The old jail is gone - but the memories remain

Remember the chicken in the drunk tank? Dick May does.

By Rhonda Westfall

It didn't take long for demolition crews to reduce the last remaining 'old' structure on the former Courthouse Square to a pile of rubble - the administration building bit the dust last week.

Soon, the site where the old Clinton County Jail stood since its opening in October 1950 will become a parking lot for the spacious new courthouse.

It's a necessary step in the construction process - but what stories that old jail could tell if it could talk.

Since the building is non-communicative, who better to ask about humorous anecdotes from years past than Dick May?

The long-time Sheriff Department employee began his career in law enforcement at the old jail in 1965 - and almost ended it there, retiring in 1996 after moving into the new jail building on Townsend Road in 1991.

Some of the incidents he recalls weren't necessarily too funny at the time they happened - but the intervening years have allowed the persons (and those who shall remain nameless) to smile about them today.

Following is a sample of Dick's memories.

Chicken in the drunk tank: "Back in the late 1960s when the sheriff (Percy Patterson) still stayed overnight upstairs above the jail cells, he would lock the main ground-level entrance up when he went to bed, but the city police had a key they could use to get in during the night to bring in people who were drunk or disorderly.

"When the drunk tank door was closed in the morning, the sheriff would know that someone had been brought in during the night.

"This one morning, the door was closed and locked, but we couldn’t see anyone inside the cell. When the door was opened, there was a great big white chicken inside.

"No one from the city would ever admit - even to this day - that they had put that chicken in the drunk tank. Lyle French, Bob Ott, and Russell Doty would just smile and say they didn’t know anything about it. - but that probably the chicken was a vagrant and needed a place to spend the night."

Fire at the gas pump: "There used to be a gas tank near the corner of the jail where we would fuel up our vehicles. One night there was this certain deputy fueling his car when he got a call to go out.

"He forgot he still had the gas hose in his tank, jumped in his car and started to drive off - it pulled the gas pump out and started a fire. Flames shot as high as the eaves on the courthouse - and the lady dispatcher who was on call - and was pregnant - almost had her baby right then and there."

Foiled jail escape: "When the jail was built, the people who made the cell bars said they were tamper-proof - no one could cut through them or get out.

"One day in the late '60s, Bob Ott noticed that a car was backed up over the curb next to the east side of the jail. He put a ticket on for illegal parking, but the next day the car was still there - he got suspicious.

"It turned out that two ladies from Owosso had brought in hacksaws during visiting days to a couple guys inside who had cut through the bars, replaced them back, and rubbed them down with soap so the cut marks didn’t show.

"The car had guns and money inside, ready for their get-away - that escape was foiled."

Home on the Range: "One night, we were out on the road and all of a sudden we could hear Mildred Rahl loud and clear singing 'Home on the Range' through the police radio. In a little bit, we heard the telephone ring - she answered and then said, "Oh, my goodness!" and the singing stopped.

"It turned out she didn’t know she had put the heavy ledger book on top of the dispatch button - her singing was heard over four different counties on all the channels.

"After that, every so often someone would start singing "Home on the Range" to her when they came in the jail."

Crazy Jack Hyatt: "Soon after the jail opened, Crazy Jack Hyatt was taken in. He had instigated the Jackson Prison riots, and our jail was supposed to be the most secure facility in this part of the state at that time, so they sent him here.

"He first tried to escape after he broke Percy's arm - and later on he said the he "got the Lord," and God told him He was going to take him home. Several weeks later, Percy went to his door to bring his breakfast - and the cell was empty.

"Percy put the plate down outside the door and said, "Well, if Crazy Jack's in heaven, he doesn’t need this food," and he just stood there waiting for a bit. All of a sudden, Crazy Jack dropped down from the ceiling - he had wedged himself up above a space by the door and was planning to jump on who ever came in.

"That ended his tries at getting out."

As might be expected, Dick's stories could go on and on and on - the only things missing here are the laugh that punctuates each tale, and the space to print more.