Friday night, Feb. 27, 1925, prisoner John Owens threw a tantrum inside the Ross County jail. He had burglarized the Central Barbar Shop several weeks before, stealing $68 and a revolver. After being arrested and placed behind bars, Owens had done nothing but cause trouble, fighting other prisoners, cursing, tearing up furniture and acting like a wild man. On this Friday evening, the crazed prisoner violently yanked a wedge-shaped piece of iron from his cell’s stone wall. The iron wedge had a chain attached to it and had been holding up Owens’ cot, but he was pounding the cell bars with the makeshift weapon. At last, Sheriff Immell had had enough. Deputies entered the cell, subdued the prisoner with physical force and dragged him to “the dungeon.” “He won’t do any damage there,” growled Sheriff Immell, giving the padlock a good yank.
The cell used for solitary confinement, popularly known as “the hole,” was generally referred to as “the dungeon” 100 years ago and both the city and county jails in Ross County had one. The dungeon in the city jail was built in the Autumn of 1895 after Mayor Waddle and Police Chief Ogden pleaded with city council for funding to completely renovate the jail, which was notoriously unsanitary and rundown. Council voted on the funds, and extensive improvements were made to the jail’s ventilation and sewerage systems. The jail also got a good scrubbing and fresh coat of paint. And on the second floor, two new cells were constructed, one for the exclusive incarceration of “degraded women” and a 6 X 8 cell with thick walls and without windows. The dreaded dungeon!
The Gazette promptly weighed in on the new cell, arguing that a “dungeon has long been needed in the prison, as the open, roomy cells, and the lighted apartments are very little punishment to the tough individuals who are almost every day shut up in them.” A couple of days in “inky blackness will add materially in bringing around rebellious and obstinate prisoners,” the paper predicted. The Gazette’s words were put to the test before the jail’s fresh coat of jet-black paint had a chance to dry…