Behind bars in Weston County, Part IV
The tales of Newcastle’s earliest jails and their inhabitants
By Bri Brasher
with Leonard Cash
NLJ Reporter
Weston County’s jails are filled with interesting tales. Historian Leonard Cash continues with the timeline of the county jail in this week’s installment of the History on Main series.
After the escape of Frank Stevens and Kenneth McGuire, the next news to hit the stands about the county jail came in June of 1933. The News Letter Journal reported that “W.C. Subler, alleged horse thief being held for hearing in district court, was apprehended Tuesday afternoon by Sheriff Charles A. Howell at the George Sewell sheep camp, five miles from Osage in the hills, after he had escaped Sunday evening by bolting from the jail yard when the sheriff momentarily was not watching him.” The prisoners were reportedly in the yard to get wood. When the sheriff glanced away to look at the garden, Subler made a run for it.
Around the same time, the paper also reported that “Donald Baine and Richard Phillips charged with theft of an automobile belonging to Ben Hole Jr., were thwarted in an attempt to dig their way out of the county jail Friday evening after their plans had become known and extra guard was established.” The story explained that the two hid a dinner knife from a previous supper, and Mrs. Howell missed the knife. When confronted, the two denied knowing its whereabouts.
All the escapees were recaptured and denied freedom to the bull pen and out in cells to prevent further problems, according to the News Letter Journal.
On Dec. 28, 1933, the News Letter Journal published “New County Jail Here Under Construction As A Civil Works Project,” with the subhead “Relief employment to furnish all labor and cost to county will approximate $2,500 for material—project approved Friday, worked started Tuesday.” The article announced that the project was approved in Cheyenne by the state Civil Works Administration. The total cost of the new county jail was estimated at $8,000, with about $4,500 in labor from the CWA funds and $2,500 in material from the county.” Cash assumed the extra money was set aside for incidentals and other miscellaneous costs. The project employed 26 men.
“The new building will be located between the courthouse and the present jail building on a site through which an alley passed until the excavation work was commenced,” reported the newspaper. Cash explained that the second jail was located in what is now part of the parking lot for the courthouse. The article went on to say that “the structure will have a frontage of 30 feet on Summit street with the front part 30 by 28 feet and a story and a half in height. This will consist of six rooms and bath, four rooms on the first floor and two on the second, and a garage in the basement and will be occupied by the sheriff.” The report further noted that “a one-story annex will extend from the rear 28x41 feet to house the jail. The whole will be built of native stone with finished stone across the front and rough cut stone on the sides and rear. The new building is being placed adjacent to the court house in order that it can be heated from the court house steam plant.”
The December 1933 article in the News Letter Journal also indicated that when the new jail was finished, the first jail, built in 1890, was to be torn down.
While plans for a new jail were in the works, crime continued. In the fall of 1934, the News Letter Journal wrote of another issue at the jail: “An inmate of the county jail last Saturday night decided to create a little excitement and chose as his method of entertainment the building of a bonfire in his cell using his mattress as fire wood. Luckily the fire was destroyed and extinguished before any serious damage was done.”
Then, in January 1935, the headline “Plan to Dismantle Old Jail Building” alerted readers to a story in the local paper. The county commissioners told the News Letter Journal that the old jail was to be dismantled in the near future. A bid was put out to tear down the jail and salvage the materials for other purposes. Harry Fryers and Jewel Hyatt won the bid for $10 and ownership of the materials. Plans came to fruition soon after.
The News Letter Journal then published “The Old Jail Passes On,” also in January 1935. The article opened as follows: “For over forty years the Weston County Jail building has stood as a landmark in Weston County and many are the tales that its walls could tell if they were able to speak.”
The story continued with other tidbits such as this one: “Little is known by the younger generation here of the thousands of real characters of the west that this building has housed, but if those bricks and boards could tell in chronological order the truths about these early erring westerners, it would make a story more interesting that any that modern writers of fiction could portray.”
Listed in the article were names found in prisoner records: Diamond L. Slim Clifton, Fred Starr, Charles Davis, Frank James, Jim Murdock, Poker Alice, Chas. D. Waggoner, Calamity Jane and Jim Vines.
The News Letter Journal ran another update in April of 1937 when J.H. Smith, a former resident of the Cheyenne area and city marshal in other towns was appointed by Newcastle’s city council as a day marshal in Newcastle.
Reports on the jail are slim for many years following Smith’s arrival. Cash rationalized that local news was likely limited in the 1940s because of WWII.
A new series of articles started up again in the late 1970s when Willis Larson resigned as sheriff in March of 1977. The News Letter Journal reported that “the sheriff’s office had been plagued with resignation problems.” Larson was sheriff for six years and two months, during which time seven deputies resigned. At the time of the article, other considerations for a replacement sheriff were not yet in the works.
Then, on March 24, 1977, the News Letter Journal announced that Lewis Johnson was appointed by the Weston County commissioners to fill the remainder of Larson’s term as sheriff.
Johnson had been serving as the assistant chief of the Newcastle Police Department, according to Cash. The News Letter Journal reported that “Johnson announced that he will tentatively have the sheriff’s office at the Newcastle Police Department office area in the city hall. He also announced that Carolyn Howell will serve as secretary, radio dispatcher, and deputy sheriff. She had previously served in those positions with Sheriff Larson prior to resigning about a month ago. Johnson also announced that Chuck Alsop will serve as undersheriff. He had served in that capacity under Sheriff Larson.”
“I used to work for him! He was a pretty nice guy,” said Cash. “I worked for him in the ‘60s when him and his boys had a gas station in town. In fact, the gas station was where Decker’s office is now. It was a Sinclair station.”.