I lived in Huntsville, Texas, for four years. I like to tell people I did four years in Huntsville at one of the state institutions (for those of you non locals there is Sam Houston State University and the state prison system). In case you're wondering I went to SHSU and graduated back in the late 1990s. The whole time there I heard of the prison museum and kept putting it off. I figured one day I'd get around to it but alas I never did. A short 15 years later the opportunity arose so I took it. My first surprise was that the prison museum moved from it's original location in downtown Huntsville to the other side of town. This bigger facility provides visitors with a deeper (and sometimes darker) look into prison life.
A model of the Walls Unit.
This pistol was found in the car after Bonnie and Clyde were killed in Louisiana.
This memoriam honors those TDC employees killed in the line of duty.
This pistol was carried by Wallace Pack (on the left) and taken from him by inmate Eroy Brown. Brown shot and killed Billy Moore (on the right) and drowned Warden Pack. Brown was tried three times for the murder and was actually acquitted. As a result Brown serves his sentence in South Carolina because the courts felt he wouldn't survive inside a Texas prison. According to this article the jury bought the inmate's self defense claim.
Weapons used to keep control in the prisons.
This exhibit serves to inform people about the highly controversial death penalty in Texas. Two of the cause celebs of the anti death penalty crowd were Karla Faye Tucker and Gary Graham. They like the picture of the smiling Karla to evoke sympathy but never show the brutal pictures (I've seen them) of her victims. Karla took a pick ax and murdered two people and said with each strike felt an orgasm. Imagine a scene from a bloody zombie movie and that's what those pictures looked like. Gary Graham was a burglar, rapist, and murderer. His supporters argued he didn't kill the man from Arizona that got him the death penalty. They used the usual arguments (frame up, racism, etc). It shouldn't be forgotten that Graham was found drunk after raping an elderly woman. When he was executed it was a circus. Black activists from Houston staged a rally and walked with their rifles out in the open. What many people don't know is members of the KKK had planned to attend in support of the execution but law enforcement officials stopped them at the county line and convinced them to turn back.
A saw used in the fields turned into a canvass for prison artists.
The bicycle in this picture was left outside a prison and an inmate rode off in a failed escape attempt.
Old Sparky. The electric chair. Many inmates met their fates here.
A model cell. Could you live in one of these for 5? 10? 20 years?
A Bible meant to give hope, enlightenment, and salvation to the condemned. It's thick pages could be cut to conceal contraband.
A sampling of weapons made by creative inmates. In here are two tattoo guns, home made guns, and many edged weapons.
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Oh, you've been there too?