if somebody were interested in I don't know if you have a website or if you do the Facebook thing, tell us how people might contact you if they're so interested. And of course this book is all over Amazon and Barnes and Noble, so easy to find, probably an ebook format as well as paperback. So tell us a little bit about if somebody wanted to contact you, will find more about this story or anything else you've done.
Are going to do.
Sure, I'd be happy to talk with anyone who's interested. They can find out more information on my website called Folsom's ninety three dot com and I blog about some of the stories I came across during my research. But you can also reach me through that, or you can go to Apriljmore dot com. And yeah, like I said, the book is on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and yeah, it should be easy to find.
Absolutely.
I want to thank you very much April Moore coming on and talking about Fulsome's ninety three The Life and Crimes of Fullsome Prisons Executed Men. Thank you very much for coming on and talking about it. Thank you, thank you, and have a great evening.
Good night, good night.
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