Hide Article Text (OCR)
COLORED MAN, SENTENCED 28 YEARS AGO FROM WAUKEGAN FOR LIFE, CONCLUDES TO GO TO STATE’S HONOR FARM AFTER DECLINING AT FIRST TO LEAVE PRISON WALLS—NOW A MEMBER OF THE HONOR FARM EM PLOYES. Joe Smith, the negro who, 28 years ago committed the most atrocious murder ever recorded in Waukegan, when he beat to death with a club, aged Mr. and Mrs. Swift and their daughter in their home on Grand avenue, on Wednesday for the first time since being sent to Joliet for life imprisonment, stepped outside the walls and left them behind him forever, if he wishes. A few days ago he had refused to leave the rattan shop where he was a foreman. He felt his services were needed there worse than he needed freedom. “Good Lord,” he muttered in a whisper, “the grass is just as green as it used to be. The man had been penned inside of a stone wall for twenty-eight straight years. This wall is so high that he had never caught a glimpse of what was going on outside. Half of each twenty-four hours for twenty-eight years he had been lock ed up in a stone and iron cage. When he lay down on his iron cot the heavy stone walls were within a hand's breadth of both his head and feet. When he stood up his head almost touched the roof. The cage is four and one-half feet wide. And there were always two men locked up to gether in it. No Sunshine in Fifty Years. There are fifty cages, exactly alike, in each row. The rows are piled on top of each other, four tiers high. In the fifty years since they were built never a ray of sunshine has shown through their bars. At one end of each row of cages and on the outside sits a man on a stool. At f1 o'clock every evening he reaches up and pulls a lever. With a single click the locks of the fifty cages grate into place. At 6 o'clock every morning we again pulls the lever the other way With a single sound the locks of all the fifty cages click open again. One Day Ten Years Ago. It was a lie to say that the man who swore under his breath had never been outside of the high stone wall for twenty-eight years. On a day ten years ago he was once taken across the road to help carry a heavy timber back inside the walls. Ever since he has talked about “that day when I seen the trees.” He is illiterate, as well as profane. He is also a murderer. He is serving a life sentence at Joliet penitentiary. One may as well face the facts be fore he lets go of his sympathy. Wednesday the man went outside of the high stone wall for good ,un less he is returned for his own fault. He became one of the 137 honor con victs who are working the state honor farm, which covers a great stretch of country three miles from the pris on walls. The Honor Convicts. The honor convicts life and eat and sleep in a lot of farm houses, which used to be scattered all over the great tract of 2,200 acres which are now comprised in one great honor farm. Under the direction of Warden E. M. Allen these houses have been moved on rollers over the country roads and brought together into two groups, the honor convicts doing most of the work. . There is not a gun, not an armed guard, on the whole place. Capt. J. C. Carver, who had army experience in the Philippines, is the official who represents the warden in direct charge of the honor farm. There is also a night watchman at each group of cottages who sees that everything is all right after the light go out. That is all. Last year when work on the honor farm began, some sixty convicts were employed and housed there. This season for some months there have been 136 living in the farmhouses. Under the direction of the farm su perintendent, B. H. Faltz, they have put 2,100 acres into crops for some kindling. Then Smith, with a big club in his hand, leaped inside the house, beat the old man over the head. Rendering him unconscious, he then sought out his aged wife, who was 50 years old. Each in her turn received the crushing blows from the enraged negro’s club. And, all later died from the effects. Caught Later in Day. It was about five o'clock in the morning when the terrible crime was committed and Waukegan was raised to a pitch of great excitement. Men tarted in pursuit, among them being Imer Green, former sheriff of Lake county. He was with those who trail ed the negro who had been running from the place. The man was fol lowed to the old Peabody place at the west city limits. There W. O. Samson had been working and he joined the chase. They finally found Smith hiding in the leaves and branches of a maple tree. The fright ened man came down and was hurried to jail where he was sent for a time by Sheriff Chase Webb. Want to Lynch Him. It was about nine o'clock in the morning and immediately after he was captured a gang of men formed back of the Price home on Grand avenue, among them being several very prominent residents of the city. They were there to make plans for hanging, or lynching the murderer. However, policemen and other offi cials caused them to change their minds and they did not make the de scent on the jail that they planned making. Smith, repentent of his crime, skulked in the jail and there he was visited by Judge Clarke of the County court and other officials who urged him to plead guilty to the crime which he was known to have committed, in order to prevent a hanging in Lake county, which they knew a jury would order in case he went to trial. Ac cordingly Smith pleaded guilty and was given a life sentence at Joliet. It is believed Charles Whitney was state's attorney at the time. Motive of the Crime. What caused Smith to commit the terrible murder? Revenge! Asked to tell some of the facts about the awful crime, Asst. Chief Thos. Tyrrell today related them to the Sun, and, as he was on the force at the time, the facts are correct to the best of his remembrance. “The Smith family was about the worst set of negros the city ever had. Joe had a brother named Pansy. They lived just west of the Swifts on Grand avenue and their actions had become so unbearable that neighbors got up a petition addressed to the council asking that they be ordered out of the city. “They were the meanest kind of people. The boys, then about 28 or old years old, would go about town de stroying things for the sake of de stroying them. They would take off gates, they would cut down tents and ropes on awnings, etc. They had that destructive desire which made them obnoxious. “Several times I had occasion to beat them up bad just to make them be decent for a time. “The family got so bad and made so many threats against people that the entire neighborhood on Grand avenue, carried guns all the time, pre paring to meet them at their own game. Threats against people’s lives were so common that we had begun to get used to it. But, the resentment against the family became so great that, after the petition was presented to the council, they saw they better get out of town and they moved to Evanston. But, they were mad clear through. Wanted to Clean 'Em All. So, Joe came back to Waukegan one night, his plan being to go out to his old neighborhood and clean out the whole lot. He found the doors locked, however, and was unable to get into any of the homes. So, he picked out the Swifts as the first to meet his revenge and he hid in their shed all night. He waited for the door to open in the morning and then he used his club instead of the gun which he carried, to commit the ter rible deed. The aged people died later from the effects of their wounds. None was killed instantly, but the murder was set down as the most atrocious that ever took place in Saxe county and it was all the officials could do to prevent a lynching. “It was Smith's plan to kill all those who signed the petition asking that they be ordered from town, but his plans did not carry clear through. We never heard much later about his brother or the rest of his family.” Officer Tyrrell naturally was inter ested in hearing what new life had been given to Smith at the Joliet penitentiary but he hasn’t much sympathy for the fellow because his remembrance of the terrible murder in Waukegan is too vivid to permit his feelings to be preyed upon. He still has a mental picture of the awful sight that met his gaze when he hur ried to the Swift home and found the three victims lying in blood as a re sult of Joe Smith’s desire for revenge.
Newspaper Details
Libertyville Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun
Libertyville, Illinois, US
Fri, Jun 11, 1915
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 05 May 2026
Other Publications Near Libertyville, Illinois
Libertyville Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun
Libertyville Independent
Libertyville Lake County Independent
