Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 18, Number 26, DeMotte, Jasper County, 28 May 1948 — YOUNG CONVICT DIES IN STRUGGLE TO KEEP FROM SHOWING POEMS [ARTICLE]

YOUNG CONVICT DIES IN STRUGGLE TO KEEP FROM SHOWING POEMS

Chillicothe, 0., May 25. Earl Anderson, 21, a convict, died struggling in the arms of federal reformatory guards today—minutes before he was to walk out of the prison a free man. Anderson, whose honie was in Chicago, apparently succumbed to a heart attack as’ he ‘fought to keep from showing a sheaf of of hand written songs and poems, Warden L. Clark Schilder said.

The young convict was dressed in civilian clothes, had a bus ticket and was preparing to leave the prison discharge room. Capt. Wilby Anderson, a guard, noticed a bulge in the prisoner’s pants leg below the knee. He thought the young man was trying to smuggle something out of the reformatory. The convict refused to say what caused the bulge or allow guards to search him. Capt. Anderson and three other guards tussled with him. He slumped to the floor dead.