Showing posts with label Leon Adams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leon Adams. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Infiltrating The Castle - Preston Castle History

Daily News Archived Clipping


When I started investigative writing, only one thing was on my mind, revealing the truth. I think I can speak for all reporters and journalists who truly love their jobs, when I say that being a writer is a passion that drives you to do some pretty insane things at times. One good example, crime reporter Scott Thomas Anderson had put himself in harm’s way when he spent time traveling the country with various departments of law enforcement to investigate the harsh element of meth driven crime, in his book “Shadow People.”

It’s just a known fact that sometimes, in order to get the scoop or just to unravel the pieces of an intricate and enigmatic puzzle of a good mystery, a writer must immerse themselves in the element they are researching. One person that stands out as an original truth seeker, and one who may have very well been the first truth seeker at Preston Castle, was a reporter by the name of Leon Adams. 

In 1923, Adams, a reporter for the San Francisco Daily News, was assigned to investigate the Preston School of Industry undercover as a ward. His assignment was to expose the school for all the terrible things that were being done, not only to the inmates but also within the administration. In order for Adams to fit in as a real inmate, he had to be arrested and convicted in a criminal court. He was purposely “framed” for attempted burglary, to which he was brought before the court and pled guilty, requesting to be sent to Preston. 

In his series of articles exposing the Preston School of Industry’s dark secrets of mistreatment and torture, he states: “Upon seeing Preston at close quarters, one wonders that any boys go “straight” after leaving there. Terrible punishments that impair mentality and physique are administered by officers who are unable to control the youths they guard unless they make an example of every offender.” It was obvious for Adams that the element he had thrust himself into was going to be a tough one to deal with.

In his first article, he mentions the fact that he had to get into trouble there, in order to witness firsthand the brutality inflicted on the other wards. “No one at Preston knew who I was. To reach the cells, I had to “fake.” I had my choice of running away, disobeying an officer, assaulting a guard or continued defiance. My pick was the mildest-disobedience. It wasn’t hard. I picked a fight with Jack Hindsman, who always “had a chip on his shoulder.” We went to it. I soon found I had picked the wrong opponent, but didn’t mind so much. As we fought, the officer stood by and watched.

Fighting is against the rules at Preston, but it didn’t matter there, Capt. J.W. Sibole was enjoying the sight. We finally quit from the exhaustion. My face was bloody, my lips cut, and both eyes beginning to swell. Looking defiantly at Sibole, I silently dared him to enforce the rule which so often is violated at the school. He took the dare and ordered the two of us to stand the “guard line.” Boys on guard line must stand erect, facing the wall, while others rest. It is a physical punishment. 

 After a few minutes, on the line, I sat down.” As his story went on, he explained that his refusal to stand the line made Sibole angry. Adams was then sent to the detail office to receive a punishment for his insubordination. When questioned about the fight and his disobedience, Adams refused to answer, thus only getting him into more trouble. He then was sent down the hill to the cell house with his punishment awaiting him, an order to withstand 15 days in solitary confinement.

He described the original detention building being too dark and having two tiers of barred doors set in a solid wall made of stone. He states that the doors were fastened in four ways, and each cell having two gates. Windows were high above their reach, also barred. The inner gate was a solid oak lined with quarter-inch steel, while the outer gate was metal. After being ordered to strip naked and lay face down on the icy cement floor, a guard handed him a piece of canvas that he was supposed to fashion as some sort of undergarment. He then had to follow the guard up the iron ladder to cell No. 22. 

“My cell was 10 feet high and 9 feet wide. A faucet, a bowl and an iron bunk, two dirty blankets, a little wad of cloth for a pillow - that was my furniture.” He goes on to mention that the windows had heavy wire screens on them, layers of bars and opaque glass that kept the light out, leaving the inmates in total darkness, day or night. 

“My tomb, I called the place. It was the tomb of many boys before me. Scratches on the wall revealed the presence there of an assemblage of notables, names were followed by crosses....Before an hour had passed, I began to calculate how long it would be before I left my dungeon. Fifteen days, each with 24 long hours, seemed like years. What I am trying to tell about is impossible to conceive. Think, think and suffer. That's all one can do in a cell. Sleep affords no rest. Some even counted up to 13 and 14- evidently the number of days a prisoner had spent in the place. I didn’t spend the full 15 days in the cell. Watson took me out on the 11th day, when I was too sick to sit up and reach for the cup of skimmed milk that came through the little hole in the thick cell door.

For the first three days I only received one thin slice of bread, one cup half full of thin milk, shoved at me by a hand belonging to a face I never saw. On the fourth day, came a dish of cold meat, cold gravy and cold potatoes. That night I became deathly sick. I think I cried out once, but don’t remember much about that. The nights that followed weren’t quite so bad. I hadn’t enough strength to cry out much more.” Adams’ account of his eleven days in solitary ended with the guard removing him from the cell and forcing him to “stand the line” for ten hours. The first night they forced him to do such a thing, he fainted. For that, they made him stand even longer the next day. 

While Adams was in solitary confinement he found the name "Tuffy" Reid etched into the wall, following "third time over the hill." Other names were also scratched into the walls along with marks of how many days spent in solitary. Adams claimed that the name "Tuffy" kept standing out in his mind, and later he remembered where he had heard it, the media!  Tuffy was a death row inmate who made headlines in the newspaper for a murder in Los Angeles in 1923.

In his article, Adams’ makes a moving statement: “What earthly good can come to a boy in a cell? What human ever was worth a straw whose spirit was broken?” That statement rings true in so many ways. It was apparent to him that the disciplinary actions or rehabilitation that Preston was inflicting on their wards was doing more harm than good. In Adams’ article “Youths Kept in Dark Basement,” he goes on to state that the Administration building’s basement was being used to hold 50 boys in the dark. He also mentions that the basement held six solitary confinement cells where boys had been kept for weeks at a time while there was also a flogging room to beat the boys. It seemed that although Preston was content with their methods of punishing the boys, that the results weren’t really making a positive effect on anyone at all.

The statistics alone were proving that Adams’ opinions were correct. The boys who endured any time at Preston were leaving the place more corrupted than when they had arrived in the first place. In his exposé of Preston’s goings on, he revealed the following statistics from that time period: 

“Only two out of every 100 boys who were taught trades at Preston School of Industry follow those trades after being released. Ninety boys over every hundred who leave Preston are back again in some state institution within five years. Seven of the 127 prisoners in the San Francisco jail today, were at Preston at some time or another Out of every 100 criminals at San Quentin State Prison, four are “graduates” of Preston. Many of California’s most notorious crooks received their “education” at the reform school.” 

In his published articles, Adams revealed not only the harsh treatment but also the filthy living conditions, proof of the managerial incompetence of the Superintendent and also his advice on the measures that should be taken to make the necessary changes for improving the school. When Superior Court Judge Louis H. Ward had heard of Adams’ experience at Preston he felt so moved with emotion that he was quoted saying: “I’ll never feel comfortable again in my conviction that I am doing right when I commit a boy to a reform school."

Thankfully, a man in his position of authority had been reached and moved by the proof Adams had been able to expose about Preston. Unfortunately, the school seemed to be untouchable, even after all that exposure and not much changed over the years. With all that Adams went through in order to shed light and truth for the world to see, unfortunately, as many stories related to Preston, this one was long forgotten in the archives, waiting for someone like me to find it. 

Although there may have been other writers, like myself, who have written about Preston Castle and its mysteries, Adams was the one who paved the way. He was the first truth-seeker to expose Preston and call them on all the horrendous things they were doing to those boys. For that, I tip my hat to Leon Adams and his incredible journalism. "

--- from the book, "Behind The Walls: A Historical Exposé of the Preston School of Industry," By J’aime Rubio

ISBN-13: 978-1481075046 - Copyright 2012,  All rights reserved. J'aime Rubio identified as the AUTHOR of the work in accordance with U.S. Copyright Act 1976 and all U.S. Copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission by the author/publisher.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

A Murder In The Making--Tuffy Reid's History At Preston

Clarence "Tuffy" Reid
(Photo edited from original - editing by J'aime Rubio)
During the process of writing "Behind The Walls," I discovered the published findings of journalist Leon Adams. His articles were written while working undercover as a ward at Preston.  Leon Adams was given the assignment to infiltrate the Preston School of Industry and expose them for their mistreatment. In order to do that, Adams was purposely framed for a crime. He then was sent to the Preston School of Industry under the guise of an average young criminal, so that the staff and administration would be unsuspecting of his intentions.

Adams had heard of some of the most deplorable conditions and harsh treatment to wards while in the detention building at Preston. In order to really get a taste of "solitary," Adams had to get into trouble. After allowing himself to get into a fight, and then refusing to "stand the line," he was then sent away to the detention building, exactly where he wanted to be. In my book I go into further details about Adams' experiences there and the harsh realities that he brought to light via the San Francisco Daily News.

While Adams was in solitary confinement in the detention building, he described the conditions of his cell No. 22:

"Two gates clanged, four locks clicked, and I was alone--for 15 long days and nights. My cell was ten feet high and nine feet square. A faucet, a bowl, an iron bunk, two dirty blankets, a little wad of cloth for a pillow---that was my furniture.....Before an hour had passed, I began to calculate how long it would be before I left my dungeon. Fifteen days, each with 24 long hours, seemed like years.
What I am trying to tell about is impossible to conceive. Think, think and suffer. That's all one can do in a cell. Sleep affords no rest....My tomb, I called the place. It was the tomb of many boys before me. Scratches on the wall revealed the presence of an assemblage of notables."

Adams goes on to recall that he read the name "Tuffy" Reid etched into the wall, following "third time over the hill." Other names were also scratched into the walls along with marks of how many days spent in solitary. Adams claimed that the name "Tuffy" kept standing out in his mind, and later he remembered where he had heard it, the media!  Tuffy was a death row inmate who made headlines in the newspaper for a murder in Los Angeles in 1923.

Who Was Tuffy Reid?

Clarence "Tuffy Reid was born in Texas around 1903, according the California State Archives records. Not much more is known about "Tuffy," besides the fact that he was sent to the Preston School of Industry in 1922 on robbery charges, but he somehow escaped. While on the lam, Reid found his way down to Los Angeles, and on January 21, 1923, he made a choice that would change the course of the rest of his life.

According to Reid's filed appeal records, the incident occurred at 419 S. Spring Street, when Reid and his accomplice, Lawrence McMullen entered a trunk store owned by Charles and David Weingarten, and they proceeded to rob them.

"The murder occurred in the rear end of a trunk store, located at 419 South Spring Street, in the city of Los Angeles, at about 6 o'clock P. M. on January 21, 1923. There were present in the store at the time six persons, Munson, Safady, Mason, Ingham, Charles Weingarten, the deceased, and David Weingarten, brother of the deceased and proprietor of the business.

The defendant, accompanied by one Lawrence McMullen, entered said place of business through the front door, which was slightly ajar. As they entered the store they were met by David Weingarten, who thought they had come on business. Both the defendant and his companion were carrying guns. The defendant commanded David Weingarten to "stick 'em up" and forced him to walk back to the rear of the store where the safe was located. Charles Weingarten seized the defendant's arm and held it up. While in that position the gun in the defendant's hand went off, the bullets striking the ceiling. With his other hand the defendant reached into his pocket, procured another gun and fired straight at the deceased, killing him. The shuffling and the shooting all occurred in the space of a few seconds.

After the shooting the defendant and his companion fled from the store. Jumping on the running-board of a moving automobile the defendant succeeded in making his escape. In his flight the defendant had dropped the hat he was wearing in the store. Meeting the former owner of the hat that evening about 7 o'clock and knowing that the initials of the former owner were in the hat he told the owner that he had "bumped off" a man and for the owner of the hat to "watch out." At the trial the defendant was positively identified by an eye-witness to the shooting as one of the persons who had participated in the attempted robbery and his companion was identified as a workman in an electrical shop just across the alley from the trunk factory where the deceased was shot. The defendant upon the trial of the case did not deny the killing, but interposed the defense of insanity."--- (People v. Reid - 193 Cal. 491 (Cal. 1924) Crim. No. 2598, Supreme Court of California)


Reid went to trial, and was convicted of murder in the 1st degree, earning him a death sentence. Newspaper reports stated that a witness in the trial, Jesus Hoyuela, another inmate who had claimed that Reid confessed to the murder of Weingarten, later recanted his statements claiming that he perjured himself and that none of what he told the court was true. Reid still attempted to appeal the conviction, but failed.

Interestingly, Reid's attorney, Ernest Torchia was a very popular man within the Italian community. Being that San Quentin records claim that the only employment Reid had experience in was being a news boy, it made me wonder how could Reid afford to retain Torchia in the first place? Could Reid have been involved in organized crime in Los Angeles?

As I kept digging, I found that just a few months after Reid's appeal was denied and his stay of execution was lifted, Torchia received a very horrific gift in the mail that proved to be disastrous. What appeared to have been a gift-wrapped Christmas present for Torchia, ended up being an explosive device that went off in Torchia's home, critically injuring the attorney.  The wounds were so severe the newspapers stated that they thought he would not survive the attack. Torchia's left arm, one of his eyes and part of his abdomen were blown off in the blast.  Detectives discovered the package was postmarked in San Francisco, but it would be hard to figure out just who was behind the vicious act. Torchia had served as a divorce attorney in several cases of prominent Italian families over the years, making many enemies.  The question of who sent the package, and why, continued to leave the police baffled.
Identification Card 

After wearing out his appeals, Reid was finally executed at the gallows on April 23, 1925 at 10:02 a.m., at San Quentin Prison. 

On another note, in July of 1930, David Weingarten- the brother of the murder victim, was found dead. Weingarten was found in his car, engulfed in fumes. He had locked himself in the garage and ran the motor of his car until he succumbed to the exhaust. The police ruled it a suicide, taking in account his wife's statement that he had suffered great losses in the stock market and had been very depressed.





Sources:
California State Archives, Sacramento, California;
Secretary of State of California 
State Archives, San Quentin Prison Registers.
People v. Reid - 193 Cal. 491 (Cal. 1924)
Crim. No. 2598, Supreme Court of California
Berkeley Daily Gazette, 12/25/1924
Oakland Tribune, 12/26/1924
San Jose Evening News, 7/31/1930
Santa Cruz Evening News, 4/24/1925