USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume I > Part 33
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The Hampden County Jail and House of Correction is lofty, well- lighted and airy, and its entrance hall, if it were not for the iron bars in plain evidence, would look somewhat like the lobby of a small hotel. The windows run almost the entire height of the inside walls, and giant fans in the basement sweep in a large volume of clean air.
An iron fence encircles the grounds, which are divided into small vegetable gardens. The prisoners, who from the street can some- times be seen working in the gardens, wear grayish trousers and blue workmen's shirts, and if it were not for the fence and the steel-barred building in the background, they might easily be mistaken for ordinary laborers.
The prison theory is that idleness for men in confinement breeds trouble and discontent. Years before the labor unions came into being, the men worked at the manufacture of boots, shoes, or cane chairs, and the products were sold outside. These, however, were important industries furnishing a means of livelihood to free laborers, and labor unions objected strenuously. Finally, the industries were divided so that no two jails should manufacture the same thing. To
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the Hampden County Jail went the manufacture of umbrellas for a number of years, and the men were kept busy at their appointed tasks of folding, cutting and stitching. A bill was passed by the Legisla- ture in May, 1913, permitting the authorities to employ prisoners in reclaiming and cultivating the land, as long as the products were used for the maintenance of the institution itself, and not sold outside in competition with free labor. Only a few years ago the Hawes-Hooper Bill was passed, preventing interstate sale of prison-made goods. The Hampden County Jail, however, through its prison labor, solves its own problem of maintenance in every department, workshop, kitchen, bakery, and gardening, and its per capita cost has been the lowest of any county jail in Massachusetts.
Both men and women are admitted to the institution, but kept separately. Practically the sole manual occupation of the women is the laundering of prison clothing. At times there are three hundred inmates behind the red brick walls, and as each is allowed three face towels a week, this item in itself reaches sizeable proportions.
There is a routine procedure for every prisoner admitted to the jail. First he is led through a preliminary door at the entrance, which is unlocked by a guard who has the key for that door only. Then another door is unlocked by another guard, admitting the prisoner to the lobby. The first step is to take the prisoner's record for offenses, his aliases if he has any, the term of his sentence, identifying marks and other information. The prisoner is searched and all personal property is laid aside. He is then led through the "detector door," which is perhaps the newest thing in prison equipment in New Eng- land. The detector door is magnetized and built in such a way that if the prisoner has any ferrous metal in his possession, such as a steel knife or weapon which has eluded the search of the guards, this fact is immediately indicated by the door. The prisoner is then stripped and his clothes placed in a bag, which will be kept for him until his sen- tence has expired. He is next subjected to a thorough physical exami- nation by the doctor, bathed, and given fresh and fumigated prison clothes.
The prisoners are separated into two distinct classes : those who are already serving sentence, and those who are being held pending action of the Grand Jury or as witnesses. The latter group is given every possible freedom within the prison. Brief conversation is per-
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mitted. The discipline, while not harsh, is still strict enough to main- tain perfect order. The prisoner's lot is easier than it was a number of years ago, and the results accomplished have shown that firm but fair treatment is by far better than the old-time lash and stripes method.
One of the most famous sections of the jail was that known as "The Chicopee House," so named by a trusty, formerly a frequent prisoner, but later reformed. This section was used to discipline unruly or vicious prisoners. There was an old-time padded cell, and several larger cells, an ideal place for the treatment of men afflicted with delirium tremens, and the cells were large enough to place an armed guard with every prisoner. The beds were simple board frames raised a few inches from the floor.
General Embury P. Clark, who was sheriff for more than thirty years, was responsible for much which has contributed to the high standing of the Hampden County Jail. It was in 1893 that he entered on his duties as sheriff, and hung Wallace W. Holmes for murder three months after he went into office. In 1899 he executed the murderer Krathofski, who was the last man to die by the hangman's noose in the State of Massachusetts. Clark distinguished himself as colonel of a regiment of militia which went to Cuba during the Spanish- American War, and later was given the rank of general. General Clark, although a firm believer in discipline, was to a great extent responsible for softening some of the harsh measures formerly used. Besides his duties as a sheriff, he was registrar of the water commis- sioners, chairman of the Holyoke school board for five consecutive three-year terms, and ardently interested in music. His activities in music were numerous; he was president of the old Chorus Union of that city, sang in the choir of the First Congregational Church of Holyoke, and was instrumental in organizing the Connecticut Valley Music Society.
Escapes have not been frequent from the Hampden County Jail, due in part to the barriers in the way and the vigilance of the per- sonnel, but mainly due to the fact that the terms are so short. In comparison with State and Federal prisons, the terms served at the jail are "temporary," and it is far wiser for the inmate to serve his term out and emerge a free man, than foolishly to attempt escape and be hunted down in the end. Those escapes which have been made
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were mostly on the part of men who were being kept in the jail tem- porarily, awaiting trial for serious misdemeanors.
In 1904 an escape occurred which attracted considerable atten- tion. Hoffman, a confidence man of international reputation, broke out of the jail and escaped, despite the fact that he had a crippled leg and used crutches! A man with this physical disadvantage could be easily remembered if seen, but it was considerably later that the authorities caught up with Hoffman as he was riding through Ver- mont using hired horses. It was found that Hoffman had in some ingenious manner made keys to fit the cell doors, and had calmly left the jail. Sheriff Clark paid from his own pocket the money for the great Hoffman manhunt, which extended through Massachusetts, New York State and Vermont. From time to time there have been other breaks, in one instance resulting in the escape of three men who waited their chance and then sawed their way out of chapel.
The most sensational prison-break and manhunt ever staged in Hampden County took place in 1933 and 1934 in the notable "Kaminski Case," when for many days the countryside was terrorized as the robber and murderer, Alexander Kaminski, roamed loose con- stantly eluding the large number of police on his trail. On this occa- sion two men died, another was slightly wounded, and a total of about $25,000 was spent before the criminal was finally apprehended, sentenced and executed.
The amazing series of events strung throughout the case started mildly enough on the night of September 14, 1933. Two Springfield officers stopped a car on Vernon Street occupied by two men, one of whom was Alexander Kaminski, and the other Paul Wargo. Not sat- isfied with the appearance of the two men or their explanations, and suspicious of the car, the policemen on investigation found firearms in their possession, and booked the young men for appearance in court the following morning.
Wargo pleaded guilty on the charge of illegal possession of a revolver, but Kaminski pleaded not guilty and the case was put over for a few days. Neither of the men could provide bail. They were both finally found guilty and sentenced to six months in the Hampden County Jail.
Kaminski, at the age of twenty-three, was already an accomplished criminal. When he was but nineteen, he had been sentenced to a year
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in a Florida prison for breaking and entering and larceny. After he had finished that term, he came north and soon after was sentenced to the Connecticut State Prison at Wethersfield for burglary, and from there he was later paroled. It was at Wethersfield that he met Paul Wargo, a gunman and robber, and the two young men decided to join their fortunes.
On the night of October 22, 1933, Kaminski and Wargo escaped from the Hampden County Jail in a spectacular manner, beating Guard Merritt W. Hayden severely in the process. This, in spite of the fact that their sentences would have expired in March of the fol- lowing year, and the two men would have then walked out of the jail free. Police immediately began an intensive hunt for Kaminski and Wargo, and while this was going on Hayden died. The escaped crimi- nals were no longer merely robbers and gunmen; they were murderers.
Wargo was captured a short time after the break, but Kaminski disappeared. The Governor of Massachusetts, Joseph B. Ely, offered a reward of $1,000 for his capture. In November, a young man who called himself "Robert Laroy" was arrested for robbery at Lynch- burg, Virginia, and his fingerprints taken. He was then identified as Kaminski and was brought back to Springfield.
The trial of these men, and the events that followed, received national attention. In the Superior Court trial, the courthouse was jammed with curious onlookers, and many were turned away from the doors. Wargo was found guilty in the second degree, but Kamin- ski was convicted in the first degree, the difference hinging on the fact that although Wargo was legally an accessory to the murder, it had been Kaminski who had clubbed Hayden with unnecessary violence and with intent to kill.
A sensational and near-disastrous event came about at this trial, one that nearly caused the ruin of the courthouse and the loss of several lives. The murderer's brother, John Kaminski, had hitch- hiked from Connecticut to make a desperate attempt to rescue Alex- ander. Hidden about his person there were a homemade dynamite bomb wrapped in paper, five hundred bullets, two revolvers, a pair of wire cutters, a hacksaw, and two hand grenades. The story went the rounds later that when John Kaminski had received a ride from New Britain to the city, he had cautioned the driver to "take it easy over the bumps."
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Court had just adjourned. The spectators were pushing their way out through the center doors. A preliminary incident had set the crowd in good humor when the knob of Judge Nelson Brown's gavel had flown from the handle and bounced harmlessly from the head of one of the spectators. There was no premonition or warning of anything dangerous to come.
John Kaminski edged into the courtroom just as the crowd was pouring out. Sheriff David Manning, who was sitting in the sheriff's box, glanced at the man coming in and then rivetted his attention on him, recognizing him at once. There was something in Kaminski's face and demeanor that boded no good, and the sheriff leaped toward him. Alexander Kaminski, in the prisoner's box, saw the drama enacted and cried frantically : "Don't do it, John!" But it was too late. John Kaminski threw the bomb down, while those in the court room stared paralyzed with fright. He whipped out a revolver, and as Sheriff Manning was almost on him, he fired. Luckily, the sheriff had reached him soon enough so that as he seized the barrel of the gun, the shot was deflected down and hit the sheriff in the leg. An army of police then descended on Kaminski and bore him to the ground.
Meanwhile the bomb was lying there, and people frantically fought to get down the stairs and out of the building before the explo- sion came. But there was no explosion. The bomb, later examined, was a very good homemade one and had enough high explosive to wreck at least part of the building, but something had been wrong with the contacts. A State trooper picked it up while it lay in the court room, and with exceptional bravery carried it out and threw it in a snowdrift, and the few minutes of drama were over.
John Kaminski was given several years in prison, and his brother Alexander was convicted of murder in the first degree, a sentence which was finally carried out after he had made a second escape from jail and was caught again. But had the bomb gone off, there would in all probability have been some fatalities and injuries, and certainly a portion of the Hampden County Courthouse would have been destroyed.
Alexander Kaminski was returned to the Hampden County Jail to await the mandatory death sentence. About four-thirty on the morning of Monday, September 17, a little more than a year after his
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original arrest here, Kaminski again broke out of the jail, apparently under the very noses of the guards delegated to watch him. A special guard who was seated in the corridor of the jail, about four feet away from Kaminski's cell, did not know that his prisoner had escaped until he was so informed by one of the regular guards.
The effect of this second sensational escape on the part of the des- perate criminal can readily be imagined. Inspection of the cell showed that the lower bars of the door had been sawed through and then bent aside, allowing Kaminski to get out. The special guard had not looked into the cell because of a blanket which had been hung over the door at the criminal's request, so that the light would not shine in his eyes as he tried to sleep. The blanket had been there for several nights.
Authorities declared immediately that the job was an "inside" one and that Kaminski could never have escaped without receiving help from someone within the prison. The three special guards from the reserve force of the Springfield Police Department were discharged and subjected to repeated grillings by the district attorney and other officials, without appreciable result, although one guard said that he surprised Kaminski in the kitchen of the jail, but made no attempt to stop him.
The first definite clue came from Thompsonville, Connecticut, when Kaminski's prison cap was found in a home which had been broken into, and an automobile was also stolen. At West Stafford gasoline was siphoned from several trucks, presumably for the stolen car, and milk was taken. The authorities tightened their net about every highway.
It was next decided that Kaminski was trapped in the Tolland- Coventry-Willimantic woods, and State troopers and police were con- centrated there, but the wily fugitive was not to be found. The automobile which had been stolen from Thompsonville was found at Coventry Lake, and bloodhounds were put on the trail across the tracks and on to the Hartford-Willimantic Highway, but the trail was lost, due to the heavy rain which came at that time.
The rumor that Kaminski had somehow escaped the cordon and gone to some other part of the country was refuted when police caught the trail of an automobile at Manchester, Connecticut, and chased it for a mile. The end of the chase came when the automobile, which
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had been stolen, was found smashed against a pole on the Middletown Road. In it was a double-barreled shotgun, but Kaminski had escaped into a swamp. Residents in the vicinity were urged to be on the look- out, and at the same time asked to keep any weapons in their posses- sion concealed to minimize the danger of the criminal again being armed. A cottage on the South Bolton Road was entered, however, and a revolver stolen, which heightened the tension.
It was at this point that another life was lost in the dramatic hunt, although Kaminski this time was not directly responsible. Police had received a tip that Kaminski was in the railroad yards in Manchester, and several officers hurried there. The culprit was nowhere to be found, but Willard Mack, a Manchester negro, was arrested and later committed suicide by hanging himself in the Manchester jail.
A definite clue came when fingerprints on a soup bowl belonging to the Vernon House and found a short distance away proved to be the fugitive's. The following day, on September 24, a garage in East Hartford was broken into and shortly afterward a safe opened in the offices of a coal company there. A Massachusetts fingerprint expert identified the fingerprints as those of Kaminski.
From here on the trail of the murderer completely disappeared. Baffled police searched everywhere in vain, without an inkling of a clue.
It was at Albany that the long manhunt ended. Kaminski, after escaping the ring of police at Manchester, had gone to Hartford, dyed his mustache and hair, and had proceeded to Danbury, Connecticut, in a stolen car which he later abandoned. From there he went by foot and auto to New York City and later took the bus for Kingston, New York, staying there at an overnight camp. In taking the bus for Albany, he accidentally left his bag on a bus line at Kingston, and when it was opened Kingston police found burglar tools and a pair of blood-stained gloves. They immediately notified the Albany police, who laid a trap for Kaminski and captured him there. When the murderer was found, he was well-dressed, had $350, and police found hacksaw blades sewed into the soles of his shoes.
Kaminski ultimately paid the supreme penalty for his crime. He was undoubtedly one of the most desperate criminals ever to be housed in the red brick building on York Street, and his pursuit marked the greatest manhunt ever held throughout this section. For many days his name occupied the headlines in bold-face type, and had it not been
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for that one mistake at Kingston, he might have disappeared entirely, leaving his name a legend as one of the few to escape from the Hamp- den County jail, and the only one to escape twice.
An outstanding judicial figure in the District Court of Springfield was Judge Wallace R. Heady, who resigned from the bench in 1936 after twenty-two years of service.
On January 30, 1914, Judge Heady qualified as justice of the Police Court, now the District Court, and the following morning presided at the sitting of the court. He was appointed to the bench in 1914 by Governor David I. Walsh to succeed Judge William Hamilton, who vacated the Police Court bench by virtue of his appointment as a Justice of the Superior Court.
Judge Heady gave up private practice of law after his appoint- ment in order to devote his entire time and energy to the dispensing of justice in the Police Court. For many years he continued to sit alone on criminal or civil cases without calling in special justices except on rare occasions, during periods of illness or vacation, but as time went on, he paid most of his attention to criminal cases.
The new District Court Building was erected a few years ago, largely on recommendations and specifications by Judge Heady. He is responsible for establishing the Domestic Relations Court for the private hearing of non-support and domestic cases. He had unusual ability in straightening out family troubles, and he devoted one day a week to the hearing of domestic relations cases.
His reign on the bench saw the inauguration of the small claims procedure in 1920, and the Appellate Division of the District Court in 1922. Judge Heady was for some time a member of the admin- istration committee of the Appellate Division, but resigned because of pressure of court duties. After being admitted to the bar in 1890, he served as master and auditor in more cases than any other Hamp- den County lawyer up to the time of his appointment to the bench.
Judge Charles L. Long, who died in 1930, was an honest, fearless and upright Justice of the Probate Court. He served a term of thirty- four years, from January, 1896, to October, 1929. Judge Long applied his brilliant intellect and profound knowledge of the law to the problems which came before him, and his legal opinions were classics of their kind. A portrait of Judge Long now holds an honored place in the Hall of Records.
Racial Groups in Hampden County
Hampden-29
CHAPTER XXVIII
Racial Groups in Hampden County
The Armenians came to America in large numbers just before the turn of the century. The reason for their exodus from their native land was the same as that of so many other inhabitants of Asia Minor -- to escape oppression at the hands of the Turks. And of all the races, these tall, dark, broad-headed people from the slopes of Mt. Ararat have perhaps suffered most from the warlike scavengers who marched under the banner of the Ottoman Empire.
There are now about two hundred and fifty foreign-born Arme- nians in Springfield, consisting mostly of refugees who escaped from the terror that cut down so many of their countrymen. About sixty Armenian families live in Springfield proper, and about fifty families in Indian Orchard. These peace-loving people have entrenched them- selves here in a security which they never experienced in their native land. Their interest in Armenia, however, has not waned because of their new home. Today Armenia is a socialistic Soviet Republic cre- ated in 1918, but the American-Armenian will tell you proudly that Armenia was an important land far back in biblical times. It was on the crest of Mt. Ararat that Noah's Ark was supposed to have perched after the flood which lasted forty days and forty nights.
Archie Bedrossian, of Maynard Street, who now is employed at the Van Norman Company, and B. H. Markarian, who conducts an oriental rug shop on State Street, were among the first Armenians to settle in Springfield. Mr. Markarian, who came to this city in 1895, established a residence in the old Young Men's Christian Association and opened up a rug store near the old Victoria Restaurant, with the intention of remaining here but a short time. Noticing a fine museum nearby, he took a number of his best rugs there with the idea of showing them to Mr. George Walter Vincent Smith, then director of the museum. Mr. Smith refused to see him at first, but the Armenian immigrant persisted and finally won an audience. It was the close
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friendship he later enjoyed with the museum director that convinced Mr. Markarian of the virtues of this city as a permanent residence ! His sister joined him here in 1904 and attended Mt. Holyoke College. She then occupied herself for a time in Near East relief work, and ultimately married an Episcopalian minister.
Mr. Markarian is proud of the fact that he was the first to send a wireless telegram from midocean, about thirty-five years ago. On a return trip from abroad, the boat he was on passed a vessel which was headed for England. He sent his message across to the other boat and it was relayed to England when the ship was two
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hundred miles away from Liverpool, that distance being the maximum for wireless reception at that time. The message was then cabled to New York and sent to Springfield, where it was received by Mr. Markarian's business partner.
From 1899 on, there was a slow but constant influx of Armenians into Springfield and Indian Orchard. Of a total of 55,057 Armenians who came to the United States since 1899, 14, 192 settled in Massa- chusetts, this number being exceeded only by the 17,391 who estab- lished permanent residence in New York State.
The Armenians here, as well as elsewhere, have gone about their business quietly, taking little part in civil, political, administrative or
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social affairs. They are content to live in peace, as useful and indus- trious citizens. In Springfield such names as Keuleyan, Emerzian and Piligian have come before the public occasionally, but in the main these people are self-effacing. The Armenians living in the city proper are primarily business men. The art of weaving oriental rugs, in which the people of the Ararat have no superiors, finds its expression in the sale of these rugs in the various Armenian shops on State Street. Other businesses in which the Armenians are engaged are candy mak- ing, grocery, shoe repairing and dry cleaning. In Indian Orchard the majority of the Armenians work in mills, or cultivate farms and truck gardens. The local members of the race are scattered about the city, but in the Orchard most of the Armenians live in a colony in the vicinity of Healey Avenue and Beauregard Street.
The majority of the Armenians are Orthodox Catholic Christians, and the rest Protestants of various denominations. There is no Arme- nian church in Springfield or in the Orchard, but occasionally services are held in Christ Church on State Street, under the spiritual leader- ship of a visiting bishop from one of the large cities. In Indian Orchard there is an Armenian school, where classes are conducted for children whose parents wish them to be familiar with their native tongue, and religious services are sometimes held there also, under the auspices of what is called the Apostle Church of Indian Orchard.
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