goes a little distance from
the prison, gets on a spree, gets into trouble, steals something,
and soon finds himself back again in the penitentiary. He is now over
seventy years of age, and is both a physical and moral wreck. What an
awful warning for the young is the history of such a wasted life.

DESPERADO JOHNSON

This convict is the most daring and desperate criminal in the Missouri
penitentiary. The prison authorities have had more trouble with him than
with any other man who ever found a home behind the walls of this great
institution. He was sent up from Jackson County, and was charged with
murdering two men before he was finally convicted of crime. On trial for
these two murders be was successful in proving an alibi. The last time
he was not so successful, and received a sentence of twelve years. Soon
after his arrival at the prison he was set to work in one of the shops.
When he became a little acquainted, his innate cussedness induced him to
raise a riot in the prison. It was a desperate undertaking, but he was
equal to the emergency. For days and weeks he was on the alert, and when
a guard was not on the watch he would communicate with a convict, and
enlist his services, and give him his instructions as to what part he
should perform when the signal should be given.

At last the day came when all was ready for the plans so well laid to be
carried into execution. Each of the convicts who were to act in concert
with him piled up a lot of kindling in their respective shops and
saturated it with kerosene. When the prisoners were being marched out
to supper, they threw matches into the piles of kindling-wood, and soon
several buildings were on fire. Intense excitement now prevailed among
the two thousand convicts. The ranks were quickly broken, and all was
confusion. Some of the better disposed convicts tried to assist the
officers in putting out the fires, and were in turn knocked down and
trampled upon by those who were in favor of the riot. In the midst of
this great excitement Johnson, the leader, with four of his associates,
knocked down one of the guards and stripped him of his clothing. Johnson
put on this suit of blue and started to one of the towers. Reaching the
same, he asked permission of the officer on duty to let down the ladder
and allow him to ascend and assist him in "holding the fort," as this
was Captain Bradbury's orders. Johnson's intentions were to get on top
of the wall and into the to