Prisons of Forever

4/5/2025

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
If there was ever a place where a soul could find no escape even after death it would be a prison, which are full of violence, hate and regrets. Here are some of those places.

Old Gratiot County Jail (figures seen at the window, who or what are they?) c.pre-1939

Captain Charles Gratiot (1788-1855) who built Fort Gratiot in Port Huron, lent his name to the county seat for Ithaca, Michigan, when it was established in 1856. The new settlement welcomed farmers from New England, who went on to establish homesteads, build roads and government building.

It wasn't until 1877 that a jail was built. A sheriff and his family lived on the first floor, which why perhaps it look more like a house than a prison. The upper floors where the prisoners were kept had barred windows.

Despite being located in a small farming community, the Gratiot Jail saw its fair share of drama and housing dangerous criminals.

In 1901, Sarah Quimby forced her two children, James and Beatrice Bailey, ages seven and nine, to swallow 8 grains of morphine. These were children from a previous marriage. She tried to take her own life by taking morphine herself, but survived. She had married Elmer Quimby a farmer a year before, but it was an unhappy marriage. He had left her 4 times, because she would not deed him her 40 acres of land, she had inherited from her husband when he died two years before.

Elmer was arrested, accused of complicity with his wife in murdering the children, and eventually it was proved he had given the morphine to the children himself. He was sentenced for life, and died a year later in the state pen from typhoid fever. He never confessed, and throughout the trial insisted his wife was the one who killed the children. After 30 years she was pardoned.

She died in 1950 at the age of 80.

The murderous pair had been held at the jail after their arrest.

Stillman and Hamp, broke out of Gratiot jail in 1927

Throughout the years, prisoners took advantage of the soft iron used for the bars during construction, and would saw their way out with steel wire that was smuggled into them.

In 1927, Carman Hamp and Lawrence Stillman were held in Gratiot jail on a charge breaking to a warehouse. They escaped by beating Sheriff A.J. Smith with a blackjack and locking him in a prison cell.

Stillman produced a gun and forced the sheriff to raise his hands. Then Hamp hit him with the blackjack on the back of the head.

An unidentified man had frequently visited the men, and it's believed he was the one who smuggled the blackjack and the gun into the cells. This was not the first time Stillman was found to be planning an escape. Several weeks before blades and files were found in his cell.

Ada Reist and George Blank c.1936

The sheriff's daughter was the one who opened the cell after hearing her father's cries for help.

Justice caught up to Stillman in 1933, when he tried to break out of a Texas prison. Known as the "Taxicab Bandit" he had been sentenced to 40 years. He earned the moniker because he forced taxicab drivers to help in the robberies. He was shot by two guards while trying to pick up a pistol that he dropped in a field. This was the second firearm smuggled into the prison during two months.

He was not only a robber but a murderer as well. He had been sentenced to 99 years for the murder of R.E. Ewing a trusty at the penitentiary.

Ada Reist, 19, served a 60-day term in the jail for refusing to answer questions about letters she allegedly wrote to George Blank. He was charged with the "torch murder" of his pregnant wife Bernice on January 5, 1936.

Bernice Blank who was killed by her husband.

George Blank, 24, was a farmer and superintendent of a Maple Rapids Sunday school, who eventually confessed he chloroformed his wife, and then set fire to her body. He said he had done away with her because of her constant nagging about money.

Ada and George had been sweethearts before his marriage, and it was found they had traded love letters after his marriage. His wife found the letters. Whether this figured in his motive for murder was unknown.

He was eventually sentenced to life in prison. Despite having been adopted by a loving couple when he was 5 years old, he had no mercy to spare for his young wife.

The wrecking ball came for the old Gratiot jail in 1939, when they built a new place to keep criminals. It held its shares of bootleggers, rapists, murderers and bandits who might have been one of many shadowy figures seen passing behind its barred windows when the building was empty.

Joliet Prison, Illinois

Old Joliet Prison, also known as the Joliet Correctional Center and originally known as the Illinois State Penitentiary, was built in 1858 by prison labor. During the Civil War it housed criminals and Confederate prisoners.

By the 1870s, it held over 2,000 prisoners. It closed in 2002. During the 100 plus years it was open, many brutal prisoners spent years, perhaps their entire lives behind its walls. Some existed there in obscurity, however there were others that became notorious.

Leopold and Loeb, were two wealthy students at the University of Chicago who in May 1924, kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in Chicago. According to police and relatives, the two had delusions of grandeur, spurred by Neistche’s concept of the Ubermensch. They were eventually caught.

Leopold and Loeb, prison photos

On September 10, 1924, both Leopold and Loeb due to their youth were sentenced to life imprisonment, and an additional 99 years for the kidnapping. A little over a month later, Loeb's father died of heart failure. They were initially sent to Joliet to serve their sentence.

On January 28, 1936, Loeb was attacked by fellow inmate James Day with a straight razor in a shower room, and died soon after in the prison hospital. Day claimed that Loeb had assaulted him. There were two versions of the motive for the killing, one in which Loeb propositioned Day, another in which Day attacked him after Loeb rebuffed him.

After 33 years and numerous unsuccessful parole petitions, Leopold was released in March 1958. He died on August 29, 1971, at the age of 66 from a heart attack.

Richard Speck, Dallas, Texas mugshot

Richard Speck raped, tortured and murdered eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital on the night of July 13, 1966. He was sentenced to death, but it was later overturned due to issues with jury selection at his trial. He died of a heart attack in 1991, after 25 years in prison.

Due to the notoriety, his sister had his remains cremated and scattered in an unknown location.

In May 1996, Chicago television news anchor Bill Kurtis received video tapes made at Stateville Correctional Center in 1988 from an anonymous attorney. Showing them publicly for the first time before the Illinois state legislature, Kurtis pointed out the explicit scenes of sex, drug use, and money being passed around by prisoners, who seemingly had no fear of being caught; in the center was Speck, performing oral sex on another inmate, sharing a large quantity of cocaine with another inmate, parading in silk panties, sporting female-like breasts (allegedly grown using smuggled hormone treatments), and boasting, "If they only knew how much fun I was having, they'd turn me loose." The Illinois legislature packed the auditorium to view the two hour video, but stopped the screening when the tape showed Speck performing oral sex on another man.

From behind the camera, a prisoner asked Speck if he had killed the nurses. Speck responded, "Sure I did." When asked why, Speck shrugged and jokingly said, "It just wasn't their night." Asked how he felt about himself in the years since, he said, "Like I always felt ... had no feeling. If you're asking me if I felt sorry, no." He also described in detail the experience of strangling someone: "It's not like TV ... it takes over three minutes and you have to have a lot of strength".

John Wayne Gacy mugshot

John Wayne Gacy (1942–1994) was a serial killer and pedophile known as the Killer Clown who assaulted and murdered at least 33 young men and boys (26 of whom were buried in the crawl space of his home, 6 remain unidentified).

In 1949, when he was seven years old Gacy was molested by a family friend, a contractor who would take Gacy for rides in his truck and then fondle him. In 1968, two doctors examined Gacy and diagnosed him with antisocial personality disorder (which incorporates constructs such as sociopathy and psychopathy), and that he was unlikely to benefit from any therapy.

Gacy regularly performed at children's hospitals and charitable events as "Pogo the Clown" or "Patches the Clown".

In the 1970s, he was active in local Democratic Party politics. He was photographed with Rosalyn Carter, and he can be seen wearing an "S" pin indicating he'd been given special clearance by the Secret Service.

In 1968, he was convicted of the sodomy of a teenage boy. He served only 18 months of a 10 year sentence. His first murder was in 1972, and 29 subsequent victims were killed after he divorced his second wife in 1976.

He was executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994.

Baby Face Nelson (1908-1934)

Lester Joseph Gillis (1908-1934) was given the nickname Baby Face Nelson due to his small stature and somewhat youthful appearance, although few dared call him that to his face. He was an American bank robber who partnered with John Dillinger, and helped him escape from prison in Indiana. He was responsible for killing more FBI agents than anyone else. They killed him in a shootout.

However he became so reckless that Dillinger refused to pull anymore heists with him.

His first arrest was on July 4, 1921 at age twelve, after accidentally shooting a playmate in the jaw with a pistol he found. By the age of 14, he was an accomplished car thief.

In January, 1931, he was sentenced to a year to lifetime for a bank robbery in Chicago, Illinois. After a year’s confinement, Nelson was removed from the Illinois State Penitentiary, Joliet, Illinois, to stand trial on another bank robbery charge in Wheaton, Illinois. On February 17, 1932, Nelson escaped prison guards while being returned to Joliet.

The Joliet prison was open until 2002, there are two buildings, a men's prison, and another side for women and the criminally insane.

Until it closed hundreds died within its walls whether by execution (hanging, electrocution or lethal injection). Others were murdered by inmates, died of old age or disease.

Old Joliet Convict Cemetery c.1897

On May 30, 1883 a guard heard screams coming from a cell on the top gallery. Inside one of the cells he found John Anderson, on his knees clutching the bars of the door. Anderson pointed to his throat and was unable to speak. Then he fell back dead.

Examination of the convict afterward found he had half dozen stabs in the breast, from three to six inches long clear through the body. One on the back of the right hip nearly severed the leg. The hands were cut all over front and back, and the arms, side, and back were stabbed in several places. The throat was cut, and a terrible gash entered back of the right ear and came out at the mouth breaking out several of the teeth.

His cellmate Michael Mooney pretended to be asleep when the guards arrived. He told them that he know nothing about Anderson's death. He was doing a 2-year stretch for robbery.

A knife was found in the cell, which turned out to belong to Mooney. He said he had made the knife to cut his tobacco. He could not explain the blood under his fingernails.

Anderson's head was removed to be used as evidence at the trial, and it later vanished. The rest of him was buried at Old Joliet Prison Cemetery. He was only serving a year for robbery.

Mooney said that Anderson had killed himself. Mooney would go on to have two trials, and be sentenced to death, but due to a problem with the jury selection, he ended up with a life term.

An inmate at Old Convict Cemetery, nearby is a stretcher on the ground which was probably used to bring a body up the hill for burial (Source-Chicago History Museum)

In 1932, there were reports of a singing ghost coming from the grave of Convict Harman who was buried in the prison burial ground. The marker only had the name and the date of 1895. One of the guards said the convict made the gravestone himself before he died. None could remember his first name or what his crime was.

He was said to rise at night and chant ancient Latin hymns. The word got around, and before long hundreds flocked to see if they could spot the Singing Ghost.

Later it was said the so-called ghost was William Chrysler a trusty who was tasked with going to the quarry at night and shutting off the sump pumps. He would pass by the graveyard and he would sing as he went along. However this story really didn't explain the singing since he was accompanied by a corrections officer during his visits to pumps.

Some believe the prison officials gave this story out so the crowds would stop gathering at the cemetery.

Crowds gathered at the Old Convict Cemetery to hear the Singing Ghost c.1932

The first to hear the singing were the Dudek family, whose yard abutted the prison cemetery field. The father and son went out with a flashlight the second night the singing was heard. Eventually they followed it to the cemetery grounds, but there was no one there.

The singing continued every night between 11:30 p.m. and midnight. Neighbors in the area who heard it came to the cemetery grounds, but eventually when crowds arrived they destroyed the property of those who lived in the neighborhood, and the few remaining headstones were broken.

Since the story of the trusty took about two weeks to be told, some thought the singing could be the ghost of Maizee Odette Allen, a warden's wife who was killed in the warden's suite on June 21, 1915. Her skull was fractured and her badly burned body was found on her bed; it had been soaked in alcohol. Her husband was away from the prison on a trip. Only trustys were allowed access to the warden's apartment.

Odette Allen (1881-1915)

The convict, which authorities considered to be the perpetrator, was called "Chicken Joe" Campbell, who acted as a butler. He had been convicted of murdering his employer after being fired, and had been at Joliet for five years.

Ironically it was her husband who was responsible for the adoption of the honor system at the penitentiary, which facilitated her murder.

The reason it was believed she was the ghost is that prior to her marriage, she was a comic opera favorite.

Chicken Joe would be convicted of the murder and sentenced to death, but then it was commuted to life in prison.

Dining room at Joliet prison c.1910

The Mystery of Herman Coppes

Herman is listed as being buried at the Old Joliet Prison Cemetery located on Monkey Hill. This is an incomplete list, and many have been buried there whose names have been forgotten.

Born Herman Donald Copper, 1910 would be a pivotal year for this boy. The 11-year-old lived with his parents, William and Louise, and five other siblings. Some time between then and 1913, Herman Coppes (as he was known then) ended up in reform school, and was lent out to Manny Sleep to work on his farm.

After a dispute with Mr. Sleep he went to the house and killed Mrs. Sleep and her two young toddlers. He threw the bodies in the well. Authorities were horrified at the ruthlessness of the crime, and perplexed when he expressed no remorse. He was convicted and sentenced to hang, but due to his young age, it was changed to life behind bars.

In 1918, his draft card for WWI was signed by Warden Everett Murphy as his employer.

In 1925, he was a trusty, and he used the opportunity to escape from prison. Soon after he was being sought in the murder of a Chicago family. Mr. Jeske, his wife and young son were all shot. The perpetrator had sex with Mrs. Jeske's body.

Herman dropped from all mention in the newspapers and public records, except until 1978 when he's listed as dying in Colorado at the age of 79. What happened to him once he was being pursued for the triple murder is unknown, and how he ended up being buried back at Joliet's old cemetery, if indeed he was is as much a mystery, so much so that no death date was given for him.