Nov. 8, 2024

The Penitentiary Past: The Birth of Louisiana’s Most Brutal Prison

The Penitentiary Past: The Birth of Louisiana’s Most Brutal Prison

In this episode of "Bloody Angola," Jim Chapman explores the intricate history of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, tracing its history during its time as a Louisiana plantation. Jim discusses the early land grants and key figures like Francis Routh...

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Season 7

In this episode of "Bloody Angola," Jim Chapman explores the intricate history of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, tracing its history during its time as a Louisiana plantation. Jim discusses the early land grants and key figures like Francis Routh and Isaac Franklin, whose actions laid the groundwork for Angola Prison’s grim legacy. Jim highlights the transformation of the property, detailing the consequences of harsh management practices post-Civil War and the suffering of inmates under a brutal labor system. As he the penitentiary's development through the 20th century, Jim addresses themes of exploitation, reform efforts, and the ongoing struggles of the brutal prison in its early years.

#louisiana #prison #Angola #bloodyangola #podcast #incarceration

Chapters
04:34 The Origins of Angola Plantation
13:06 The Acklan Family Legacy
20:10 Civil War Challenges
23:58 Samuel James and Prison Management
31:42 The State Takes Over
38:27 Prison Conditions in the 1930s
41:09 Reform and Decline in the 1950s

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WEBVTT

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H a wall, street line, shackle change, Oh someome gird,

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it's calling my name.

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There is no mercy and it's been a tentery juice

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as the hill Stream game Rango the three.

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I'm here be.

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By me to die inside these walls, inside the wild,

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hadn't went the girl as I.

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Hey everyone, and welcome back to Bloody Angola, a podcast

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one and forty two years in the making, the complete

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story of America's bloodiest prison. I'm your host, Jim Chapman.

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And with the recent changes that have taken place, I'm

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gonna go ahead and kick off a new season. And

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this is season seven, episode one, and I'm gonna call

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this first episode fucking up to the Master. When I'm done,

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you're gonna know why. And I'm gonna jump right into

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it today and just stay tuned for some announcements after

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the story. Now, way back in episode one of season one,

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whatdy and I told you about the Walls, and we

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touched on how Louisiana State Penitentiary became Louisiana State Penitentiary

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way back then, and we told you about it starting

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off as a plantation. But we didn't go all the

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way back in history even one hundred years before it

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was Bloody Angola. So today I'm gonna give you the

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full story of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. So if

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you're new to the podcast, I'm blessed and happy to

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have you, and you picked the perfect time to listen,

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because we're going to take it back and just quickly.

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If you've been a listener for a while, you know

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that Louisiana State penitenti lies in a big bend in

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the Mississippi River and it's about thirty miles up the

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river from Saint Francisville, Louisiana. Now, it originated from several

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Spanish land grants, and y'all these land grants were made

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in the last decade of the eighteenth century and into

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the first decade of the nineteenth century. Most of the

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property had been acquired by a guy by the name

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of Francis Ruth for the production of cotton, which was

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a big business back then, especially in Louisiana. Now, in

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the late eighteen thirties, the property passed on to Isaac Franklin,

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and he was a wealthy planner and he was a

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slave trader from Tennessee, and adjacent lands were added to

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those holdings, and the property was managed as seven plantations total.

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They were called Angola, Bellevue, Lake Killer, me Losha, manned Longo, Panola,

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and Mamro Villa. I know, strange names. The owners lived

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primarily on the Angola plantation, and by the twentieth century

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the entire property was referred to by that single name. Now,

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Isaac Franklin had a wife. Her name was Adalca Hayes,

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and she retained the property until eighteen eighty and she

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sold it to Samuel James and he held onto that

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lease to manage the prison system in Louisiana. And James

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worked the property with that convict labor until nineteen oh one,

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and then it was purchased by the State of Louisiana.

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Now this was an eighteen thousand acre Antebellum plantation property,

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right all right, So let's get into France. Ruth and

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Francis Ruth was of West Feliciana Parish and Francis Ruth

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began acquiring the land that currently makes up Louisiana State

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Penitentiary to Angola in eighteen twenty seven, just buying up land.

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Right.

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By eighteen thirty four, Francis had owned some seventy five

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percent of the property, and he divided his holdings into

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three adjacent cotton plantations known as Bellevue, killing Ernee, and

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these names, y'all, losh LeMond is what I'm going with.

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In eighteen thirty five, Francis Ruth formed a partnership with

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a guy by the name of Isaac Franklin, who was

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a wealthy Tennessee planner, and he had made an enormous

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fortune in what was known as the interstate slave trade. Now,

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unlike the middle eighteen thirties, Franklin and his slaver associate

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It's were considered the leading long distance slave traffickers in

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the country and credited with supplying two thirds of all

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slaves transported to the Deep South. When Ruth's finances collapsed

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in eighteen thirty seven, all of his property was passed

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on to Franklin. So Franklin he marries a woman by

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the name of Aladisia Hayes, who was a socially prominent

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debutante as they were referred to back then from Nashville, Tennessee,

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and on July first of eighteen thirty nine, Franklin. At

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this time he was fifty years old and Alisea was

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twenty two, so she may have been one of those

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that married for the money. Right, the couple lived part

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of the year in Tennessee and part of the year

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in Louisiana. Now, by the early eighteen forties, Franklin added

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a fourth plantation into his property, and that was known

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as Woodyard. There he constructed a steam powered sawmill and

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a gristmill, a barn. He had fourteen slave cabins, a hospital,

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a cook house, an office, a storehouse, two sheds in

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a two story residence and adding all this stuff actually

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increased his land value by twenty thousand dollars, which was

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a lot of money back then. The Angola's big house

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would serve as the family's main Louisiana residence, and Longo

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Plantation was created from the southernmost part of the Angola tract,

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so the Franklins there in love right. They have four

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children over the next five years, Victoria Oda Sea, Julius Caesar,

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yes his name was Julius Caesar, and sadly, Julius Caesar

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Franklin died just fourteen hours after his birth. Isaac Franklin

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himself dies at Angola on the property on April twenty

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seventh of eighteen forty six, and his over eight thousand

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acres in West Falliciana at that time, at that time

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were valued at five hundred thousand dollars. Now, to give

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you an idea of calculating inflation into that, I actually

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looked it up, and five hundred thousand dollars in eighteen

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forty three is worth twenty one million, three hundred and

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four thousand dollars today. So Isaac Franklin dies and his

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body was preserved in two barrels of whiskey, and it

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was transported in a sheet lead coffin the esteem boat

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to Nashville. So that was early embalming for you. While

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in Tennessee for the funeral, the Franklin's second child, Adalcilla,

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died on June eighth of eighteen forty six of bronchitis.

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How about that tells you how far medicine has come.

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Bronchitis will kill you in eighteen forty six. Now everybody

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gets that at least once a year. It seems like

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their oldest daughter, Victoria, also died of croup just three

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days later. So all that left was his wife, right,

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and she inherited a lot of money and al Decilla

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Hayes Franklin, upon her inheritance, was considered the wealthiest woman

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in late Antebellum America. They had some wealthy ones back then.

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On May eighth of eighteen forty nine, she married Joseph

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Alexander Acklin, who was a prominent at Huntsville, Alabama lawyer.

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Before the marriage, Ackland signed a prenup agreement relinquishing all

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interest in her businesses, property and assets. How about that.

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And look, this was a beautiful woman, even for that time.

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There's a picture of her that I'm going to put

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up on the Blooding Anga Patreon, So check that out

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if you're not already a member. But I'm going to

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put a picture of her up, and I mean, just

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a beautiful woman here in this picture. So aclan, he agrees,

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he signs that prenup. And nevertheless he was a superb

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businessman in his own right, and he became a plantation

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manager and he actually tripled her net worth by the

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year eighteen sixty. Now, there was a magazine back then

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called The Southern Cultivator and in eighteen fifty two described

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Acklin as a man of fine personal appearance, very bold,

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frank and decided in everything he does, with great energy

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in industry. The writer also added that Acklin was one

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of the largest planners on the Mississippi, with the finest

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and best managed estate in the South, worked by seven

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hundred slaves, who were very much attached him, for he

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is the best master I have ever known, some of

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them said, And the article continued on and said Colonel

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Acklan had thirty mechanics, a large steam sawmill, from which

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he is furnished with the best building materials. He employs

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six overseers, a general agent and a bookkeeper, two physicians,

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a head carpenter, a tenor, a ditcher, and a preacher

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from the Negroes. And that's that's written. The houses on

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each plantation are neat frame houses on brick piers, and

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are furnished with good betting, mosquito bars, and all that

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is essential in health and comfort. The Negroes are well fed,

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in clothed, and seem to be the happiest population I

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have ever seen. Everything moves systematically and with the discipline

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of a regular trained army. Each plantation has a hospital

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for the sick, well furnished, a nurse house, and a

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general cookouse. Colonel Acklan takes great interest in planning as

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a fine library, and regardless of expense, keeps up with

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all the modern improvements in farming. He is now introducing

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grapes on his place and cultivating oranges for hedges. And

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it shod a picture of him, and he's a handsome guy.

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And I'll post that on the Patreon as well. Now,

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soon after their marriage, the Aklans began building what's known

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as Belmont Mansion in Nashville, and that was their quote

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unquote summer house. It was worth five hundred thousand dollars

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back then, which means it was a twenty one million

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dollar house today, and it was finished in eighteen fifty two. Now,

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by eighteen fifty nine, the Aklans had six children. Joseph

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Hayes who was born in eighteen fifty They had twin girls,

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Lauren and Corene, who were born in eighteen fifty two,

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William Hayes who was born in eighteen fifty five, Claude

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who was born in eighteen fifty seven, and Pauline, who

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was born in eighteen fifty nine. The twins both died

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at just two years of age. They both contracted scarlet

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fever at Angola only months after William's birth in eighteen

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fifty five, out to see his daughter. Emma. Franklin, then eleven,

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died of diphtheria while at the Belmont Summerhouse. So the

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Aclans they spent the winters at in Gola Plantation and

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the remainder of the year in Nashville at the quote

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unquote Summerhouse, you know, the twenty one million dollar mansion.

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They traveled in between these points on river steamers. This

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schedule that allowed the family to be in Louisiana for

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cottingenning season and all the pre lentth celebrations in New Orleans.

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A very Catholic population here in Louisiana now and even then,

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of course, the majority of Louisianians being French descent, Acklin

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himself needed to be an Angola six to eight months

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per year. So Joseph Acklin he purchases several additional Louisiana

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properties between eighteen fifty two and eighteen fifty seven, and

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he wanted to kind of compliment his wife's plantations, if

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you will, So he buys a six hundred and forty

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acre tract that becomes will was known as Monrovia plantation,

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and by eighteen sixty, Ackland claimed to possess two million

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dollars in real estate and one million dollars in personal estate.

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And that was in those times money, so you're talking

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sixty eighty million dollars worth of property. The previous year,

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the Ackland's Louisiana plantations had produced three thousand, one hundred

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and forty nine bales of cotton, making them the third

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largest cotton producer in the state. Some six hundred and

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fifty nine slaves worked four thousand acres of improved land.

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Some one hundred and twenty eight of these slaves lined

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in forty four cabins on Angola Plantation. This plantation had

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two quarters areas, one near the Big House and the

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other on the river about three miles south of the

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Big House. So what about during the Civil War? Well,

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during the Civil War Joseph Acklin he signs an oath

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of allegiance to the Confederacy. No surprise, the guy had

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a boatload of slaves, which obviously horrible, awful shit that

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should have never occurred, and he was getting rich off

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these slaves. But it explains why he would sign an

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oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. Now he donated some

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thirty thousand dollars to the Confederate war effort as well.

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I'm going to imagine he did. He stood to lose everything, right.

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Acklin even tried to enlist in the Confederacy at one point,

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but he was crippled with authorritis. He just had really

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bad authortis problems and they would not allow him to

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join the military. So their living life. It's during the

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Civil War, and when the Union Army advanced into middle

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Tennessee in eighteen sixty two, his wife encourages her husband, Hey,

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we need to get the hell out of here, and

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we need to go live in Angola because they're about

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to take over everything in Tennessee. So in Louisiana, Acklan

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was in kind of a difficult position. The Federals out

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of occupied New Orleans and Baton Ridge. They were threatening

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him from the river and the Confederates were threatening him

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from the land. His property. It provided like a main

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river crossing for Confederate provisions, mail, and even troops. They

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would use the river to get him back and forth. Right,

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So in April of eighteen sixty two, the US Navy

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steam slope Brooklyn Docks at Angola, they wanted some fresh

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meat and vegetables, and Ackland tells a lieutenant by the

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name of RB. Lawry that the Confederacy told him he

224
00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:52.640
had to burn his cotton and if he didn't do it,

225
00:17:52.680 --> 00:17:54.920
they would hang him. And the reason they were wanting

226
00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:58.119
him to burn on is cotton, y'all, was the Union Army.

227
00:17:58.160 --> 00:17:59.920
They were worried that they were going to get their

228
00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:02.240
hands on that cotton, be able to sell it, and

229
00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:06.559
it would continue to be able to fund the Union Army.

230
00:18:06.759 --> 00:18:10.000
So he tells that lieutenant that, and the lieutenant basically

231
00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:13.480
tells him, look, you come on our side, we'll protect you.

232
00:18:13.559 --> 00:18:16.519
But he says, hell no, I ain't doing that because

233
00:18:16.519 --> 00:18:19.680
if I do that, I'm going to get killed by

234
00:18:19.720 --> 00:18:22.839
the Confederate Army. They're going to know a turncoat, right.

235
00:18:23.079 --> 00:18:27.799
So he eventually sells them some poultry and vegetables, and

236
00:18:27.880 --> 00:18:31.720
he kind of develops a friendship with the Union Navy

237
00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:35.119
as they're traveling back and forth. They left him alone.

238
00:18:35.799 --> 00:18:40.079
They didn't burn his plantation, so he was kind of

239
00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:44.640
friendly with him, and he would occasionally pass information to them.

240
00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:50.039
He would even let them use his carpentry shops. He

241
00:18:50.119 --> 00:18:54.079
allowed them to bury their dead on his property, and

242
00:18:54.119 --> 00:18:57.839
in his last known letter, Acklin wrote for Angola, this

243
00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:01.920
was on August twentieth of eighteen sixty three, that all

244
00:19:02.119 --> 00:19:05.680
was in ruins in the fields were just wasting, everything

245
00:19:05.799 --> 00:19:09.599
was dying, and the Confederates had taken all his mules

246
00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:12.640
and horses, and that he had been subjected to all

247
00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:16.839
kinds of lies and slander that malice could invent.

248
00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:17.519
He wrote.

249
00:19:18.119 --> 00:19:22.240
In September of eighteen sixty three, Aklan was thrown from

250
00:19:22.279 --> 00:19:27.680
a wagon into a ditch on his Louisiana plantation. He

251
00:19:27.799 --> 00:19:32.640
caught pneumonia subsequently, and he died now the very month

252
00:19:32.759 --> 00:19:36.759
of Joseph's death. Out to Sea, she submits a claim

253
00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:40.079
to the Confederate Army for the thirty one thousand, three

254
00:19:40.200 --> 00:19:44.039
hundred and forty dollars worth of cotton, horses and mules

255
00:19:44.640 --> 00:19:49.960
appropriated from the Acklan's Louisiana plantations. She was kind of

256
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:55.880
a fire plug, so eventually the war ends, and three

257
00:19:55.920 --> 00:20:00.240
weeks after the Confederate surrender in eighteen sixty five, to

258
00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:05.440
Sea and her four surviving children, Joseph, William, Claude, and Pauline,

259
00:20:05.480 --> 00:20:10.160
they leave for Europe to retrieve money made from wartime

260
00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:13.880
cotton sales, and in January of eighteen sixty seven, the

261
00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:18.920
Aclans make their first trip to the Louisiana plantations since

262
00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:23.240
the war, and Inngla William Acklin he writes in his

263
00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:27.599
journal that my mother was welcomed as if she had

264
00:20:27.640 --> 00:20:31.680
been a queen setting foot on her own domain. She

265
00:20:31.799 --> 00:20:35.000
shook hands with the overseer, and then in turn with

266
00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:39.160
the oldest settlers, as they called themselves. They followed her

267
00:20:39.319 --> 00:20:42.319
to the house and onto the rear porch of the house,

268
00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:45.119
and those who did not meet her at the landing

269
00:20:45.359 --> 00:20:48.960
came to pay their respects. And while these presentations are

270
00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:53.400
taking place, the elderly women of the household knelt down

271
00:20:53.480 --> 00:20:57.599
in a group about her chair, forming sort of a bodyguard.

272
00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:03.240
So she was obviously a very well respected woman. Now,

273
00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:06.799
on June twenty six of eighteen sixty seven, the beautiful

274
00:21:06.920 --> 00:21:12.480
old seas she marries doctor William Archer Cheatham. He was

275
00:21:12.519 --> 00:21:17.160
a noted Nashville physician and a cousin of Confederate General

276
00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:21.839
Benjamin chiafam At the time of their marriage, Outaicea was

277
00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:25.720
fifty years old and doctor Cheatham was forty seven, so

278
00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:28.759
she was a little bit of a cookar. Upon his marriage,

279
00:21:28.839 --> 00:21:33.640
Doctor Cheatham also signed a prenuptial agreement disavowing all claims

280
00:21:33.640 --> 00:21:36.240
to her properties. Boy she she didn't play when it

281
00:21:36.240 --> 00:21:40.000
came to her money right. However, Chiefam made several trips

282
00:21:40.039 --> 00:21:44.759
to West Feliciana, sometimes accompanied by Joseph Junior, to oversee

283
00:21:44.799 --> 00:21:49.440
the Louisiana properties on his wife's behalf. The Aclan Cheatham

284
00:21:49.480 --> 00:21:53.400
holdings do not appear at all in the schedule for

285
00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:58.400
West Feliciana Parish in eighteen seventy, which suggested that the

286
00:21:58.519 --> 00:22:03.240
family's fortunes had begun to reverse at this time. So Aldosia,

287
00:22:03.400 --> 00:22:07.640
she travels to Angola in early eighteen seventy two, and

288
00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:11.359
she had the intention of taking over the plantations management.

289
00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:15.759
She's saying, we're losing some money here, and the fireplug

290
00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:18.200
that she is, she thinks she can solve that problem.

291
00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:22.440
So the crop that year was very small and the

292
00:22:22.519 --> 00:22:28.039
taxes were very burtisome. In addition, a disease of mules

293
00:22:28.039 --> 00:22:32.119
in eighteen seventy four and several crop failures had forced

294
00:22:32.119 --> 00:22:37.960
the estate into rapid decline. So on December twenty third

295
00:22:38.920 --> 00:22:44.359
of eighteen eighty, Aldaseea and William they sell their West

296
00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:49.039
Feliciana properties to a partnership to guys, a guy by

297
00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:53.000
the name of Lewis Traeger and another guy by the

298
00:22:53.079 --> 00:22:58.680
name of Samuel James, and the property totaled ten thousand,

299
00:22:59.400 --> 00:23:03.440
fifteen acres and it was sold to Trigger and James

300
00:23:03.720 --> 00:23:08.039
for one hundred thousand dollars in eighteen eighty five. Out

301
00:23:08.119 --> 00:23:11.960
to Sea, she leaves Belmont, that Nashville mansion, and she

302
00:23:12.200 --> 00:23:17.160
separates from Doctor Chiefam, which is surprising. People didn't separate

303
00:23:17.319 --> 00:23:20.359
back in them days, especially when they had been married

304
00:23:20.440 --> 00:23:24.759
eighteen years, as Doctor Chiefam and ou to Sea were

305
00:23:24.920 --> 00:23:29.240
at that time. So she William Claude and Pauline. They

306
00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:35.680
moved to Washington, d c. Where Aldacilla becomes very ill

307
00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:41.680
and dies from pneumonia on May fourth of eighteen eighty seven.

308
00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:46.799
She was seventy years old. So who was Samuel James. Well,

309
00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:50.079
he was a civil engineer who in eighteen sixty nine

310
00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:56.240
he forms a firm called James Buckner and Company Levy Contractors,

311
00:23:56.519 --> 00:23:59.440
and that's a big business at this time in history.

312
00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:03.319
And he receives a five year lease from the State

313
00:24:03.359 --> 00:24:08.160
of Louisiana to manage the prison system. This lease gave

314
00:24:08.200 --> 00:24:12.480
the company authority to manage the main prison in Baton Rouge,

315
00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:15.319
which at that time was none as the Walls. So

316
00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:17.640
if you haven't listened to that, go listen to it

317
00:24:17.880 --> 00:24:21.480
episode number one of season one. What the State of

318
00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:25.599
Louisiana would do was they would lease out convicts to

319
00:24:26.279 --> 00:24:31.799
Samuel James. Now these convicts, they will work on private

320
00:24:31.880 --> 00:24:36.119
plantations and they would also do public works projects like

321
00:24:36.200 --> 00:24:40.240
the Levy system. In eighteen seventy, that lease was extended

322
00:24:40.359 --> 00:24:44.880
from five to twenty one years, during which time James

323
00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:50.400
reportedly maintained the most cynical, profit oriented and brutal prison

324
00:24:50.680 --> 00:24:59.759
regimen in State of Louisiana's history. Approximately three thousand prisoners

325
00:24:59.799 --> 00:25:05.559
died under the James leasing system between eighteen seventy and

326
00:25:05.799 --> 00:25:09.200
nineteen oh one, when the State of Louisiana took it

327
00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:12.519
back over. Now in eighteen eighty two, he had a

328
00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:16.680
business partnership Trager and James, and that was dissolved as

329
00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:23.400
a result. James retained in Gola, Bellevue and Longo plantations,

330
00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:28.480
and Trager he got to keep Panola, Momravilla, and Lake

331
00:25:28.920 --> 00:25:34.880
killing Me plantations, as well as losh LeMond plantations. So on,

332
00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.000
June fifteenth of eighteen eighty nine, Trager. He loses Lake

333
00:25:39.240 --> 00:25:43.000
killing Me plantation to James as the result of a

334
00:25:43.079 --> 00:25:47.119
lawsuit that James filed against him. On January sixth of

335
00:25:47.160 --> 00:25:53.680
eighteen ninety three, William and Claude Acklin, they receive Panola,

336
00:25:54.279 --> 00:25:58.920
losch LeMond and Monroe Villa plantations in a recession from

337
00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:03.240
Lewis Tregger. Obviously, Lewis Tregger wouldn't paying his bills, so

338
00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:08.400
when Samuel James acquired the West Felician implantations, which are

339
00:26:08.480 --> 00:26:12.319
now referred to by the single name Angola, he simply

340
00:26:12.359 --> 00:26:17.319
moved himself, his sharecroppers, and the inmates into existing buildings

341
00:26:17.359 --> 00:26:21.640
on that property. Pre War slave quarters and later tenant

342
00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:27.240
houses went to sharecroppers and to inmates. James reportedly housed

343
00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:31.880
convicts in the Angola Sugar House, built by Isaac Franklin.

344
00:26:32.359 --> 00:26:35.720
In James and his family they occupied what was known

345
00:26:35.759 --> 00:26:39.880
as the Angola Big House, which was Aldosia's former home.

346
00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:45.480
Now sl James Junior, known as law James. He managed

347
00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:49.440
the Angola properties in the late eighteen eighties and assumed

348
00:26:49.480 --> 00:26:54.160
complete control after his father's death. James Senior he died

349
00:26:54.240 --> 00:26:57.640
from a heart aneurism on the porch of the Angola

350
00:26:57.720 --> 00:27:01.680
Big House on July twenty six of eighteen ninety four,

351
00:27:01.880 --> 00:27:05.440
and he left behind a fortune of over two million dollars.

352
00:27:05.519 --> 00:27:09.640
Y'all that's close to one hundred million dollars in today's money.

353
00:27:09.839 --> 00:27:12.960
In the property itself, it was heavily mortgage, even though

354
00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:15.640
he had a lot of money. For whatever reason, he

355
00:27:16.039 --> 00:27:19.319
just mortgaged his property even though he could pay it off.

356
00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:24.799
Low James. He takes his family and they move into

357
00:27:25.079 --> 00:27:29.000
the Angola Big House now. At the time, this house

358
00:27:29.119 --> 00:27:36.079
contained nine bedrooms, halls upstairs and downstairs, a kitchen, dining

359
00:27:36.200 --> 00:27:41.559
rooms in front, side and back galleries. The house stood

360
00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:44.799
in the center of a very large yard and also

361
00:27:44.920 --> 00:27:48.720
contained oak trees, two servant houses, a chicken house, and

362
00:27:48.759 --> 00:27:52.519
a small stable. In the backyard there were a dozen

363
00:27:52.559 --> 00:27:56.400
pecan trees, fig trees, two large stables, and a privy.

364
00:27:56.759 --> 00:27:59.799
The Lner located about a block from the Big House.

365
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.279
They have wooden above ground cisterns which were cleaned yearly,

366
00:28:05.079 --> 00:28:09.039
and y'all's cisterns are used to catch drinking water, and

367
00:28:09.079 --> 00:28:13.440
they also had underground wells filled with water not fit

368
00:28:13.519 --> 00:28:16.759
for drinking, but they would use those for laundry, for

369
00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:21.279
watering animals, et cetera. And the milk was kept cool

370
00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:25.799
by suspending bottles of cool water in the wells in

371
00:28:25.880 --> 00:28:30.559
the yard, and it was almost like a Cajun refrigerator,

372
00:28:30.839 --> 00:28:31.480
if you will.

373
00:28:31.920 --> 00:28:32.079
Now.

374
00:28:32.119 --> 00:28:34.920
A convict camp for a few men and women was

375
00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:38.519
also located near the big house the inmate's house. There

376
00:28:38.559 --> 00:28:42.160
were mostly women who worked as field hands or servants

377
00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:45.240
in the big house. And it's interesting that the nurse

378
00:28:45.319 --> 00:28:48.920
for Law's daughter and his daughter's name was Dot. She

379
00:28:49.240 --> 00:28:54.119
was a convicted murderess. Dot's older sister, Cecil, said that

380
00:28:54.359 --> 00:28:58.400
Papa always chose the murderer in preference to the thieves

381
00:28:58.440 --> 00:29:02.000
to act as servants. A thief is a sneak and

382
00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:05.000
not to be trusted in one's house. Once a thief,

383
00:29:05.359 --> 00:29:09.319
he's apt to steal again, whereas a murderer is hot headed,

384
00:29:09.480 --> 00:29:13.039
commits a crime which is usually sorry for later and

385
00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:17.599
probably will not do again. Of course, these people were

386
00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:21.680
trustees and had to be handled with diplomacy. When a

387
00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:25.519
servant was not competent, she was not scolded. Only another

388
00:29:25.720 --> 00:29:28.440
was sent from camp to filler place. The next day.

389
00:29:28.839 --> 00:29:32.000
The few convict men and women at Angola were worked

390
00:29:32.079 --> 00:29:36.279
in gangs in the field with always a guard watching.

391
00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:42.880
So several hundred Negro families worked on Angola as sharecroppers

392
00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:47.680
and lived in the surviving quarters areas. These croppers paid

393
00:29:47.960 --> 00:29:51.599
rent for their land and homes with a percentage of

394
00:29:51.599 --> 00:29:56.200
the crop produced. Each one owned two mules, usually bought

395
00:29:56.240 --> 00:30:02.400
on time from the James family, cow pigs, chickens, and

396
00:30:02.599 --> 00:30:08.079
had vegetable patches. Some had their own wagon. They bought groceries, clothes,

397
00:30:08.240 --> 00:30:11.880
and other supplies at two stores that were on the plantation,

398
00:30:12.519 --> 00:30:15.880
usually on credit, and the debt was deducted from their crop.

399
00:30:16.519 --> 00:30:21.119
Schools and churches both Baptists and Methodists were also established

400
00:30:21.240 --> 00:30:25.079
for the croppers. So on March twenty seventh of nineteen

401
00:30:25.400 --> 00:30:29.680
oh one, the board of the Central Louisiana State Penitentiary

402
00:30:29.920 --> 00:30:37.799
purchased Angola, Longo, Bellevue and Killerny plantations, and that was

403
00:30:37.839 --> 00:30:42.200
about eight thousand acres from the estate of Samuel James,

404
00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:45.680
and they bought it for twenty five dollars per acre.

405
00:30:46.480 --> 00:30:49.680
Law was asked to stay on the place as a manager,

406
00:30:49.799 --> 00:30:54.160
but he refused. The sharecroppers were distrusted at the cell

407
00:30:54.200 --> 00:30:57.720
of the plantation, and law James tried to relocate as

408
00:30:57.839 --> 00:31:02.680
many of them as possible to other plantations. Now when

409
00:31:02.720 --> 00:31:06.480
the Board took over in Goola in nineteen oh one,

410
00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:11.640
forty five two room cabins were still standing, three three

411
00:31:11.720 --> 00:31:16.559
room room cabins, twenty three four room cabins, in thirty

412
00:31:16.720 --> 00:31:20.640
other buildings, including three residences. The house at Bellevue was

413
00:31:20.759 --> 00:31:24.200
valued at eighteen thousand dollars and in Gola's Big House

414
00:31:24.440 --> 00:31:28.079
was valued at thirty thousand dollars. Camps for prisoners were

415
00:31:28.200 --> 00:31:32.480
established at the old quarters and industrial complexes still standing

416
00:31:32.519 --> 00:31:37.000
across the property. Numerous new buildings were also constructed, including

417
00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:40.680
a blacksmith shop built east of the Angola Big House

418
00:31:40.720 --> 00:31:44.440
where the Antebellum slave quarters once stood. So the state

419
00:31:44.640 --> 00:31:49.720
rotated its Angola cotton crop with corn and cowpees each year,

420
00:31:50.359 --> 00:31:54.200
and stock on the plantation consisted of over three hundred

421
00:31:54.240 --> 00:31:58.200
and fifteen head of cattle in seven hundred holls. A

422
00:31:58.279 --> 00:32:03.000
sawmill was constructed to harvest the surviving timber on the property,

423
00:32:03.079 --> 00:32:06.640
and by May of nineteen oh eight, the penitentiary housed

424
00:32:06.880 --> 00:32:10.720
eighteen hundred and sixty inmates, of whom only two hundred

425
00:32:10.759 --> 00:32:14.680
and sixty four could read and write in twenty eight

426
00:32:14.880 --> 00:32:17.920
of the convict y'all were between the ages of twelve

427
00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:22.480
and fifteen years old. Now, lumber and corn production at

428
00:32:22.480 --> 00:32:27.160
Angola was very successful during this period, but high water

429
00:32:27.359 --> 00:32:31.960
in low prices hurt the cotton crop. The bull weavil

430
00:32:32.319 --> 00:32:36.440
destroyed about fifty percent of Angola's cotton in nineteen oh

431
00:32:36.440 --> 00:32:40.599
eight and seventy five percent of it in nineteen oh nine. Now,

432
00:32:40.640 --> 00:32:45.440
as a consequence, cotton cultivation was abandoned and sugar cane

433
00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:49.599
became the principal crop. A modern sugar mill was constructed

434
00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:55.480
in nineteen eleven. Then in nineteen twelve, the levees around

435
00:32:55.559 --> 00:33:00.359
in Gola broke. The entire plantation was innedated and the

436
00:33:00.400 --> 00:33:05.759
cotton mill was destroyed. Rebuilding the levees cost about twenty

437
00:33:05.799 --> 00:33:09.200
thousand dollars in those days. In a total of four

438
00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:14.480
hundred thousand dollars in those days, money was lost altogether. Then,

439
00:33:14.759 --> 00:33:19.160
in nineteen thirty three, a second flood required crews to

440
00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:23.039
work at night to maintain those levees, and the Ngola

441
00:33:23.119 --> 00:33:26.880
Big House survived these floods, but the row of nearby

442
00:33:27.039 --> 00:33:30.480
tenant houses did not, and they were all destroyed.

443
00:33:30.759 --> 00:33:30.960
Now.

444
00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:36.160
By nineteen ten, doctor Emil Ellert, a resident prison physician,

445
00:33:36.319 --> 00:33:40.920
and his family. They occupied the Ngola Big House. Convicts

446
00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:44.000
continued to be employed at the house as servants. In

447
00:33:44.079 --> 00:33:47.279
November of nineteen thirteen, an inmate by the name of

448
00:33:47.519 --> 00:33:53.160
Harry Harriet He fatally shoots Miss Ellert and then shoots

449
00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:57.920
himself in the Ngola Big House with a revolver belonging

450
00:33:58.079 --> 00:34:02.799
to the warden at that time. In nineteen sixteen, Governor

451
00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:07.680
Ruffin Pleasant, who was appointed by Henry Fuqua, Baton Riridge

452
00:34:07.720 --> 00:34:11.559
as the general manager of the State Penitentiary. He abolishes

453
00:34:11.880 --> 00:34:15.920
the Board of Control, and in an effort to centralize

454
00:34:15.960 --> 00:34:20.000
prisoners and eliminate the huge expenditure of paying guards and

455
00:34:20.039 --> 00:34:24.639
other personnel at construction sites, he comes up with the

456
00:34:24.719 --> 00:34:30.719
idea of using what's none as convict labor to construct

457
00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:35.800
a large penitentiary at Angola. This was in nineteen sixteen.

458
00:34:36.039 --> 00:34:39.880
Almost all paid security officers that Angola were fired and

459
00:34:39.920 --> 00:34:44.239
replaced by trustee guards. Much more emphasis was placed on

460
00:34:44.760 --> 00:34:49.079
reform under Fuqua, who did away with the striping uniforms

461
00:34:49.119 --> 00:34:54.079
to lessen the convict humiliation. Fuqua, however, was appointed to

462
00:34:54.119 --> 00:34:59.280
his position primarily for his business abilities. W. P. Gibbons,

463
00:34:59.360 --> 00:35:03.159
a success full sugar planner, was made form superintendent in

464
00:35:03.280 --> 00:35:07.800
nineteen nineteen and his family occupied the Angola Big House.

465
00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:12.320
Then in nineteen twenty two, they had severe flooding on

466
00:35:12.320 --> 00:35:15.559
the Mississippi River and the Angola Sugar refinery and the

467
00:35:15.599 --> 00:35:21.079
Big House got inundated. The prisoners flooded out of Angola

468
00:35:21.119 --> 00:35:25.159
and were dispersed to all sorts of temporary housing. To

469
00:35:25.360 --> 00:35:29.920
ensure that no such massive relocation off prison property would

470
00:35:29.920 --> 00:35:35.039
be necessary again, Fuqua promoted the purchase of all the

471
00:35:35.079 --> 00:35:41.039
property between Angola's levee and the Tunica Hills, and during

472
00:35:41.119 --> 00:35:45.119
floods convicts could just move to higher ground on the

473
00:35:45.159 --> 00:35:49.159
farm itself. So he contacts the Aklan brothers and they

474
00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:55.360
actually end up selling Panola, mon Revia and Locomon Plantation

475
00:35:55.559 --> 00:35:59.320
to the state in nineteen twenty two, and by nineteen

476
00:35:59.400 --> 00:36:03.239
twenty four or the prison area had increased from eight

477
00:36:03.400 --> 00:36:07.639
thousand acres to the eighteen thousand acres that you have today.

478
00:36:08.239 --> 00:36:11.679
It made evacuation was not necessary. When they had another

479
00:36:11.760 --> 00:36:16.559
flood in nineteen twenty seven thatdated the property, primarily because

480
00:36:16.599 --> 00:36:18.840
of this reason, they just moved a higher ground by

481
00:36:18.840 --> 00:36:22.920
the middle of the nineteen twenties, the prison was virtually

482
00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:26.800
self supporting over three thousand heads of cattle. They had

483
00:36:26.880 --> 00:36:30.000
three hundred and eighty seven mules, two hundred horses, and

484
00:36:30.119 --> 00:36:35.280
twenty thousand foul were kept on that property. Of the

485
00:36:35.400 --> 00:36:40.400
eighteen thousand acres under cultivation, six thousand were pastors and

486
00:36:40.519 --> 00:36:44.559
eight thousand planted in sugar and believe it or not

487
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:48.360
nineteen twenty one, the sugar refinery at Angola at that

488
00:36:48.440 --> 00:36:52.639
time was the fourth largest sugar refinery in the South.

489
00:36:52.760 --> 00:36:57.599
It produced six million pounds of granulated sugar and one

490
00:36:57.679 --> 00:37:02.559
million pounds of lump sugar. So in nineteen thirty five

491
00:37:02.719 --> 00:37:05.840
the penitentiary it housed seven hundred and forty six white men,

492
00:37:06.039 --> 00:37:10.880
fourteen white women, fourteen hundred and fifteen black men, and

493
00:37:10.960 --> 00:37:14.760
sixty five black women. The eighty one employees on salary

494
00:37:14.760 --> 00:37:19.960
included four preachers, five physicians, a druggist, forty three foreman

495
00:37:20.079 --> 00:37:23.960
and two gate men, as well as two telephone operators,

496
00:37:24.239 --> 00:37:30.320
eight clerical workers and a storekeeper, nine captains, one chief engineer,

497
00:37:30.719 --> 00:37:35.880
a superintendent, an assistant superintendent, an expert sign and metal worker,

498
00:37:36.199 --> 00:37:40.280
the warden, and a general manager. Some three hundred and

499
00:37:40.280 --> 00:37:44.800
thirty eight inmates were employed at that time as convict guards.

500
00:37:45.199 --> 00:37:49.159
A forty cell concrete structure known as the Red Hat

501
00:37:49.239 --> 00:37:52.880
Cell Block was built after a riot in nineteen thirty

502
00:37:52.880 --> 00:37:55.960
three when three men were killed. We tell you all

503
00:37:56.039 --> 00:37:58.840
about that in the prior episode called the Red Hat

504
00:37:58.920 --> 00:38:01.719
Cell Block. Now prior to the beginning of his term.

505
00:38:01.800 --> 00:38:06.440
On April one of nineteen thirty six, Warden Lewis Jones

506
00:38:06.599 --> 00:38:10.199
described the conditions adding gullie. He said, apparently there was

507
00:38:10.360 --> 00:38:13.800
little system to the safety and protective measures, which were

508
00:38:13.840 --> 00:38:19.280
slipshod in the extreme. Guards were carelessly selected and untrained.

509
00:38:19.840 --> 00:38:23.800
They were armed with old, worn out, undependable shotguns of

510
00:38:23.840 --> 00:38:29.079
which there was no inventory or accurate control. Ammunition was

511
00:38:29.159 --> 00:38:34.159
scant and in poor condition. There were no rifles. Men

512
00:38:34.199 --> 00:38:37.480
were taken to the fields before daylight and often brought

513
00:38:37.519 --> 00:38:40.679
in after dark. There was no outer line of guard

514
00:38:40.760 --> 00:38:44.519
towers on the levee around the farm. Supervision was poor

515
00:38:44.639 --> 00:38:48.039
or nonexistent. When an escape occurred, there was a lack

516
00:38:48.079 --> 00:38:52.880
of organization or cooperation in the pursuit and search attempts

517
00:38:52.960 --> 00:38:55.719
were frequent. Due to the lack of discipline and low

518
00:38:55.800 --> 00:38:59.719
morale of the inmates. There was much unfair treatment of

519
00:39:00.079 --> 00:39:04.159
prisoners and a certain amount of actual brutality. Soft jobs

520
00:39:04.199 --> 00:39:06.559
were given to some inmates who had not had a

521
00:39:06.599 --> 00:39:10.039
period of work in the line, and probably to some

522
00:39:10.159 --> 00:39:13.519
who had money. Contact with the Board of Pardons and

523
00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:17.519
Parole was difficult for the inmate. Food was insufficient in

524
00:39:17.639 --> 00:39:21.880
quantity and variety, poorly prepared, and lacking in meat and

525
00:39:21.920 --> 00:39:25.800
other elements needed by the men doing hard labor. Camps,

526
00:39:26.119 --> 00:39:29.719
kitchens and dining rooms were often dirty. At some camps

527
00:39:29.960 --> 00:39:33.480
there were such crowdic conditions and poor ventilation that they

528
00:39:33.519 --> 00:39:38.920
were actually disease breeders. Case after case of tuberculosis developed

529
00:39:38.960 --> 00:39:43.760
at old Camps B and I. There were no recreational facilities.

530
00:39:43.800 --> 00:39:48.039
School classes were inadequate and poorly run. There was no library.

531
00:39:48.199 --> 00:39:51.519
What little reading the men had was often of a

532
00:39:51.639 --> 00:39:57.480
degrading nature. For extra items such as cigarettes, candy, fruit, toothpaste, etc.

533
00:39:58.039 --> 00:40:01.920
They were charged high prices at CA commissaries privately owned

534
00:40:01.920 --> 00:40:05.800
by employees of the institution. All inmates were not required

535
00:40:05.840 --> 00:40:09.559
to wear prison uniform. There were several trustees at most

536
00:40:09.639 --> 00:40:13.880
units allowed to wear civilian clothing. Loose handling of the

537
00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:17.880
mails and slack supervision of visitors made it easy to

538
00:40:17.960 --> 00:40:23.440
smuggling contraband of various sorts, including marijuana and other dope.

539
00:40:23.920 --> 00:40:27.239
So a blizzard in January of nineteen forty it damages

540
00:40:27.360 --> 00:40:31.639
the prison crops and the federal crop restrictions had been

541
00:40:31.679 --> 00:40:34.519
placed on sugar because the market had been poor the

542
00:40:34.639 --> 00:40:37.960
last few years, and attempts to get help from the

543
00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:42.119
Corps of Engineers to upgrade Angola's levees at this time

544
00:40:42.360 --> 00:40:45.880
proved pretty much fruitless, so they were in bad shape.

545
00:40:45.920 --> 00:40:48.119
So to kind of solve all this, they start making

546
00:40:48.280 --> 00:40:52.800
Louisiana license plates at Angola, and this started in nineteen fifty.

547
00:40:52.840 --> 00:40:57.559
They also had a dairy and a dehydration plant inmate guards.

548
00:40:57.639 --> 00:41:01.199
They still continued to use them until the nineteen fifties,

549
00:41:01.719 --> 00:41:05.360
and the old Angola Big House survived into the forties,

550
00:41:05.960 --> 00:41:09.360
but by nineteen fifty the house had to be torn

551
00:41:09.440 --> 00:41:12.840
down so to protests the harsh conditions. It was just

552
00:41:12.920 --> 00:41:16.360
horrible back then, and to avoid working in the fields

553
00:41:16.480 --> 00:41:20.599
thirty one inmates they slashed their Achilles tendons. In February

554
00:41:20.599 --> 00:41:24.239
of nineteen fifty one. Got listen to season one of

555
00:41:24.480 --> 00:41:27.840
Blooding and Gola. We talk all about that The next year,

556
00:41:28.079 --> 00:41:32.000
Judge Robert Keenan of men In based his campaign for

557
00:41:32.079 --> 00:41:35.800
governor on the need for prison reforms. The main prison

558
00:41:35.920 --> 00:41:41.239
complex was subsequently built, Convict strikes were eliminated and various

559
00:41:41.239 --> 00:41:46.639
camps renovated. Flogging was also discontinued. Now, in nineteen sixty one,

560
00:41:46.960 --> 00:41:51.079
the prison's budget was drastically reduced and in Gola fell

561
00:41:51.159 --> 00:41:55.280
into serious decline. It became known as the bloodiest prison

562
00:41:55.360 --> 00:41:57.880
in the South during this time with the number of

563
00:41:57.920 --> 00:42:01.559
inmate assaults. Women inmates were moved out of Angola in

564
00:42:01.679 --> 00:42:05.679
nineteen sixty one and a federal court order demanded the

565
00:42:05.719 --> 00:42:10.239
conditions at Angola be improved. The trustee guard system gets

566
00:42:10.239 --> 00:42:15.719
eliminated and the number of guards employed nearly quadruples during

567
00:42:15.760 --> 00:42:19.960
this time. The sugar meal was eventually sold in nineteen

568
00:42:20.039 --> 00:42:24.039
seventy four and sugar was completely abandoned as a crop.

569
00:42:24.159 --> 00:42:28.840
Now by this time, the convict camps were officially desegregated.

570
00:42:29.039 --> 00:42:32.039
So there you have it. I wanted to give you

571
00:42:32.320 --> 00:42:35.519
the complete history from the very beginning, and boy did

572
00:42:35.559 --> 00:42:38.440
I go back to the very beginning. I hope you

573
00:42:38.519 --> 00:42:43.000
got something out of that. Look horrible time in history.

574
00:42:43.880 --> 00:42:50.119
In my opinion. Horrible time, but it is part of history.

575
00:42:50.880 --> 00:42:54.320
And I wanted to give you that little bit of

576
00:42:54.360 --> 00:42:59.880
information about the bloodiest prison in America, Louisiana State Penitent

577
00:43:00.119 --> 00:43:03.119
Tree add Inkola, And I'm about to have some really

578
00:43:03.159 --> 00:43:06.559
good stories that in your way, So stay tuned. It's

579
00:43:06.599 --> 00:43:10.920
only getting better from here and until next time, I'm

580
00:43:11.000 --> 00:43:15.920
Jim Chapman for Bloody and Gola, a podcast one hundred

581
00:43:15.960 --> 00:43:19.880
and forty two years in the making. The complete story

582
00:43:20.159 --> 00:43:21.719
of America's bloody is present.

583
00:43:22.599 --> 00:43:47.039
Peace a wall, street line, shackle, change, some gird.

584
00:43:49.239 --> 00:43:55.440
It's calling my name. There is no mercy and this

585
00:43:55.679 --> 00:44:04.079
being a tentery juice the huge stream game Rango three,

586
00:44:06.039 --> 00:44:14.559
I'm in fide. I'm me to die inside these walls,

587
00:44:16.239 --> 00:44:24.159
inside the wild and when the wars, I know it's

588
00:44:24.159 --> 00:45:00.280
overbody anger, ohbody angle, Yeah,