"...and whatever he wanted the jailer had to give to him, whether it was pie or liberty." (Image by Sugar Pond.)
Today you need a high-priced lawyer to get out of jail, but back in 1900 you just had to know hypnosis. According to an asinine article I found in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a jailbreak in Indiana occurred with the help of hypnosis. And the practice was likely to spread from Hoosier State to everywhere else, so something needed to be done. An excerpt:
“A prisoner in the jail at Geneva, Indiana, who had been locked up for murderous assault, was not there when the keeper went in to feed him. On the contrary, an assistant jailer was there, looking dazed and apparently trying to think. It appears that the prisoner had transfixed the keeper with his glittering eye, told him to unlock the door, and when his instruction had been obeyed he walked into the free air, in which ambient and exhilarant medium he has disported ever since.
He was a hypnotist, the prisoner was. He had only to look hard at the jailer, make him believe that he was under an influence, and whatever he wanted the jailer had to give to him, whether it was pie or liberty. This may lead to changes in the penal practice. If a convict can not be trusted to keep his eyes off his bosses he will have to wear green spectacles, or the keys will have to be kept in the office and not allowed in the hands of too sensitive underlings, or the matter may be arranged by putting the keepers into blinders. They would look funny in blinders, to be sure, but if the evil eye could be averted by wearing them, they might be work.”
More Old Print Articles:
- Hobos steal fine clothes from decent folk. (1895)
- General Robert E. Lee kisses pretty girls. (1891)
- Hairy woman thrown through barbershop window, uninjured. (1897)
- Three-card monte man passes away. (1878)
- Monkey rides bicycle. (1897)
- Bears brawl in Central Park. (1902)
- Umbrella duels. (1895)
- Boiling eggs with electricity. (1890)
- Billy goat guards recluse. (1900)
- Kissing bandit captured. (1892)
- A maniac gymnast. (1877)
- Performing bears at Bay Shore. (1895)
- Brooklyn judge encounters sea monsters in his bathroom. (1902)
- Man finds severed human head, throws head back into creek. (1897)
- Brooklyn geezer tries to shoot noisy dogs. (1896)
- Hoaxer pretends to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. (1889)
- Manhattan madman goes on rampage. (1890)
- Fisticuffs at a male beauty pageant. (1893)
- Viennese surgeon performs experimental operations in NYC. (1902)
- Tough girl breaks detective’s nose. (1898)
- Circus Freak gets indigestion after swallowing metal objects. (1904)
- George Francis Train loses his mind. (1888)
- Hunchback paramour has throat cut. (1877)
- Organ grinder has monkey kidnapped. (1899)
- Human vampire behaves poorly. (1892)