Young Brothers Massacre

7. Jennings in Jail Again

1 JENNINGS IN JAIL AGAIN There was no nationwide manhunt for Harry after Mark Noes slaying, although efforts to find him were made locally. The usual "criminal wanted" bulletins were posted. Alerts for citizens to be on the lookout were sent to towns and cities in Oklahoma and Texas. In Greene County, Missouri, Sheriff Hendrix, Ollie Crosswhite, and Wiley Mashburn were on the lookout for a sneak visit by Harry to Mom at Brookline. It was known generally that he liked to return to home base. Rumors were widespread that he was involved in, and perhaps even the leader of, an extensive car theft gang. The experience of Harrys brother Jennings in March 1930 lent some credence to this theory. Jennings was in the Tarrant County jail in Fort Worth, Texas, indicted for violations ofthe Dyer Act, stealing and transporting automobiles in interstate commerce. The indictment was in three counts: (1) It alleged that on February, 24, 1930, in Lawton, Oklahoma (the largest town in the "Big Pasture," near Frederick), he stole a Ford Fordor Sedan "belonging to J. J. Allen." It charged that he transported that vehicle"from the City of Frederick in the state of Oklahoma to the city of Fort Worth in Texas." (2) The indictment charged that on February 15, in San Diego, California , he did "take, steal and carry away" a Ford Sport Coupe ownedby Herbert K. Putnam, and this automobile he "did transport from the City of Frederick to Fort Worth, Texas." (3) The indictment also charged that onthe same date he stole a second Ford Coupe from Herbert J. Putnam and "did barter, sell and dispose of said motor vehicle to one Charles L. Lillard in Tarrant County."I 37 38 Young Brothers Massacre A jury was impaneled. Jennings pleaded guilty and was again sentenced to two years' imprisonment in the federal penitentiary. He arrived in Leavenworth on April 17, 1930, and, after being transferred to "Federal Road Camp #4," was discharged on November 7, 1931.2 In less than two months he and Harry would execute six officers of the law and wound three more at his mothers farm home in Brookline. There is no hard evidence that Harry helped his brother steal these automobiles. It is, however, unlikely thatJennings was able to steal them all and transport them great distances by himself. The record does not say when and where Jennings violated the Dyer Act; but on the very day that Jennings pleaded guilty, another man in the Tarrant County jail also entered a plea of guilty in the same court and was sentenced to a term of "fourteen months at the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas."3 Although we do not know exactly how Paul, Harry, and Jennings, three small-town punks, adjusted to the shattering experience of prison life, we can infer a great deal from what we know about the prisons and the prison system of the time. At the very least, we can be certain from their subsequent careers in crime that no reform took place. The Missouri penitentiary, nearly one hundred years old, held an average daily population of 2,288 convicts. It still stands today, ugly and forbidding, much as it was when Paul and Jennings spent their first prison terms of two years, eight months, and twenty-seven days there. The four high stone walls are topped with guard towers at intervals. Those invincible-looking walls enclose an incredible maze of drab and depressing prison cells and buildings. The practice of contracting prison labor to private enterprise had failed, and prison labor in the 1930S and later was used by the state for profit. The major industries were pants manufacturing and the making of brooms and rope, as well as some farming, in addition to laundry and kitchen chores. Prison labor was on a task-system basis, with no rewards or bonuses. Rules were rigidly enforced. Jennings in Jail Again 39 It is true that punishment by being placed "in the rings" (suspended by the wrists) had been abolished. However, "flogging remained an acceptable discipline," and indispensable "industrial labor persisted as a central feature of life in MSP." Chronic II troublemakers," II recalcitrants," and "the most difficult of prisoners still wore [black and yellow] striped suits [and caps] and all inmates marched in lock step to and from meals and work; guards standing to the sides."4 At the time the...