Huntsville's Texas Prison Museum Offers
Interesting Tour of State's Penal System History
by: Bobby McDonald
This replica of a Prison Guard Shack, looks over the Prison Museum in Huntsville.
Have you ever wondered what was fact or fiction about famed outlaw, John Wesley Hardin, #7109? Do you ever focus on what it would be like behind prison walls? Did you ever attend the Texas Prison Rodeo? Well, it's all chronicled in Huntsville's Texas Prison Museum, and curators in the museum are retired prison warden's, that can offer even more enlightening facts about Texas' Prison System!
The Museum, open daily, except for holidays, is located on the East Access Road, in Huntsville, Texas, and provides an interesting collection of artifacts, stories, displays, and paraphenalia from the rich history of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. There's displays of some of the most famous Texas criminals, including: Huddie "Leadbell" Ledbetter, #42758, a Blues Musician, who received a 30 year sentence in 1917; Juanita Phillips "a.k.a. Candy Barr," the notorious Dallas County stripper, who served 3 years and 91 days, back in the 1950's and 1960's, as well as being a confidant of Jack Ruby; and Dallas Football Great, Bob Hayes #290973, who had an oustanding football career and was inducted into the Cowboys' Ring of Honor, and served 10 months, back in 1979.
The symbol of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is on an oblisk in the museum parking lot.
The Prison Museum also offers a "This Month in Prison History" exhibit, that highlights the famous happenings, each month. January features the famed 1934, Barrow Gang Shoot-Out at the Eastman Farm Unit, on January 16, 1934, when convicts were cutting firewood in a field, and Raymond Hamilton, Joe Palmer, Hilton Bybee and Henry Methvin escaped in the car, driven by famous outlaws, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Guard M. Joe Crowson and Guard Olin Bozeman were shot in the raid, with Crowson dying on January 27th, 1934, from his gunshot wounds. Hamilton and Palmer were caught and given the death penalty for Crowson's murder. And, of course, it was Barrow and Parker, who were later killed in Gibsland, Louisiana, on May 23, 1934, with information supplied by Methvin.
This exhibit shows the various tattoos of prison gangs.
Do you have a "black berry" phone? Well, that wasn't the first instrument to be called a "black berry!" That was the name, back in the 1950's used to describe the black vehicle that many state prisoners arrived in Huntsville, to serve their sentence. It was a box-like vehicle that transported prisoners to the state penitentiary.
The Texas Prison System was begun in 1841, on direction from the Texas State Legislature, and continues to be "The Largest Hotel Chain," in the state. Today, it costs $38.00 per day or over $13,800.00 per year to house a prisoner in the state prison system. The system has many branches across the state of Texas and has a very colorful history, that began with many convicts being "leased out" to private contractors, for work gangs, on roads, private farms, and other industrial pursuits. However, soon after 1900, the state decided that it was more cost effective for the state government to reap the profits of the convicts labor, and all contracts were withdrawn, by 1912. Then, the prison system began a large-scale farming operation, purchasing plantations to raise livestock and cotton, as well as foodstuff to feed the prisoners. Convicts were used to plant, cultivate, and harvest the crop, in "chain gang" fashion, with prison guards overseeing their work, rising to the famous "hoe brigades" that are seen in many photos.
Various weapons that have been confiscated from convicts make-up this display.
This beautiful floral arrangement was crafted by an inmate from toilet paper, that is part of
the crafts exhibit.
The museum traces this agrarian time in the prison system and has detailed exhibits of the period in the state's history, including photos of convicts working, horse collars made from plaited cornshucks, and cotton sacks, pulled up and down the rows, by the prison laborers.
The famed "ball and chain" worn by many prisoners, in the early history of the Texas Prison System.
Meanwhile, the women prison operation was known as the Goree Unit, and operated for many years by Mr. and Mrs. Marcus V. Heath. The women were housed in barracks, first built of wood and later replaced with brick structures. The Goree Unit women convicts made clothing, pieced quilts, and even had their own band, "The Goree Girls," who performed on the "Walls WBAP Radio Show" each week and at the annual "Texas Prison Rodeo."
A Prison Rodeo poster from the once famed event, held each Sunday in October.
Tapped as "The Wildest Show On Earth," the Texas Prison Rodeo was an annual event every Sunday in October, attended by crowds of up to 75,000, as they watched convicts "defy the odds" against wild bulls, seeking a tobacco pouch of money, tied between his horns. And, bronc riding, bull riding, calf roping, and other traditional rodeo events were also featured, as well as entertainment. The Prison Museum chronicles these "large-scaled" events, that took place in Huntsville each year.
And, whether you are "in favor" of the Death Penalty, or not, you'll find "Old Sparky," the electric chair that was used in executions, interesting, as well as the exhibits of how Capital Punishment is carried out today. Texas' use of the Death Penalty is synonymous throughout the U.S. Penal System.
Are you traveling down I-45 toward Houston, in the next few weeks or months? Make time to stop in Huntsville and tour the Texas Prison Museum. Cost is only $4.00 for adults, and you're sure to spend an afternoon of interesting browsing, as you learn about how your tax money is spent on prisoners.
The Prison Museum also, for a fee, provides information on deceased inmates, for genealogical purposes, if you have an interest in locating someone who was once incarcerated. It's a tour that you won't soon forget!
Horse, owned by the Prison System, graze adjacent to I-45, with the Huntsville Unit of the Prison, being
shown behind.
Former Prison Guards, who are curators in the Texas Prison Museum, will quickly tell you
that Prison Life is still hard, despite some of the stories you might hear to the contrary.
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