The San Bernardino County Sun from San Bernardino, California • Page 11

P. Convicts By LEONARD METZ First Step Each year, Windy returns before the to Freedom: Facing The foundation holds weekly classes because they have violated society's the Truth girls calls on you and says she ha girls calls on you and says she has code are encouraged to openly examine their actions to see where they have gone wrong. "I'm In for possession (of narcotics)," said one convict. "I started off using weed, but that's immaterial. You don't have to start using weed.

"For 17 vears I've been in and out liExi Tfffr- i2i immmmmmWm mWSkSim Sun-Telegram Staff Writer Second in a Series Every April you go up before the parole board. Every April they turn you down. The year it started was 1946. The charge was robbery and murder. The judge found Windell "Windy" Coffman guilty.

"I've been in prison 22 years without being out," said Windy. STEP TO FREEDOM Bill Hanks, prison program director Tf! THE liiiwiiSiii An Unprintable Photograph of these institutions. Those 17 years have sure taken a toll of me. I'm pretty well educated. A couple of years of junior college which I threw away.

I stole. I boosted. I robbed, and I stole off my people. I've been a 'mule' carrying stuff back and forth across the border. "I threw away a family.

The last time I stayed out for 18 months, but during the 17th month I broke my hand and that gave me a legal use for perca-din." This, he said, permitted him to cheat on the Nalline tests which all drug addicts on parole must undergo for two years. If Nalline is administred to someone who has reverted to drug use, doctors can detect the reversion by the reaction to Nalline. However, since this parolee was already receiving a drug for his broken hand, the test was not valid. "It gave me an excuse to get away without taking the test," said the prisoner. "I'd throw the bottle on the table and I was high.

"I've been a damn fool." Another prisoner said that he had complained about aching teeth in another prison, and had induced the dentist to pull "four perfectly good wisdom teeth" in order to obtain the shot of demcrol the dentist administered as an anesthet'ic. But narcotics is only one of the many failings that bring men to CIM. A small, wiry Negro said he had gotten into trouble because of a "little man complex." "I fell in 1960 for a second degree burglary," he said. "After I stayed 10 months I was sent home, and stayed there 18 months. Then there was an assault on a police officer, and I got two years.

"I was home nine months and got in an argument and stayed away from home all night. I came back here again. "I've got a little man's complex and learned to use my dukes very well. All my life I've been called a 'little There was a time a man could call me anything he wanted if he didn't call me a little old Man, I've got a pretty good left hook. "Before, I don't believe I was trying to find out anything about myself.

I was trying to show something about myself "What went wrong? The environment I was raised in. Each time I returned to the same environment, but to a different location. I return to the same environment because I want to make it there. "Man, when I first hit the street again, they can do anything they want with me. Call me an ex-con? Man, that's what I am.

"I believe I have more strength in the Seventh Step family than I'll ever have alone. I'm going to try without using my fists." A young man in green shirt said the reactions of his friends toward prison and life outside terrified him. "I talked to my friends running across the yard," he said, "and all they were talking about was what they were doing in 1959 and 1952. Nobody was talking about what they were doing in 1963, and Man! That scared me! "I don't think I'm going to stay out this time. I KNOW I'm going to stay out." A fellow inmate asked him if he would go back to the same environment.

"I know I can't," he said. "The board has said I shouldn't be involved in prostitution or vice any more." "What would you do if one of your Eavesdropping How the 'Hanging Town' in the prison. Attendance is voluntary for those who have received release dates. But only four or five of the prisoners without release dates may attend as a "guest." Members of the public are also encouraged to attend and exchange views with the prisoners. The views are candid, sometimes rough, and often expressed without self-consciousness.

Men who are in prison Sun-Tele9ram photo meeting at California Institution for Men at Chino. Got Its Name revolver, reentered the bank and fatally wounded Arnold. The constable seized Simpson, handcuffed him and tied him to a cot in his, the constable's, tent. Toward evening word was passed that the banker had died. Enraged miners gathered, took Simpson from the constable, and hanged him.

That was a bit before dawn Easter Sunday. Over in Rhyolite, on the other side of Death Valley, a reporter for the Los Angeles Herald heard the news come over the Skidoo-Rhyolite telephone line. Grabbing camera and horse he set out but did not reach Skiddoo until early Monday. By that time Simpson's body had been cut down and buried. The miners made something of a hero out of the reporter.

They were real accommodating, too. Out came Simpson's body and "Hooch" was hanged twice, the second time for the press. The following Thursday the Skidoo News printed the biggest stoiy of its career. Across the top of page one the headlines read: "EXCITEMENT IN CAMP! Hooch Simpson Hanged With General Approval." Now nearly 49 years later, thanks to Earl Driskill, there is again a photographic record of the event. Hohher Counls $70, Hands Hack Change A young man who was particular about the amount of money he stole, held up the Baskin Robbins ice cream store at 202 E.

Highland Ave. for $70 after returning the excess to the cash register. San Bernardino police said the man 'walked into the shop about 8 p.m. Saturday night with a shotgun and demanded the cash from the register. After clerk John W.

Roy, 18, of handed over the day's receipts, the iman calmly counted out $70 and returned the rest to Roy. He then turned land walked out after warning Roy not to call police for 15 minutes. Police Seek Youth In Alleged Kidnap San Bernardino police are looking for a youth involved in the alleged kidnaping of Rudy Vidaurri, 1159 Magnolia St. Vidaurri told police he was followed when he left a high school dance by jthree other youths, lie said that when he (stopped to ask a service station attendant to call police, a passenger in the other car got into his, displayed a jtire iron and ordered Vidaurri to "drive where I tell you." Instead, Vidaurri said, he drove to another service station to call police. The 'unwanted passenger escaped in the car he had been in originally, Vidaurri said.

a couple of bills for you?" he was asKea. "What would you do?" "I might just accept it," he said. "But I'll tell her to slide it under the door. Man, I'm not coming back any kind of way. I'm a first-time loser, and I'm also a last-time loser.

I've been breaking the law since I was 15, but this is my first time here." His plans for life on the outside are already made. "I'm going to go to school and take advanced hair styling," he said, "and I'm going to work in someone else's shop until I can open one of my own." He has a brash crudity. When some one asks what good he has brought to the world, his answer was alarmingly direct. "What did I bring into the world?" he said. "Babies." And had his stay in prison made any changes in him? "I used to have a shell, and very few people could get inside it," he said.

"I got lonesome once, and that never happened before. And he made no pretense at altruism. "I'm going to do it for myself," he said. "For nobody else. I owe it to me first." Bill Hanks, prison program director for the Seventh Step Foundation, helped moderate the discussions.

An ex-convict, Hanks took over tiie post at Chino two years ago. "Nine times out of 10," he said, "the best advice I can get is from the guy I don't like because he doesn't give a damn. My friends are too easy on me." Another ex-convict in the audience told of his experiences in and out of jails throughout the South and Midwest. "I did 37 years the way I figure, besides the county jails," he said. "I've been an eight-nine-ten-time loser everything from stealing a bicycle to a Model-T Ford and a man in Texas made me work 16 months to pay for it "The first time I ever stopped to get an honest look at myself, I asked to see my record.

When I looked at that FBI record, I said I couldn't have done all that. There's no way I could have done all of that. "I guess I got institutionalized. But boy! Don't think you're going to be on a pleasure boat!" Liquor was part of the problem. "I used to be an alcoholic for 37 years," he said, "and I haven't had a drink in 18 years "Resentful? I get resentful over a lot of things, but I get over them very easy.

I've been out three years this time. I don't go to bars. I don't drink. I go to work every morning and I stay at work and when it's over I go home." "How does he know he can't get along with people?" asked a fellow prisoner. "That's one thing that'll keep you free," he said, "if you don't mess with people.

Everybody that gets out of here, the first thing they want to do is throw a party. And that's one thing you don't want to do. "One thing I do I've got a Boy Scout troop." This brought laughter from the audience. "One thing this man's doing," the ex-convict said vehemently, "he's staying out of prison. And if he's doing it through the Boy Scouts, that's better than you're doing." Windy introduced the outsiders who had Come to exchange views with the prisoners.

There were PTA members from Anaheim, the usual group of visitors from nearby Claremont Colleges and a good many "regulars" who come week after week. "The step for tonight," said Windy, "is the first step. "Step No. One facing the truth about yourself and the world around us. You can't get rid of your resentment if you don't face the truth about yourself." Officers installed last Thursday include Jake W.

Flood, senior warden; William M. Rainbolt, junior warden; and Floyd P. Weatherford, senior deacon. This is the story of two trees and incidentally of windy day frustrations of the city park department. The two trees stand or stood in the 1200 block of West 27th Street.

One, a poplar, grew in the lawn of the Bertie Barrett home at 1208. The other, a live oak, was planted in the street right of way in front of the Betty Otsen residence at 1241, some 200 feet west of 1208. In the very early hours of last Wednesday, a zephyr from the direction of Little Mountain toppled the oak. The householder called City Hall for after all, it was a city tree. Later in the morning another bit of breeze blew down the poplar.

City crews arrived with three pieces of motorized equipment including power saws, removed the litter of 1208, carefully leaving the heavier stuff suitable for fireplace use. The trucks drove past 1241 without stopping. Thursday morning, 24 hours after notification to the city authorities, the downed oak was still down. Sometimes, it seems, a "City on the Move" may move in circles. parole board, hoping that this time he might make it.

"My family's in Pico Rivera," he said. "I've got a mother father sister In the meantime he's helping other convicts at the California Institution for Men (CIM) at Chino who have received their release dates. Windy is the inside representative for the Seventh Step Foundation. for Seventh Step Foundation, welcomes visitors to foundation ed and with it the Simpson photograph. Thus, when George Palmer Putnam wrote his "Death Valley and Its Country" around 1949, he could not reproduce the picture.

Instead he utilized an entire chapter describing it from memory. Although the photograph is again available, the subject matter is considered too grisly for use in today's family newspaper. The Herald was a bit more gamey around the turn of the century. Perhaps, 58 years later, a bit of background is needed for a generation which may well not have ever heard of Skidoo, let alone its drunken saloon keeper, Simpson, who achieved a brief hour of notoriety in slaying the town banker and leading citizen with neither provocation nor warning. It happened this way: Simpson, a saloon keeper in the remote silver mining town of Skidoo perched high in the Panamint Mountains, had become his own best customer.

In an inebriated condition, Simpson approached banker Arnold, waved a revolver and demanded $100. Arnold, of courserefused. Bystanders disarmed Simpson and hid the weapon in a stove. Some hours later the still-drunk saloon keeper found his The Classic Car Theft A thief with an apparent penchant for classic cars stole $300 worth of Model A Ford parts from the backyard of rental property owned by Reynaldo Le-yario at 1439 W. 9th San Bernardino police report.

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THE SUN-TELEGRAM BUY U.S. SAVINGS BONDS Monday, December 18, 1967 8-1 Earl Bute's They Tell Me Those Office Parties Thoughts on a cold, windy day: If you are as old as I am, or even 10 or 15 years younger, you can't help but have noticed that the office Christmas parties are on the way out, if, indeed, they are not already a thing of the past. But, of course, you remember the office Christmas parties, those occasions on Christmas Eve when everybody knocked off work and stirred up a little revelry right in front of the boss. In no time at all, he became a congenial, benevolent soul who devoted the whole year to making your life most pleasant, a man who cheerfully agreed you had earned a salary raise and a longer vacation, too. It was the time when that old sour-puss at the next desk suddenly was transformed into an understanding, neighborly individual really a pal.

And when the snub nosed, overweight secretaries blossomed, in minutes, into ravishing beauties despite their lack of miniskirts. It was the one day when you warned whoever answered the telephone to tell your wife, if she called and she usually did two or three times that you had just left for home. It was that glorious day when the office crew was, like magic, converted into an a cappella choir, always with an unsuspected tenor reaching the high notes above everybody else. And, strangely, there always seemed to be enough ulcer victims and devout teetotalers to drive the last of the revelers home. Not a few, however, had long since exchanged holiday greetings and disappeared.

In reflection, I cannot remember the year when the boss posted his first stern worded note on the bulletin board informing the personnel that no more Christmas parties would be permitted. Or was the word, "tolerated?" It was no surprise. Our parties, like most organizations', had become a bit too boisterous and there had come repercussions, some from wives of the employes and others from the police traffic squads. Almost spontaneously, there had come news from cities and towns alike across the country of bans on office Christmas parties. Oh, there are a few, of course, still held.

But these are mostly brief, dignified affairs when a few workers get together for a highball or two. Why, in some instances they serve non alcoholic or even non-caloric beverages. The pendulum has swung a long way. And what has become of the old-fashioned "open house" Christmas Eve parties when you made the rounds of half a dozen homes, or perhaps even more? In each of the homes the host modestly boasted of and insisted on demonstrating his ability in putting together an eggnog like concoction that you knew was certain to induce a severe attack of heartburn, and almost always did. Obviously, there were as many recipes for the drinks as there were fellows named Tom or Jerry in the whole town.

Nowadays, the big employers have unproved on the Christmas party for their (Continued on 3, Column 3) ROSS HAYNES' Short Shrift Scientists at UCLA say that parasites have an edge in the battle for survival. Good news for hippies. M. Skolnek, D.D.S. CREDIT DENTIST Dental Plates Repairs While-U-Wait 1030 Street Convenient Parkin A Thought for Today It's not ho to much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes Imp-pin ess.

Charles II. Spurgeon You'll enjoy your home more knowing your home loan is tailored to your budpret. If you're buying a home, talk to the man at First. FIRST FEDERAL Savings Loan Association of San Bernardino 555 St. TU 9-0881 Alio In Barntow, I.nm Linda Phones Open 0 -M Kellvs 25899 The doctor 515 By L.

BURR BELDEN Sun-Telegram Historian One of the "Old" West's most graphic news photographs, believed lost for more than 20 years, has been rediscovered, this time in the collection of a former desert resort manager, Earl Driskill of San Bernardino. The photograph, showing the vigilante hanging of Joe (Hooch) Simpson in Ski-doo on Easter Sunday of 1909, first appeared on page one of the Los Angeles Herald. It was taken by a Herald reporter who rode horseback 50 miles to obtain the "shot." The Simpson hanging picture, incidentally, served to give Skidoo its favorite nickname, "The Hanging Town." For years the only known Simpson print was displayed at the Panamint Springs resort where it achieved almost as much notoriety as the fabled alcohol-immersed head of the bandit, Joaquin, displayed in San Francisco before the fire. In the mid-1940s Panamint Springs burn- Quick Draw Artist Shoots Self in Chest A fumbled quick draw in an isolated house near Baker on the Mojave Desert resulted in a bullet in the chest for a 21 year old Provo, Utah, man. Wounded in the accident one mile north of Baker was Steven Del Fairbanks who was shot when he dropped the gun he was using to practice his draw.

Sheriff's Deputies said the .22 revolver went off when it hit the floor. Fairbanks was taken to Barstow Community Hospital after the Saturday night accident. His condition was listed as satisfactory yesterday. Music's Soothing Charms Don't Soften Councilmen The Only Water Nicer Comes From the Clouds SERVISOFT SOFT WATER SERVICE 167 S. ST.

TU 5-3284 FARMER'S INSURANCE SAVE Ralph Ward 47il S. Mt. Vermin Hlh Streets 5-1214 or 5-1216 Eves, and Saturday EVANS Brake and Speedometer Service 25485 E. Base Line, TU 8-4227 Overstock SALE Starts Today Open Daily A.M. to 9 P.M.

Sat. to 6 Sunday 10-5 Dress Shop E. Base Line "Finest in Barber Service" DON'S Esquire Barber Shop Open Mon. Through Sat. 2194 Lugo TU 3-9115 (Alton From fUfawa?) "Music hath charms to sooth a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak." William Congreve said it.

But the famous line had no apparent effect on a feisty San Bernardino City Council last week. Even alter hearing a touching medley of Christmas carols by the "Singing 60s" of the American Association of Retired Persons, councilmen traded words that were neither soothing nor softening. At one point Councilman William Ka-lona commented, "I think we need another song from the Singing 60s." "Yes," answered Councilman Alan E. Guhin, "how about 'Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition'." San Bernardino Masonic Lodge No. 348 should not lack weather controls.

basis while they go Christmas shopping, it was announced. A recreation program for older children, age 9 and up, will be in progress during the school holidays, from 1 p.m. to dark daily, according to Mrs. Stephen Sutherland, director. The daily recreation program is free.

There is a charge for the nursery care. San Bernardino Valley Chiropractic Information Bureau local affiliate of the Internatinal Chiropractors Association of California to provide Information regarding Chiropractic; and to assist you in selecting a chiropractic in your area. No. Arrowhead, Suite 100, San Bernardino TU 5-6678 Nursery School Open in Holiday Frazce Community Center, 1140 W. Mill San Bernardino, will operate its regular nursery school during the Christmas holidays, except for Christmas Day and New Year's Day, for children from 2 through 10 whose working mothers must leave them.

Mothers who wish may also leave their children on an hourly or daily PAYNE Heating Air Conditioning WINTER PRICES OFFERED Your Quality Contractor Since 19M WRIGHT'S Mfg. 825-2082.