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72 Richard A. Serrano Headline, Kansas City News-Press, May 1948. (Author’s collection) The Kansas City Municipal Farm, main building, also known as the Castle. (courtesy City of Kansas City) 73 My Grandfather’s Prison A crumbling Kansas City Municipal Farm main building. (courtesy City of Kansas City) An abandoned cell block at the Farm. (courtesy City of Kansas City) 74 Richard A. Serrano Kansas City Municipal Farm cell. (courtesy City of Kansas City) The old city jail, known as the workhouse. (courtesy Kansas City Star) 75 My Grandfather’s Prison Cell block at the Kansas City Municipal Farm. (courtesy City of Kansas City) 76 Richard A. Serrano My grandfather’s parents, Irish immigrants Joseph and Mary Lyons (right). (Author’s collection) 77 My Grandfather’s Prison My grandfather’s mother, Mary Lyons, in old age, an Irish immigrant who buried four children and her husband. (Author’s collection) The only photo of my grandparents Zillah and James Lyons (the couple at right), in November 1930, apparently on their wedding day. (Author’s collection) 78 Richard A. Serrano Kansas State Penitentiary mug shots of my grandfather’s brother, Joseph P. Lyons Jr. (courtesy Kansas State Historical Society) 79 My Grandfather’s Prison Kirby McRill, one of my grandfather’s last roommates on skid row. (courtesy Kansas City Star) 80 Richard A. Serrano Kansas City police officer Harry Nesbitt, my friend’s fabled straight-shooting grandfather. (courtesy Kansas City Star) My grandfather’s last home, Fifth and Main streets—the city’s skid row—in the late 1940s. (courtesy Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri) 81 My Grandfather’s Prison Warden Cyriel Provyn for years oversaw the jail and grounds at the Kansas City Municipal Farm. (courtesy Kansas City Star) 82 Richard A. Serrano Jackson County sheriff J. A. Purdome on the day he married his new bride, Esther, the widow of Wolf C. Rimann who was slain gangland-style in another never-solved homicide. (courtesy Kansas City Star) ...

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