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186 Men were dying in record numbers across the nation as trapdoors of numerous gallows slammed open, marksmen in firing squads took aim, and prisoners were electrocuted and gassed. In 1935, 199 people, more than any at any other time in the nation’s history, would be put to death in the United States. In Washington, only one man, Hong Yick, a Chinese laborer convicted of murder in King County, was executed that year, but in the next several years, as many as three or four would be put to death each year. The Depression was at its peak. Bruno Hauptmann had a date with “Old Smokey,” the New Jersey electric chair, for kidnapping and murdering the Lindbergh baby. United Auto Workers struck at the Chevrolet plant. FDR explained his proposed Work Relief program. The Resettlement Administration moved poor families to planned Greenbelt towns in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Maryland, and the U.S. Supreme Court declared the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional. As for Herbert Niccolls, he was old news and the publishers told ArChapter 18 Chapter 18 187 mene Lamson this when she again tried to raise public awareness about his plight. Instead of featuring Father Flanagan’s entreaties to free the boy, the headlines spoke of the Midwest drought and crop failures that were causing people to starve to death and move from their prairie homes, heading westward. There was the rumbling of war as in Germany Hitler became chancellor, abolished essential freedoms, and flexed his might. What was one small boy in the midst of such turmoil? The bishop ordered Father Flanagan to take a three-month sabbatical in Rome after it became plain that Flanagan was so weary and worried about his home’s survival that his own health, which was never good, was in jeopardy. Speculating that Flanagan would now be back from Rome, Mrs. Lamson wrote to him, the governor, and McCauley. To her relief, Flanagan wrote back. He still wanted to see Herbert, “even at this late hour,” adding that “Martin is no better than Hartley.” “He likes to play politics apparently, but why they don’t play politics with others instead of a little boy [who] has been sinned against. . . . It seems that old man Satan has something to do with this—he doesn’t want this boy to be saved.” Her letter prompted a quick response from Martin, who insisted all was well with Herbert. She felt reassured and yet a trace of suspicion would always linger whenever she thought of him. He was very young. How easy it would be to take advantage of him. She wished Martin would parole him to Boys Town. Martin, however, had other plans. A regular visitor at the penitentiary , he had taken a liking to the boy and discovered that they even shared a birthday, June 29. McCauley also was proud of the boy’s advancement and had brought him to the mansion more and more to work. Herbert shoveled snow, polished cars, and gazed, when no one knew he was looking, at the warden’s daughters, drinking in their musical laughter. • High winds swept through the valley that March, sweeping the topsoil into a flurry of dust that made visibility almost impossible. It seeped 188 into the cracks and crevices of houses and blew into cars. It swept through the prison dairy, the tannery, the cannery, and the barber shop. It spiraled and blew in the door of the administration building, swirled around the guard towers, and crept into the cellblocks, where dust floated in the shafts of light from the barred windows overhead. And it caked the windows of the warden’s mansion, veiling the outside light in layers of silt. Mrs. McCauley had left again after a domestic storm that rivaled the one outside. McCauley remained to console his daughters. If ever there was a time when McCauley needed a compassionate friend, it was then. Never had the public been so dissatisfied with his leadership and his plans for prison reform than after the riot. Day after day, the newspapers carried scathing stories. Every favor—such as letting the prisoners have more items in their cells than they had ever had before to the dismay of the guards—was now trumpeted to the public as unwarranted leniency. He had stopped the old practice of shaving the prisoners’ heads. He let prisoners talk at work and at meals. They no longer had to walk with their arms folded across the chest. He...

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