In this Book
- The Boy Who Shot the Sheriff: The Redemption of Herbert Niccolls Jr.
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: University of Washington Press
In 1931, a 12-year-old boy shot and killed the sheriff of Asotin, Washington. The incident stunned the small town and a mob threatened to hang him. Both the crime and Herbert Niccolls's eventual sentence of life imprisonment at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla drew national attention, only to be buried later in local archives.
Journalist Nancy Bartley has conducted extensive research to construct a compelling narrative of the events and characters that make this a unique episode in the history of criminal justice in the United States. Niccolls became a cause for Father Flanagan of Boys Town,who took to the airwaves, imploring listeners to write Governor Hartley on the boy's behalf. The bitter campaign put Hartley in such a negative light that he lost his bid for reelection. Under a new and progressive warden, Niccolls thrived in prison. Inmates like physician Peter Miller and literary agent James Ashe became his tutors, finding that Niccolls had an insatiable appetite for knowledge. During the deadly 1934 prison riot at Walla Walla, several prisoners kept him from harm.
Niccolls was finally released from prison in his early twenties. He went to work at 20th Century Fox in Hollywood, where he kept his secret for the rest of his long life. The Boy Who Shot the Sheriff explores this little-known story of a young boy's fate in the juvenile justice system during the bloodiest years in the nation's penitentiaries.
Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRKFFQDgW20&list=UUge4MONgLFncQ1w1C_BnHcw&index=6&feature=plcp
Table of Contents
- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. 2-7
- Chapter 10
- pp. 80-92
- Chapter 11
- pp. 93-120
- Chapter 12
- pp. 121-129
- Chapter 13
- pp. 130-136
- Chapter 14
- pp. 137-155
- Chapter 15
- pp. 156-169
- Chapter 16
- pp. 170-177
- Chapter 17
- pp. 178-185
- Chapter 18
- pp. 186-191
- Chapter 19
- pp. 192-200
- Chapter 20
- pp. 201-210
- Chapter 21
- pp. 211-223
- Chapter 22
- pp. 224-231
- Chapter 23
- pp. 232-243
- Note on Sources
- pp. 273-275