Jail Break
By Matthew Powers
The Jail Building
The benefit and blessing of working in a history-centered organization and living in the same small town for many years is that you start to see the ghosts. I’m not talking about spooks and haunts here. I’m talking about when you see the echoes in the landscape from times gone by. It could be a rock wall or a cellar hole that conjures up images of a farmer clearing his land or a well timbered homestead now gone. It is very often the buildings (or the absence of them) that evoke memory. I can’t help it that when I walk by a building I can see what was there before, or how it is has changed over time. The power of seeing many old photographs and conducting research is that you can see the layers of time. You can see the “ghosts” in the landscape.
One of these particular “ghosts” is the old Windsor County Jail. I think of this place every time I walk into the Village of Woodstock’s Post Office, because it is at this location that the jail was built in 1868. There are many stories that can be told of this place. The memory of it extends to those that lived in Woodstock before 1937, the year it was demolished. Because of this, we look to find remembrances of it in our oral history collection. Kathy Wendling, one of the authors of “Historically Speaking” in The Vermont Standard, mentions the reactions to this building by Erma Gates.
“I always liked passing the red painted stone building which was the jail. It stood smack on the main street, even with the sidewalk. At the upper barred windows, we could see the prisoners looking out at us. There was a rectangular opening about a foot long, low in the front wall through which we could peek and see the prisoners playing cards in a basement room. At night there was a delicious shudder running down my spine when I would put my eyes to this opening to watch the men and once I encountered a man’s face looking out at me from inside the peek-hole. How I ran!”
Other people remember having their first apartment in the jail building. In many photographs of the building you can see the upper left side of the building with curtains or embellishments. The upper floor on the right side clearly has bars on the windows. How odd it must have been to be living in such a place knowing that there were criminals next door!
View of the jail.
circa 1900
View of jail, vault, and concrete bridge on Central Street, c.1936. Roof lines were expanded by this date.
The Jail Break
Deputy Eugene A. Thomas. The jailer at the Windsor County jail in Woodstock.
The jail most likely hosted many “unsavory” characters over the years while it was in operation. Two men such men, father and son, were Frank and Dustin Shaw. At the time of their incarceration in 1900, Frank was 31 years old and Dustin was 53 years old. They were not considered dangerous but were being held for fraud and deer jacking. The jailer, Deputy Eugene A. Thomas, believed that these two men were inconsequential prisoners and further proved their benignness by behaving themselves. Therefore, Deputy Thomas granted the Shaw’s the use of the outer corridors and rooms. His faith in these men were misplaced. What he didn’t know is that the younger Shaw had previous trouble with the law. Some three years before, an officer in New York state attempted to arrest the younger Shaw for some minor offence. Shaw struck him on the head with a coupling pin and escaped. The blow cracked the officer’s skull and he died some time afterward. Deputy Shaw had a murderer in his jail!
The Shaw’s must have known that New York authorities were hot on their trail and that Dustin’s transgression would come to light. So, in the early morning of Tuesday, April 24 1900, Frank and Dustin Shaw made their escape. They bent the bars on a window in the hospital section located on the second floor. They strung together bed sheets to make a makeshift rope.
Escape from the jail.
The Shaws used bed sheets to exit the building from the second floor.
View of Central Street with jail. circa 1890s.
Detail of the jail, County Clerk’s office, Register & Probate, Dwelling, and Vault. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, 1892
The Pursuit
High Sheriff Romaine Spafford
Once it was discovered that the Dustin and Frank Shaw had escaped, Deputy Thomas immediately notified High Sheriff Romaine Spafford of White River Junction. High Sherriff Spafford then set out with Deputy Paul Tinkham of Rochester and Constable Ed Putnam of Barnard to search for escapees. The first day’s search proved fruitless. By Thursday, reports were coming in that the men had been seen in the Stony Brook region in Rochester, Vermont. The two men had stopped at Will Locke’s and bought two loaves of bread (they had about seventy five cents on them when they escaped). It was reported that each of the men had a rifle. They later tried to buy some meat further up the road.
By this time, the search party now consisted of High Sheriff Romaine Spafford, Dr. George W. Hoffman (Deputy Sheriff), Deputy Eugene A. Thomas, Deputy Paul Tinkham, Constable Eugene Wilson, and a Mr. Whittaker (friend of Deputy Tinkham). The search party made their way to the Stony Brook neighborhood and made an inquiry at every house and searched every outbuilding. They found evidence that the fugitives had stolen maple syrup and a tin pail from the Goodell’s sap house. They searched for the men until about nine and ten o’clock that night.
The lawmen spent that night in Pittsfield, Vermont and began their fourth search day at 4 a.m. They were joined by Deputy Sheriff George Chedel of Rutland county. They made their way towards Stockbridge common and examined every house and outbuilding in that section. The following is the account of finding the Shaw’s by High Sheriff Spafford:
“Suddenly, off to the right and up South hill, shots were heard. It was only seven in the morning and we rightly judged that the shooting was worthy of some investigation. So we started up the mountain, Hoffman on the outside of the posse, nearest the clearing, I was next, and the rest below. On the way up I occassionally saw Hoffman but saw none of the others. I had almost reached the top when I saw the track of a man in the snow. Further on, were a few drops of blood. About a rod away, now, smoke was coming from a clump of spruces. Hoffman was about five rods away and I motioned to him. He came down to me and saw the smoke. We couldn’t reach the spot where we knew the men must be without skirting some dried-up tree tops, so we went about and came right up in the front of the Shaws. They had us covered at once. I was nearest them and Hoffman was about a rod behind and a little to my right.”
“ ‘Hello, boys,’ said I, and the old Shaw answered, ‘Hello.’ Young Shaw covered Hoffman, and his father had a bead on me. ‘Hold on,’ I said, ‘we don’t want any shooting.’ and the father said ‘that’s right.’ and he told the young man to drop his gun, at the same time he lowered his rifle to the earth, but did not let go of it. ‘Drop your gun, Shaw,’ said Dr. Hoffman, to the younger one, ‘or I’ll bore a hole through you.’ Then again, ‘drop it I say.’
“Drop your gun, Shaw. Or I’ll bore a hole through you.”
“Then Frank Shaw fired, hitting the doctor. ‘My God,’ said he, ‘he kiling me. Don’t leave me to die alone.’ I fired at Frank Shaw immediately. He had turned about instantly as if to get away, but he turned back and blazed away at me. I know that I was excited and I guess he must have been, for we fired three shots apiece. The Shaws ran down the mountain.”
The fugitive’s camp on South Hill in Stockbridge.
Dr. Hoffman was shot here.
The lawmen attended to Hoffman, whose wound proved fatal. Several days went by until the hunt resumed.
They had heard that the Shaw’s had moving towards Middlebury. Hundreds volunteered to assist in their capture. A day and night guard was established and a picket line several miles in length was formed. The watch was kept for several days until the fugitives were discovered in a barn near the Three-Mile Bridge, directly south of Middlebury. J.L. Knight, a former deputy of Middlebury, who was searching alone and unarmed, found them asleep in an old barn.
Knight went to find help and officers were soon on the scene. The Shaw’s were alerted to the police presence and escaped the barn and fled across the fields to a nearby swamp. Several shots were exchanged between the officers and the fugitives. Frank Shaw (the son) was shot in the left arm near the shoulder and the two men were taken into custody on May 3. Both prisoners were taken at once to the jail at Middlebury.
Dustin Shaw and Jailer Thomas
In Sheriff’s office, White River Junction
The following day, the elder Shaw was transferred to his old quarters in Woodstock. Deputy Sheriff Paul Tinkham, who had been untiring in his efforts to recapture the prisoners, accompanied his charge. While waiting for the train in Sheriff Spafford’s office at White River Junction, the prisoner became quite talkative and said in part, “I don’t know what made Frank shoot, I told him not to.” When asked about the habits of his boy he said, “Frank had read dime novels ever since he could read anything, and I think his head was completely turned by them.”
Dustin Shaw was transferred to the Woodstock Jail. His case was brought before Judge Munson. He pleaded guilty of breaking jail and to impeding an officer. He was sentenced to not less than two and half years nor more than two and a half years in state’s prison for breaking jail, and from two and a half to three years for impeding an officer. Dustin Shaw was taken to the state prison at Windsor by Sheriff Spafford. He ultimately served seven years in prison.
Sheriff Spafford carrying Frank Shaw from the train to his office.
On Tuesday, May 22, Frank Shaw passed through White River Junction, en-route to Woodstock. It was necessary to wait at the Junction for about two hours, and he was taken to the sheriff’s office to await the train to Woodstock. Shaw had not recovered from his wound and had to be carried off. In the sheriff’s office he lay on a sofa with his eyes closed and seemed exhausted by his journey. When leaving for Woodstock he walked to the train supported by two officers.
The Murder Trial
About two months later, Frank Shaw’s murder trial began in Windsor County Court. Judge Loveland Munson presided with side judges, Charles Maxham and Milo Buck. Jay Reed Pember was the County Clerk and John G. Sargent, the State’s Attorney. The jury was chosen from a field of twenty-one. Most were from southern Windsor County, only O. M. Tinkham from Pomfret lived in the area. Prospective jurists were queried as to their belief in the death penalty and the only person to express any qualms was immediately dismissed. Frank’s defense rested with his claim that his gun accidentally went off. The trial began on a Monday and ended ten days later, on a Wednesday. George A. Brace, a photographer for the Interstate Journal, was called upon to identify pictures that he had taken of the scene. He also testified that the Sheriff had said of the deceased deputy, “Hoffman was apt to be too hasty.” A statement later denied by the Sheriff.
Although testimony from the owner of the gun Hoffman had been using seemed to prove it had been shot, the question of who may have shot first did not sway the jury. Both Frank and his father were adamant, the rifle was cocked when Frank picked it up, and, although it hit Hoffman very close to his heart, had been fired accidentally. Judge Munson’s charge to the jury took half an hour and they took nearly four hours to find the defendant guilty of first degree murder. Frank was sentenced to the death penalty. His lawyer appealed and they waited for the case to be heard by the Vermont Supreme Court.
Consideration of the Death Penalty
No disposition was made by the Vermont Supreme Court in October 1900 concerning the Shaw case due to the Vermont State Legislature’s pending bill to abolish the death penalty in Vermont. As seen in the November 17, 1900 article in the Spirit of the Age, Shaw could not be hanged until 1902 if the bill did not pass. It stipulated that a session of the legislature “must intervene between a death sentence and its execution.” Frank Shaw remained in jail (state prison?) during this time.
The judiciary committee of the state legislature picked up the case and it was reported in the Spirit of the Age on November 15, 1902. It appears that the state legislature overturned the ruling of the courts (despite not passing a bill to abolish capital punishment) and commuted Shaw’s death sentence to a life sentence. The Vermont Standard on February 5, 1903 borrowed the summation of the murder case from the Brattleboro Phoenix. Clearly both papers were calling for a referendum to determine who had jurisdiction in the highest criminal cases. But that is another article…
