The Twin Hells | Page 3

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Etext prepared by Charles Keller

THE TWIN HELLS
A Thrilling Narrative of Life in the Kansas and Missouri Penitentiaries
BY
JOHN N. REYNOLDS ATCHISON, KANSAS.
TO MY DEAR OLD MOTHER AND TO THE MEMORY OF MY
SAINTED WIFE THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
BY THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE
The following pages treat of hell--A Kansas hell and a Missouri hell.
Those who desire to peruse works that tell about Heaven only, are
urged to drop this book and run. I was an inmate of the Kansas
penitentiary for sixteen months, and make mention of what came under
my own observation in connection with what I experienced. While an
inmate of this prison I occupied cells at various times with convicts
who had served terms in the Missouri prison. From these persons I
gathered much useful material for my book. After my release I visited
the Missouri penitentiary, and verified the statements of those criminals,
and gathered additional material from the prison records and the
officials. I have written chiefly for the youth of the country, but all ages
will be deeply interested in the following pages. A large majority of the
convicts are young men from sixteen to twenty-five years of age. They

had no idea of the terrible sufferings of a convict life, or they surely
would have resisted temptation and kept out of crime. The following
pages will impart to the reader some idea of what he may expect to
endure in case he becomes entangled in the meshes of the law, and is
compelled to do service for the State without any remuneration. Every
penitentiary is a veritable hell. Deprive a person of his liberty, punish
and maltreat him, and you fill his life with misery akin to those who
wander in the darkness of "eternal night," I think, when the reader has
perused the following pages, he will agree with me, that the book has
the proper title. That this volume may prove an "eye-opener" to the
boys who may read it, and prove interesting and instructive to those of
mature years, is the earnest wish of the author.

A KANSAS HELL

CHAPTER I
MY INITIATION AND CRIME
Guilty! This word, so replete with sadness and sorrow, fell on my ear
on that blackest of all black Fridays, October 14, 1887.
Penitentiary lightning struck me in the city of Leavenworth, Kansas. I
was tried in the United States District Court; hence, a United States
prisoner.
The offense for which I was tried and convicted was that of using the
mails for fraudulent purposes. My sentence was eighteen months in the
penitentiary, and a fine of two hundred dollars. I served sixteen months,
at the end of which time I was given my liberty. During the period I
was in prison I dug coal six months in the penitentiary coal mines, and
was one of the clerks of the institution the remainder of the term.
Getting permission to have writing material in my cell, I first mastered
short-hand writing, or phonography, and then wrote my book: "A
Kansas Hell; or, Life in the Kansas Penitentiary." My manuscript being
in short-hand, none of the prison officials were able to read it, and did
not know what I was doing until I obtained my liberty and had my book

published.
This, no doubt, will be the proper place to give some of my antecedents,
as well as a few of the details of the crime for which I was sent to the
penitentiary. I spent my youth and early manhood at Indianola, Iowa,
from which place I removed to Nebraska. After residing for some time
in Columbus, of that State, I was appointed by the governor to assist in
organizing the Pawnee Indian Reservation into a county. When
organized it was called Nance County, being named for Hon. Albinus
Nance, then governor of the State. I held the position of county clerk of
that county for four consecutive years. During this time I organized the
Citizens' Bank. I was its cashier at first, and, later on, its president. I
had a lucrative