Imagine being inside one of the old penitentiaries for 42 years. After being inside those walls for so long, you have no idea what is happening on the outside. At the time of the newspaper article below, there was no television and it doesn’t say if the men were allowed to read the daily paper. When the man mentioned finally got to see the outside world, it was too much for him and he asked to go back to the penitentiary.
Convict is Frightened by 42 Years Progress
Columbus, O., Aug. 1. — Given a peep of the world after 42 years of confinement behind prison walls, John Taborn, 64, serving life in the Ohio penitentiary for second degree murder, is probably the most bewildered and awe-stricken man in America.
Imagine yourself trying to cram into your head in one day the knowledge of the world’s progress for half a century, and you can sympathize with No. 8527 — that’s been his official name since Aug. 16, 1870.
Taborn has been taken to the State’s farm at Morgan’s Station, near Orient, to “recuperate.” Warden Jones, who took the convict there in a large modern automobile truck, said the convict repeatedly asked him to take him back home — the penitentiary.
When seen at the farm today, Taborn asked a thousand and one questions about things he saw en route and at the farm. What seems old to us is new and marvelous to No. 8527.
“Vehicles operated without horses or steam,” mumbled the old man. “It don’t seem true. I was in an agony every moment of my ride out here — dashing along at a fast clip and expecting every moment to be killed.”
Skyscrapers amazed the old man; telephones amused him, and so it went. When he ran across a plow on the old farm he fondled it like a long-lost friend.
Taborn has studied odd moments during his imprisonment, and he talks with a polish.
“I have hoped and hoped for a pardon,” the old man said, wistfully. “I have seen cellmate after cellmate, up for the worst offenses than mine, pass out, recipients of the governor’s clemency. But they always seemed to miss me.”
Taborn was sent up from Delaware county when 22 years of age. He has lost track of his relatives and friends.
More than 31,000 prisoners have served their time in the Ohio penitentiary or died in the electric chair during Taborn’s time in prison.
Source: The Day Book (Chicago, Illinois newspaper). August 01, 1912.
