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Speaker 1: H a wall, street line, shackle change, Oh someome gird,

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it's calling my name.

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Speaker 2: There is no mercy and it's been a tentery juice

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as the hill Stream game Rango the three.

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Speaker 1: I'm here be.

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Speaker 2: By me to die inside these walls, inside the wild,

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hadn't went the girl as I.

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Speaker 3: Hey everyone, and welcome back to Bloody Angola, a podcast

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one and forty two years in the making, the complete

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story of America's bloodiest prison. I'm your host, Jim Chapman.

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And with the recent changes that have taken place, I'm

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gonna go ahead and kick off a new season. And

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this is season seven, episode one, and I'm gonna call

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this first episode fucking up to the Master. When I'm done,

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you're gonna know why. And I'm gonna jump right into

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it today and just stay tuned for some announcements after

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the story. Now, way back in episode one of season one,

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whatdy and I told you about the Walls, and we

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touched on how Louisiana State Penitentiary became Louisiana State Penitentiary

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way back then, and we told you about it starting

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off as a plantation. But we didn't go all the

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way back in history even one hundred years before it

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was Bloody Angola. So today I'm gonna give you the

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full story of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. So if

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you're new to the podcast, I'm blessed and happy to

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have you, and you picked the perfect time to listen,

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because we're going to take it back and just quickly.

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If you've been a listener for a while, you know

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that Louisiana State penitenti lies in a big bend in

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the Mississippi River and it's about thirty miles up the

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river from Saint Francisville, Louisiana. Now, it originated from several

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Spanish land grants, and y'all these land grants were made

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in the last decade of the eighteenth century and into

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the first decade of the nineteenth century. Most of the

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property had been acquired by a guy by the name

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of Francis Ruth for the production of cotton, which was

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a big business back then, especially in Louisiana. Now, in

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the late eighteen thirties, the property passed on to Isaac Franklin,

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and he was a wealthy planner and he was a

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slave trader from Tennessee, and adjacent lands were added to

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those holdings, and the property was managed as seven plantations total.

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They were called Angola, Bellevue, Lake Killer, me Losha, manned Longo, Panola,

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and Mamro Villa. I know, strange names. The owners lived

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primarily on the Angola plantation, and by the twentieth century

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the entire property was referred to by that single name. Now,

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Isaac Franklin had a wife. Her name was Adalca Hayes,

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and she retained the property until eighteen eighty and she

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sold it to Samuel James and he held onto that

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lease to manage the prison system in Louisiana. And James

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worked the property with that convict labor until nineteen oh one,

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and then it was purchased by the State of Louisiana.

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Now this was an eighteen thousand acre Antebellum plantation property,

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right all right, So let's get into France. Ruth and

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Francis Ruth was of West Feliciana Parish and Francis Ruth

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began acquiring the land that currently makes up Louisiana State

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Penitentiary to Angola in eighteen twenty seven, just buying up land.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 3: By eighteen thirty four, Francis had owned some seventy five

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percent of the property, and he divided his holdings into

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three adjacent cotton plantations known as Bellevue, killing Ernee, and

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these names, y'all, losh LeMond is what I'm going with.

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In eighteen thirty five, Francis Ruth formed a partnership with

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a guy by the name of Isaac Franklin, who was

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a wealthy Tennessee planner, and he had made an enormous

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fortune in what was known as the interstate slave trade. Now,

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unlike the middle eighteen thirties, Franklin and his slaver associate

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It's were considered the leading long distance slave traffickers in

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the country and credited with supplying two thirds of all

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slaves transported to the Deep South. When Ruth's finances collapsed

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in eighteen thirty seven, all of his property was passed

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on to Franklin. So Franklin he marries a woman by

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the name of Aladisia Hayes, who was a socially prominent

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debutante as they were referred to back then from Nashville, Tennessee,

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and on July first of eighteen thirty nine, Franklin. At

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this time he was fifty years old and Alisea was

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twenty two, so she may have been one of those

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that married for the money. Right, the couple lived part

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of the year in Tennessee and part of the year

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in Louisiana. Now, by the early eighteen forties, Franklin added

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a fourth plantation into his property, and that was known

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as Woodyard. There he constructed a steam powered sawmill and

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a gristmill, a barn. He had fourteen slave cabins, a hospital,

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a cook house, an office, a storehouse, two sheds in

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a two story residence and adding all this stuff actually

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increased his land value by twenty thousand dollars, which was

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a lot of money back then. The Angola's big house

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would serve as the family's main Louisiana residence, and Longo

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Plantation was created from the southernmost part of the Angola tract,

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so the Franklins there in love right. They have four

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children over the next five years, Victoria Oda Sea, Julius Caesar,

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yes his name was Julius Caesar, and sadly, Julius Caesar

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Franklin died just fourteen hours after his birth. Isaac Franklin

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himself dies at Angola on the property on April twenty

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seventh of eighteen forty six, and his over eight thousand

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acres in West Falliciana at that time, at that time

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were valued at five hundred thousand dollars. Now, to give

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you an idea of calculating inflation into that, I actually

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looked it up, and five hundred thousand dollars in eighteen

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forty three is worth twenty one million, three hundred and

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four thousand dollars today. So Isaac Franklin dies and his

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body was preserved in two barrels of whiskey, and it

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was transported in a sheet lead coffin the esteem boat

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to Nashville. So that was early embalming for you. While

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in Tennessee for the funeral, the Franklin's second child, Adalcilla,

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died on June eighth of eighteen forty six of bronchitis.

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How about that tells you how far medicine has come.

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Bronchitis will kill you in eighteen forty six. Now everybody

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gets that at least once a year. It seems like

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their oldest daughter, Victoria, also died of croup just three

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days later. So all that left was his wife, right,

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and she inherited a lot of money and al Decilla

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Hayes Franklin, upon her inheritance, was considered the wealthiest woman

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in late Antebellum America. They had some wealthy ones back then.

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On May eighth of eighteen forty nine, she married Joseph

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Alexander Acklin, who was a prominent at Huntsville, Alabama lawyer.

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Before the marriage, Ackland signed a prenup agreement relinquishing all

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interest in her businesses, property and assets. How about that.

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And look, this was a beautiful woman, even for that time.

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There's a picture of her that I'm going to put

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up on the Blooding Anga Patreon, So check that out

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if you're not already a member. But I'm going to

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put a picture of her up, and I mean, just

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a beautiful woman here in this picture. So aclan, he agrees,

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he signs that prenup. And nevertheless he was a superb

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businessman in his own right, and he became a plantation

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manager and he actually tripled her net worth by the

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year eighteen sixty. Now, there was a magazine back then

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called The Southern Cultivator and in eighteen fifty two described

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Acklin as a man of fine personal appearance, very bold,

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frank and decided in everything he does, with great energy

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in industry. The writer also added that Acklin was one

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of the largest planners on the Mississippi, with the finest

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and best managed estate in the South, worked by seven

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hundred slaves, who were very much attached him, for he

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is the best master I have ever known, some of

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them said, And the article continued on and said Colonel

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Acklan had thirty mechanics, a large steam sawmill, from which

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he is furnished with the best building materials. He employs

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six overseers, a general agent and a bookkeeper, two physicians,

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a head carpenter, a tenor, a ditcher, and a preacher

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from the Negroes. And that's that's written. The houses on

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each plantation are neat frame houses on brick piers, and

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are furnished with good betting, mosquito bars, and all that

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is essential in health and comfort. The Negroes are well fed,

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in clothed, and seem to be the happiest population I

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have ever seen. Everything moves systematically and with the discipline

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of a regular trained army. Each plantation has a hospital

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for the sick, well furnished, a nurse house, and a

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general cookouse. Colonel Acklan takes great interest in planning as

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a fine library, and regardless of expense, keeps up with

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all the modern improvements in farming. He is now introducing

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grapes on his place and cultivating oranges for hedges. And

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it shod a picture of him, and he's a handsome guy.

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And I'll post that on the Patreon as well. Now,

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soon after their marriage, the Aklans began building what's known

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as Belmont Mansion in Nashville, and that was their quote

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unquote summer house. It was worth five hundred thousand dollars

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back then, which means it was a twenty one million

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dollar house today, and it was finished in eighteen fifty two. Now,

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by eighteen fifty nine, the Aklans had six children. Joseph

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Hayes who was born in eighteen fifty They had twin girls,

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Lauren and Corene, who were born in eighteen fifty two,

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William Hayes who was born in eighteen fifty five, Claude

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who was born in eighteen fifty seven, and Pauline, who

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was born in eighteen fifty nine. The twins both died

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at just two years of age. They both contracted scarlet

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fever at Angola only months after William's birth in eighteen

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fifty five, out to see his daughter. Emma. Franklin, then eleven,

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died of diphtheria while at the Belmont Summerhouse. So the

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Aclans they spent the winters at in Gola Plantation and

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the remainder of the year in Nashville at the quote

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unquote Summerhouse, you know, the twenty one million dollar mansion.

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They traveled in between these points on river steamers. This

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schedule that allowed the family to be in Louisiana for

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cottingenning season and all the pre lentth celebrations in New Orleans.

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A very Catholic population here in Louisiana now and even then,

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of course, the majority of Louisianians being French descent, Acklin

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himself needed to be an Angola six to eight months

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per year. So Joseph Acklin he purchases several additional Louisiana

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properties between eighteen fifty two and eighteen fifty seven, and

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he wanted to kind of compliment his wife's plantations, if

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you will, So he buys a six hundred and forty

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acre tract that becomes will was known as Monrovia plantation,

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and by eighteen sixty, Ackland claimed to possess two million

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dollars in real estate and one million dollars in personal estate.

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And that was in those times money, so you're talking

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sixty eighty million dollars worth of property. The previous year,

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the Ackland's Louisiana plantations had produced three thousand, one hundred

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and forty nine bales of cotton, making them the third

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largest cotton producer in the state. Some six hundred and

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fifty nine slaves worked four thousand acres of improved land.

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Some one hundred and twenty eight of these slaves lined

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in forty four cabins on Angola Plantation. This plantation had

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two quarters areas, one near the Big House and the

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other on the river about three miles south of the

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Big House. So what about during the Civil War? Well,

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during the Civil War Joseph Acklin he signs an oath

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of allegiance to the Confederacy. No surprise, the guy had

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a boatload of slaves, which obviously horrible, awful shit that

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should have never occurred, and he was getting rich off

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these slaves. But it explains why he would sign an

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oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. Now he donated some

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thirty thousand dollars to the Confederate war effort as well.

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I'm going to imagine he did. He stood to lose everything, right.

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Acklin even tried to enlist in the Confederacy at one point,

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but he was crippled with authorritis. He just had really

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bad authortis problems and they would not allow him to

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join the military. So their living life. It's during the

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Civil War, and when the Union Army advanced into middle

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Tennessee in eighteen sixty two, his wife encourages her husband, Hey,

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we need to get the hell out of here, and

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we need to go live in Angola because they're about

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to take over everything in Tennessee. So in Louisiana, Acklan

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was in kind of a difficult position. The Federals out

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of occupied New Orleans and Baton Ridge. They were threatening

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him from the river and the Confederates were threatening him

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from the land. His property. It provided like a main

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river crossing for Confederate provisions, mail, and even troops. They

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would use the river to get him back and forth. Right,

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So in April of eighteen sixty two, the US Navy

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steam slope Brooklyn Docks at Angola, they wanted some fresh

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meat and vegetables, and Ackland tells a lieutenant by the

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name of RB. Lawry that the Confederacy told him he

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had to burn his cotton and if he didn't do it,

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they would hang him. And the reason they were wanting

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him to burn on is cotton, y'all, was the Union Army.

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They were worried that they were going to get their

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hands on that cotton, be able to sell it, and

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it would continue to be able to fund the Union Army.

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So he tells that lieutenant that, and the lieutenant basically

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tells him, look, you come on our side, we'll protect you.

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But he says, hell no, I ain't doing that because

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if I do that, I'm going to get killed by

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the Confederate Army. They're going to know a turncoat, right.

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00:18:23,079 --> 00:18:27,799
So he eventually sells them some poultry and vegetables, and

236
00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:31,720
he kind of develops a friendship with the Union Navy

237
00:18:31,759 --> 00:18:35,119
as they're traveling back and forth. They left him alone.

238
00:18:35,799 --> 00:18:40,079
They didn't burn his plantation, so he was kind of

239
00:18:40,079 --> 00:18:44,640
friendly with him, and he would occasionally pass information to them.

240
00:18:45,839 --> 00:18:50,039
He would even let them use his carpentry shops. He

241
00:18:50,119 --> 00:18:54,079
allowed them to bury their dead on his property, and

242
00:18:54,119 --> 00:18:57,839
in his last known letter, Acklin wrote for Angola, this

243
00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:01,920
was on August twentieth of eighteen sixty three, that all

244
00:19:02,119 --> 00:19:05,680
was in ruins in the fields were just wasting, everything

245
00:19:05,799 --> 00:19:09,599
was dying, and the Confederates had taken all his mules

246
00:19:09,680 --> 00:19:12,640
and horses, and that he had been subjected to all

247
00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:16,839
kinds of lies and slander that malice could invent.

248
00:19:17,039 --> 00:19:17,519
Speaker 1: He wrote.

249
00:19:18,119 --> 00:19:22,240
Speaker 3: In September of eighteen sixty three, Aklan was thrown from

250
00:19:22,279 --> 00:19:27,680
a wagon into a ditch on his Louisiana plantation. He

251
00:19:27,799 --> 00:19:32,640
caught pneumonia subsequently, and he died now the very month

252
00:19:32,759 --> 00:19:36,759
of Joseph's death. Out to Sea, she submits a claim

253
00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:40,079
to the Confederate Army for the thirty one thousand, three

254
00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:44,039
hundred and forty dollars worth of cotton, horses and mules

255
00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:49,960
appropriated from the Acklan's Louisiana plantations. She was kind of

256
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:55,880
a fire plug, so eventually the war ends, and three

257
00:19:55,920 --> 00:20:00,240
weeks after the Confederate surrender in eighteen sixty five, to

258
00:20:00,319 --> 00:20:05,440
Sea and her four surviving children, Joseph, William, Claude, and Pauline,

259
00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:10,160
they leave for Europe to retrieve money made from wartime

260
00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:13,880
cotton sales, and in January of eighteen sixty seven, the

261
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:18,920
Aclans make their first trip to the Louisiana plantations since

262
00:20:19,279 --> 00:20:23,240
the war, and Inngla William Acklin he writes in his

263
00:20:23,440 --> 00:20:27,599
journal that my mother was welcomed as if she had

264
00:20:27,640 --> 00:20:31,680
been a queen setting foot on her own domain. She

265
00:20:31,799 --> 00:20:35,000
shook hands with the overseer, and then in turn with

266
00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:39,160
the oldest settlers, as they called themselves. They followed her

267
00:20:39,319 --> 00:20:42,319
to the house and onto the rear porch of the house,

268
00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:45,119
and those who did not meet her at the landing

269
00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:48,960
came to pay their respects. And while these presentations are

270
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:53,400
taking place, the elderly women of the household knelt down

271
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:57,599
in a group about her chair, forming sort of a bodyguard.

272
00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:03,240
So she was obviously a very well respected woman. Now,

273
00:21:03,279 --> 00:21:06,799
on June twenty six of eighteen sixty seven, the beautiful

274
00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:12,480
old seas she marries doctor William Archer Cheatham. He was

275
00:21:12,519 --> 00:21:17,160
a noted Nashville physician and a cousin of Confederate General

276
00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:21,839
Benjamin chiafam At the time of their marriage, Outaicea was

277
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:25,720
fifty years old and doctor Cheatham was forty seven, so

278
00:21:25,839 --> 00:21:28,759
she was a little bit of a cookar. Upon his marriage,

279
00:21:28,839 --> 00:21:33,640
Doctor Cheatham also signed a prenuptial agreement disavowing all claims

280
00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:36,240
to her properties. Boy she she didn't play when it

281
00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:40,000
came to her money right. However, Chiefam made several trips

282
00:21:40,039 --> 00:21:44,759
to West Feliciana, sometimes accompanied by Joseph Junior, to oversee

283
00:21:44,799 --> 00:21:49,440
the Louisiana properties on his wife's behalf. The Aclan Cheatham

284
00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:53,400
holdings do not appear at all in the schedule for

285
00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:58,400
West Feliciana Parish in eighteen seventy, which suggested that the

286
00:21:58,519 --> 00:22:03,240
family's fortunes had begun to reverse at this time. So Aldosia,

287
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:07,640
she travels to Angola in early eighteen seventy two, and

288
00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:11,359
she had the intention of taking over the plantations management.

289
00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:15,759
She's saying, we're losing some money here, and the fireplug

290
00:22:15,799 --> 00:22:18,200
that she is, she thinks she can solve that problem.

291
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:22,440
So the crop that year was very small and the

292
00:22:22,519 --> 00:22:28,039
taxes were very burtisome. In addition, a disease of mules

293
00:22:28,039 --> 00:22:32,119
in eighteen seventy four and several crop failures had forced

294
00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:37,960
the estate into rapid decline. So on December twenty third

295
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:44,359
of eighteen eighty, Aldaseea and William they sell their West

296
00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:49,039
Feliciana properties to a partnership to guys, a guy by

297
00:22:49,039 --> 00:22:53,000
the name of Lewis Traeger and another guy by the

298
00:22:53,079 --> 00:22:58,680
name of Samuel James, and the property totaled ten thousand,

299
00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:03,440
fifteen acres and it was sold to Trigger and James

300
00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:08,039
for one hundred thousand dollars in eighteen eighty five. Out

301
00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:11,960
to Sea, she leaves Belmont, that Nashville mansion, and she

302
00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:17,160
separates from Doctor Chiefam, which is surprising. People didn't separate

303
00:23:17,319 --> 00:23:20,359
back in them days, especially when they had been married

304
00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:24,759
eighteen years, as Doctor Chiefam and ou to Sea were

305
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:29,240
at that time. So she William Claude and Pauline. They

306
00:23:29,359 --> 00:23:35,680
moved to Washington, d c. Where Aldacilla becomes very ill

307
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:41,680
and dies from pneumonia on May fourth of eighteen eighty seven.

308
00:23:41,839 --> 00:23:46,799
She was seventy years old. So who was Samuel James. Well,

309
00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:50,079
he was a civil engineer who in eighteen sixty nine

310
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:56,240
he forms a firm called James Buckner and Company Levy Contractors,

311
00:23:56,519 --> 00:23:59,440
and that's a big business at this time in history.

312
00:23:59,599 --> 00:24:03,319
And he receives a five year lease from the State

313
00:24:03,359 --> 00:24:08,160
of Louisiana to manage the prison system. This lease gave

314
00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:12,480
the company authority to manage the main prison in Baton Rouge,

315
00:24:12,559 --> 00:24:15,319
which at that time was none as the Walls. So

316
00:24:15,359 --> 00:24:17,640
if you haven't listened to that, go listen to it

317
00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:21,480
episode number one of season one. What the State of

318
00:24:21,519 --> 00:24:25,599
Louisiana would do was they would lease out convicts to

319
00:24:26,279 --> 00:24:31,799
Samuel James. Now these convicts, they will work on private

320
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:36,119
plantations and they would also do public works projects like

321
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:40,240
the Levy system. In eighteen seventy, that lease was extended

322
00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:44,880
from five to twenty one years, during which time James

323
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:50,400
reportedly maintained the most cynical, profit oriented and brutal prison

324
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:59,759
regimen in State of Louisiana's history. Approximately three thousand prisoners

325
00:24:59,799 --> 00:25:05,559
died under the James leasing system between eighteen seventy and

326
00:25:05,799 --> 00:25:09,200
nineteen oh one, when the State of Louisiana took it

327
00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:12,519
back over. Now in eighteen eighty two, he had a

328
00:25:12,559 --> 00:25:16,680
business partnership Trager and James, and that was dissolved as

329
00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:23,400
a result. James retained in Gola, Bellevue and Longo plantations,

330
00:25:23,839 --> 00:25:28,480
and Trager he got to keep Panola, Momravilla, and Lake

331
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:34,880
killing Me plantations, as well as losh LeMond plantations. So on,

332
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:39,000
June fifteenth of eighteen eighty nine, Trager. He loses Lake

333
00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:43,000
killing Me plantation to James as the result of a

334
00:25:43,079 --> 00:25:47,119
lawsuit that James filed against him. On January sixth of

335
00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:53,680
eighteen ninety three, William and Claude Acklin, they receive Panola,

336
00:25:54,279 --> 00:25:58,920
losch LeMond and Monroe Villa plantations in a recession from

337
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:03,240
Lewis Tregger. Obviously, Lewis Tregger wouldn't paying his bills, so

338
00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:08,400
when Samuel James acquired the West Felician implantations, which are

339
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:12,319
now referred to by the single name Angola, he simply

340
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:17,319
moved himself, his sharecroppers, and the inmates into existing buildings

341
00:26:17,359 --> 00:26:21,640
on that property. Pre War slave quarters and later tenant

342
00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:27,240
houses went to sharecroppers and to inmates. James reportedly housed

343
00:26:27,279 --> 00:26:31,880
convicts in the Angola Sugar House, built by Isaac Franklin.

344
00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:35,720
In James and his family they occupied what was known

345
00:26:35,759 --> 00:26:39,880
as the Angola Big House, which was Aldosia's former home.

346
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:45,480
Now sl James Junior, known as law James. He managed

347
00:26:45,519 --> 00:26:49,440
the Angola properties in the late eighteen eighties and assumed

348
00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:54,160
complete control after his father's death. James Senior he died

349
00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:57,640
from a heart aneurism on the porch of the Angola

350
00:26:57,720 --> 00:27:01,680
Big House on July twenty six of eighteen ninety four,

351
00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:05,440
and he left behind a fortune of over two million dollars.

352
00:27:05,519 --> 00:27:09,640
Y'all that's close to one hundred million dollars in today's money.

353
00:27:09,839 --> 00:27:12,960
In the property itself, it was heavily mortgage, even though

354
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,640
he had a lot of money. For whatever reason, he

355
00:27:16,039 --> 00:27:19,319
just mortgaged his property even though he could pay it off.

356
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:24,799
Low James. He takes his family and they move into

357
00:27:25,079 --> 00:27:29,000
the Angola Big House now. At the time, this house

358
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:36,079
contained nine bedrooms, halls upstairs and downstairs, a kitchen, dining

359
00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:41,559
rooms in front, side and back galleries. The house stood

360
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:44,799
in the center of a very large yard and also

361
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:48,720
contained oak trees, two servant houses, a chicken house, and

362
00:27:48,759 --> 00:27:52,519
a small stable. In the backyard there were a dozen

363
00:27:52,559 --> 00:27:56,400
pecan trees, fig trees, two large stables, and a privy.

364
00:27:56,759 --> 00:27:59,799
The Lner located about a block from the Big House.

365
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:04,279
They have wooden above ground cisterns which were cleaned yearly,

366
00:28:05,079 --> 00:28:09,039
and y'all's cisterns are used to catch drinking water, and

367
00:28:09,079 --> 00:28:13,440
they also had underground wells filled with water not fit

368
00:28:13,519 --> 00:28:16,759
for drinking, but they would use those for laundry, for

369
00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:21,279
watering animals, et cetera. And the milk was kept cool

370
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:25,799
by suspending bottles of cool water in the wells in

371
00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:30,559
the yard, and it was almost like a Cajun refrigerator,

372
00:28:30,839 --> 00:28:31,480
if you will.

373
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:32,079
Speaker 1: Now.

374
00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:34,920
Speaker 3: A convict camp for a few men and women was

375
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:38,519
also located near the big house the inmate's house. There

376
00:28:38,559 --> 00:28:42,160
were mostly women who worked as field hands or servants

377
00:28:42,319 --> 00:28:45,240
in the big house. And it's interesting that the nurse

378
00:28:45,319 --> 00:28:48,920
for Law's daughter and his daughter's name was Dot. She

379
00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:54,119
was a convicted murderess. Dot's older sister, Cecil, said that

380
00:28:54,359 --> 00:28:58,400
Papa always chose the murderer in preference to the thieves

381
00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:02,000
to act as servants. A thief is a sneak and

382
00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:05,000
not to be trusted in one's house. Once a thief,

383
00:29:05,359 --> 00:29:09,319
he's apt to steal again, whereas a murderer is hot headed,

384
00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:13,039
commits a crime which is usually sorry for later and

385
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:17,599
probably will not do again. Of course, these people were

386
00:29:17,759 --> 00:29:21,680
trustees and had to be handled with diplomacy. When a

387
00:29:21,759 --> 00:29:25,519
servant was not competent, she was not scolded. Only another

388
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:28,440
was sent from camp to filler place. The next day.

389
00:29:28,839 --> 00:29:32,000
The few convict men and women at Angola were worked

390
00:29:32,079 --> 00:29:36,279
in gangs in the field with always a guard watching.

391
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:42,880
So several hundred Negro families worked on Angola as sharecroppers

392
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:47,680
and lived in the surviving quarters areas. These croppers paid

393
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:51,599
rent for their land and homes with a percentage of

394
00:29:51,599 --> 00:29:56,200
the crop produced. Each one owned two mules, usually bought

395
00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:02,400
on time from the James family, cow pigs, chickens, and

396
00:30:02,599 --> 00:30:08,079
had vegetable patches. Some had their own wagon. They bought groceries, clothes,

397
00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:11,880
and other supplies at two stores that were on the plantation,

398
00:30:12,519 --> 00:30:15,880
usually on credit, and the debt was deducted from their crop.

399
00:30:16,519 --> 00:30:21,119
Schools and churches both Baptists and Methodists were also established

400
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:25,079
for the croppers. So on March twenty seventh of nineteen

401
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:29,680
oh one, the board of the Central Louisiana State Penitentiary

402
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:37,799
purchased Angola, Longo, Bellevue and Killerny plantations, and that was

403
00:30:37,839 --> 00:30:42,200
about eight thousand acres from the estate of Samuel James,

404
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:45,680
and they bought it for twenty five dollars per acre.

405
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:49,680
Law was asked to stay on the place as a manager,

406
00:30:49,799 --> 00:30:54,160
but he refused. The sharecroppers were distrusted at the cell

407
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:57,720
of the plantation, and law James tried to relocate as

408
00:30:57,839 --> 00:31:02,680
many of them as possible to other plantations. Now when

409
00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:06,480
the Board took over in Goola in nineteen oh one,

410
00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:11,640
forty five two room cabins were still standing, three three

411
00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:16,559
room room cabins, twenty three four room cabins, in thirty

412
00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:20,640
other buildings, including three residences. The house at Bellevue was

413
00:31:20,759 --> 00:31:24,200
valued at eighteen thousand dollars and in Gola's Big House

414
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:28,079
was valued at thirty thousand dollars. Camps for prisoners were

415
00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:32,480
established at the old quarters and industrial complexes still standing

416
00:31:32,519 --> 00:31:37,000
across the property. Numerous new buildings were also constructed, including

417
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:40,680
a blacksmith shop built east of the Angola Big House

418
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:44,440
where the Antebellum slave quarters once stood. So the state

419
00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:49,720
rotated its Angola cotton crop with corn and cowpees each year,

420
00:31:50,359 --> 00:31:54,200
and stock on the plantation consisted of over three hundred

421
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:58,200
and fifteen head of cattle in seven hundred holls. A

422
00:31:58,279 --> 00:32:03,000
sawmill was constructed to harvest the surviving timber on the property,

423
00:32:03,079 --> 00:32:06,640
and by May of nineteen oh eight, the penitentiary housed

424
00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:10,720
eighteen hundred and sixty inmates, of whom only two hundred

425
00:32:10,759 --> 00:32:14,680
and sixty four could read and write in twenty eight

426
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:17,920
of the convict y'all were between the ages of twelve

427
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:22,480
and fifteen years old. Now, lumber and corn production at

428
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:27,160
Angola was very successful during this period, but high water

429
00:32:27,359 --> 00:32:31,960
in low prices hurt the cotton crop. The bull weavil

430
00:32:32,319 --> 00:32:36,440
destroyed about fifty percent of Angola's cotton in nineteen oh

431
00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:40,599
eight and seventy five percent of it in nineteen oh nine. Now,

432
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:45,440
as a consequence, cotton cultivation was abandoned and sugar cane

433
00:32:45,519 --> 00:32:49,599
became the principal crop. A modern sugar mill was constructed

434
00:32:49,839 --> 00:32:55,480
in nineteen eleven. Then in nineteen twelve, the levees around

435
00:32:55,559 --> 00:33:00,359
in Gola broke. The entire plantation was innedated and the

436
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:05,759
cotton mill was destroyed. Rebuilding the levees cost about twenty

437
00:33:05,799 --> 00:33:09,200
thousand dollars in those days. In a total of four

438
00:33:09,279 --> 00:33:14,480
hundred thousand dollars in those days, money was lost altogether. Then,

439
00:33:14,759 --> 00:33:19,160
in nineteen thirty three, a second flood required crews to

440
00:33:19,279 --> 00:33:23,039
work at night to maintain those levees, and the Ngola

441
00:33:23,119 --> 00:33:26,880
Big House survived these floods, but the row of nearby

442
00:33:27,039 --> 00:33:30,480
tenant houses did not, and they were all destroyed.

443
00:33:30,759 --> 00:33:30,960
Speaker 2: Now.

444
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:36,160
Speaker 3: By nineteen ten, doctor Emil Ellert, a resident prison physician,

445
00:33:36,319 --> 00:33:40,920
and his family. They occupied the Ngola Big House. Convicts

446
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:44,000
continued to be employed at the house as servants. In

447
00:33:44,079 --> 00:33:47,279
November of nineteen thirteen, an inmate by the name of

448
00:33:47,519 --> 00:33:53,160
Harry Harriet He fatally shoots Miss Ellert and then shoots

449
00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:57,920
himself in the Ngola Big House with a revolver belonging

450
00:33:58,079 --> 00:34:02,799
to the warden at that time. In nineteen sixteen, Governor

451
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:07,680
Ruffin Pleasant, who was appointed by Henry Fuqua, Baton Riridge

452
00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:11,559
as the general manager of the State Penitentiary. He abolishes

453
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:15,920
the Board of Control, and in an effort to centralize

454
00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:20,000
prisoners and eliminate the huge expenditure of paying guards and

455
00:34:20,039 --> 00:34:24,639
other personnel at construction sites, he comes up with the

456
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:30,719
idea of using what's none as convict labor to construct

457
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:35,800
a large penitentiary at Angola. This was in nineteen sixteen.

458
00:34:36,039 --> 00:34:39,880
Almost all paid security officers that Angola were fired and

459
00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:44,239
replaced by trustee guards. Much more emphasis was placed on

460
00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:49,079
reform under Fuqua, who did away with the striping uniforms

461
00:34:49,119 --> 00:34:54,079
to lessen the convict humiliation. Fuqua, however, was appointed to

462
00:34:54,119 --> 00:34:59,280
his position primarily for his business abilities. W. P. Gibbons,

463
00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:03,159
a success full sugar planner, was made form superintendent in

464
00:35:03,280 --> 00:35:07,800
nineteen nineteen and his family occupied the Angola Big House.

465
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:12,320
Then in nineteen twenty two, they had severe flooding on

466
00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:15,559
the Mississippi River and the Angola Sugar refinery and the

467
00:35:15,599 --> 00:35:21,079
Big House got inundated. The prisoners flooded out of Angola

468
00:35:21,119 --> 00:35:25,159
and were dispersed to all sorts of temporary housing. To

469
00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:29,920
ensure that no such massive relocation off prison property would

470
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:35,039
be necessary again, Fuqua promoted the purchase of all the

471
00:35:35,079 --> 00:35:41,039
property between Angola's levee and the Tunica Hills, and during

472
00:35:41,119 --> 00:35:45,119
floods convicts could just move to higher ground on the

473
00:35:45,159 --> 00:35:49,159
farm itself. So he contacts the Aklan brothers and they

474
00:35:49,199 --> 00:35:55,360
actually end up selling Panola, mon Revia and Locomon Plantation

475
00:35:55,559 --> 00:35:59,320
to the state in nineteen twenty two, and by nineteen

476
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:03,239
twenty four or the prison area had increased from eight

477
00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:07,639
thousand acres to the eighteen thousand acres that you have today.

478
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:11,679
It made evacuation was not necessary. When they had another

479
00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:16,559
flood in nineteen twenty seven thatdated the property, primarily because

480
00:36:16,599 --> 00:36:18,840
of this reason, they just moved a higher ground by

481
00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:22,920
the middle of the nineteen twenties, the prison was virtually

482
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:26,800
self supporting over three thousand heads of cattle. They had

483
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:30,000
three hundred and eighty seven mules, two hundred horses, and

484
00:36:30,119 --> 00:36:35,280
twenty thousand foul were kept on that property. Of the

485
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:40,400
eighteen thousand acres under cultivation, six thousand were pastors and

486
00:36:40,519 --> 00:36:44,559
eight thousand planted in sugar and believe it or not

487
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:48,360
nineteen twenty one, the sugar refinery at Angola at that

488
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:52,639
time was the fourth largest sugar refinery in the South.

489
00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:57,599
It produced six million pounds of granulated sugar and one

490
00:36:57,679 --> 00:37:02,559
million pounds of lump sugar. So in nineteen thirty five

491
00:37:02,719 --> 00:37:05,840
the penitentiary it housed seven hundred and forty six white men,

492
00:37:06,039 --> 00:37:10,880
fourteen white women, fourteen hundred and fifteen black men, and

493
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:14,760
sixty five black women. The eighty one employees on salary

494
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:19,960
included four preachers, five physicians, a druggist, forty three foreman

495
00:37:20,079 --> 00:37:23,960
and two gate men, as well as two telephone operators,

496
00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:30,320
eight clerical workers and a storekeeper, nine captains, one chief engineer,

497
00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:35,880
a superintendent, an assistant superintendent, an expert sign and metal worker,

498
00:37:36,199 --> 00:37:40,280
the warden, and a general manager. Some three hundred and

499
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:44,800
thirty eight inmates were employed at that time as convict guards.

500
00:37:45,199 --> 00:37:49,159
A forty cell concrete structure known as the Red Hat

501
00:37:49,239 --> 00:37:52,880
Cell Block was built after a riot in nineteen thirty

502
00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:55,960
three when three men were killed. We tell you all

503
00:37:56,039 --> 00:37:58,840
about that in the prior episode called the Red Hat

504
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:01,719
Cell Block. Now prior to the beginning of his term.

505
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:06,440
On April one of nineteen thirty six, Warden Lewis Jones

506
00:38:06,599 --> 00:38:10,199
described the conditions adding gullie. He said, apparently there was

507
00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:13,800
little system to the safety and protective measures, which were

508
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:19,280
slipshod in the extreme. Guards were carelessly selected and untrained.

509
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:23,800
They were armed with old, worn out, undependable shotguns of

510
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:29,079
which there was no inventory or accurate control. Ammunition was

511
00:38:29,159 --> 00:38:34,159
scant and in poor condition. There were no rifles. Men

512
00:38:34,199 --> 00:38:37,480
were taken to the fields before daylight and often brought

513
00:38:37,519 --> 00:38:40,679
in after dark. There was no outer line of guard

514
00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:44,519
towers on the levee around the farm. Supervision was poor

515
00:38:44,639 --> 00:38:48,039
or nonexistent. When an escape occurred, there was a lack

516
00:38:48,079 --> 00:38:52,880
of organization or cooperation in the pursuit and search attempts

517
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:55,719
were frequent. Due to the lack of discipline and low

518
00:38:55,800 --> 00:38:59,719
morale of the inmates. There was much unfair treatment of

519
00:39:00,079 --> 00:39:04,159
prisoners and a certain amount of actual brutality. Soft jobs

520
00:39:04,199 --> 00:39:06,559
were given to some inmates who had not had a

521
00:39:06,599 --> 00:39:10,039
period of work in the line, and probably to some

522
00:39:10,159 --> 00:39:13,519
who had money. Contact with the Board of Pardons and

523
00:39:13,599 --> 00:39:17,519
Parole was difficult for the inmate. Food was insufficient in

524
00:39:17,639 --> 00:39:21,880
quantity and variety, poorly prepared, and lacking in meat and

525
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:25,800
other elements needed by the men doing hard labor. Camps,

526
00:39:26,119 --> 00:39:29,719
kitchens and dining rooms were often dirty. At some camps

527
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:33,480
there were such crowdic conditions and poor ventilation that they

528
00:39:33,519 --> 00:39:38,920
were actually disease breeders. Case after case of tuberculosis developed

529
00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:43,760
at old Camps B and I. There were no recreational facilities.

530
00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:48,039
School classes were inadequate and poorly run. There was no library.

531
00:39:48,199 --> 00:39:51,519
What little reading the men had was often of a

532
00:39:51,639 --> 00:39:57,480
degrading nature. For extra items such as cigarettes, candy, fruit, toothpaste, etc.

533
00:39:58,039 --> 00:40:01,920
They were charged high prices at CA commissaries privately owned

534
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:05,800
by employees of the institution. All inmates were not required

535
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:09,559
to wear prison uniform. There were several trustees at most

536
00:40:09,639 --> 00:40:13,880
units allowed to wear civilian clothing. Loose handling of the

537
00:40:13,920 --> 00:40:17,880
mails and slack supervision of visitors made it easy to

538
00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:23,440
smuggling contraband of various sorts, including marijuana and other dope.

539
00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:27,239
So a blizzard in January of nineteen forty it damages

540
00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:31,639
the prison crops and the federal crop restrictions had been

541
00:40:31,679 --> 00:40:34,519
placed on sugar because the market had been poor the

542
00:40:34,639 --> 00:40:37,960
last few years, and attempts to get help from the

543
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:42,119
Corps of Engineers to upgrade Angola's levees at this time

544
00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:45,880
proved pretty much fruitless, so they were in bad shape.

545
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:48,119
So to kind of solve all this, they start making

546
00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:52,800
Louisiana license plates at Angola, and this started in nineteen fifty.

547
00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:57,559
They also had a dairy and a dehydration plant inmate guards.

548
00:40:57,639 --> 00:41:01,199
They still continued to use them until the nineteen fifties,

549
00:41:01,719 --> 00:41:05,360
and the old Angola Big House survived into the forties,

550
00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:09,360
but by nineteen fifty the house had to be torn

551
00:41:09,440 --> 00:41:12,840
down so to protests the harsh conditions. It was just

552
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:16,360
horrible back then, and to avoid working in the fields

553
00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:20,599
thirty one inmates they slashed their Achilles tendons. In February

554
00:41:20,599 --> 00:41:24,239
of nineteen fifty one. Got listen to season one of

555
00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:27,840
Blooding and Gola. We talk all about that The next year,

556
00:41:28,079 --> 00:41:32,000
Judge Robert Keenan of men In based his campaign for

557
00:41:32,079 --> 00:41:35,800
governor on the need for prison reforms. The main prison

558
00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:41,239
complex was subsequently built, Convict strikes were eliminated and various

559
00:41:41,239 --> 00:41:46,639
camps renovated. Flogging was also discontinued. Now, in nineteen sixty one,

560
00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:51,079
the prison's budget was drastically reduced and in Gola fell

561
00:41:51,159 --> 00:41:55,280
into serious decline. It became known as the bloodiest prison

562
00:41:55,360 --> 00:41:57,880
in the South during this time with the number of

563
00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:01,559
inmate assaults. Women inmates were moved out of Angola in

564
00:42:01,679 --> 00:42:05,679
nineteen sixty one and a federal court order demanded the

565
00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:10,239
conditions at Angola be improved. The trustee guard system gets

566
00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:15,719
eliminated and the number of guards employed nearly quadruples during

567
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:19,960
this time. The sugar meal was eventually sold in nineteen

568
00:42:20,039 --> 00:42:24,039
seventy four and sugar was completely abandoned as a crop.

569
00:42:24,159 --> 00:42:28,840
Now by this time, the convict camps were officially desegregated.

570
00:42:29,039 --> 00:42:32,039
So there you have it. I wanted to give you

571
00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:35,519
the complete history from the very beginning, and boy did

572
00:42:35,559 --> 00:42:38,440
I go back to the very beginning. I hope you

573
00:42:38,519 --> 00:42:43,000
got something out of that. Look horrible time in history.

574
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:50,119
In my opinion. Horrible time, but it is part of history.

575
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:54,320
And I wanted to give you that little bit of

576
00:42:54,360 --> 00:42:59,880
information about the bloodiest prison in America, Louisiana State Penitent

577
00:43:00,119 --> 00:43:03,119
Tree add Inkola, And I'm about to have some really

578
00:43:03,159 --> 00:43:06,559
good stories that in your way, So stay tuned. It's

579
00:43:06,599 --> 00:43:10,920
only getting better from here and until next time, I'm

580
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:15,920
Jim Chapman for Bloody and Gola, a podcast one hundred

581
00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:19,880
and forty two years in the making. The complete story

582
00:43:20,159 --> 00:43:21,719
of America's bloody is present.

583
00:43:22,599 --> 00:43:47,039
Speaker 1: Peace a wall, street line, shackle, change, some gird.

584
00:43:49,239 --> 00:43:55,440
Speaker 2: It's calling my name. There is no mercy and this

585
00:43:55,679 --> 00:44:04,079
being a tentery juice the huge stream game Rango three,

586
00:44:06,039 --> 00:44:14,559
I'm in fide. I'm me to die inside these walls,

587
00:44:16,239 --> 00:44:24,159
inside the wild and when the wars, I know it's

588
00:44:24,159 --> 00:45:00,280
overbody anger, ohbody angle, Yeah,