Page 40 - the NOISE August 2012

A Building Tells a Thousand Tales
If the walls of this Old Jail at 1101 North Main Street could tell tales, we would hear whispers of mayhem and murder, suicides and sting operations, bootleggin’ and bad boy characters. Some even say Al Capone’s name is etched on the outside of one Jail cell. It is rumored he passed through, bailing a friend out. This was a lucky stay, for others didn’t make it through the night.
It has also seen famous moments. In the 1947 Desert Fury, Burt Lancaster pulls his black and white up to our little Old Jail, strolls in and gets into a good ol’ Wild West brawl. Over the front door a white painted wooden sign splashed with big black letters declares it his“Sheriff’s Office.”That’s Deputy Sheriff to you.
In Irony the Iron Walls Hold
Some say the first prisoner was the Fire Marshall, whose whiskey still blew up and set the town on fire. Grab your coffee, have a seat, and let me try to explain this sorted story, even if might not be entirely true.
Cottonwood’s most famous bootlegger, Joe Hall, the “Bootleg King of Arizona,” was also the first Fire Marshall. On December 3, 1917, Mr. Hall’s prize whiskey still blew up, burning a majority of the town down. Since most of the buildings and homes were con- structed of wood, the fire was fast and dev- astating. Due to a boom from the erection of the new smelter, there was plenty of plun- der to rebuild. New buildings were put up rapidly, housing various kinds of businesses. When Mr. Hall’s wood house was rebuilt on Cactus & Pinal Streets, so were the tunnels from the rear of it to his business, Joe’s Bunk & Grille, located at 1004 North Main Street.
Later as Fire Marshall, Mr. Hall saved this same family house during the 1925 fire that burned his business, his warehouse, and most of the west side of downtown. This fire actually did Cottonwood a great ser- vice. When rebuilding, folks agreed to mark a straight line and divvy up the properties evenly, plus bring the storefronts right up to the sidewalk. This cohesion of front face is rare, and makes our Old Town District his- torically unique.
Those tunnels built in 1917 were closed off after he was raided by Sheriff George Ruffner in 1928 and put in jail for 10 months for bootlegging, making Mr. Hall the first prisoner of the Old Town Jail, folks say. How- ever, the Prescott Evening Courier of February 19, 1930 states, “Joe Hall ... (was) sentenced to a term in the Maricopa County Jail.” The sentence was for a year and a day, but he was ultimately held, “from August 1 until Oc-
tober 24, when he furnished an appeal bond and was released” after three months. His prize still sat on top of his wagon, which was parked out front of the Old Jail, the whole time.
Prescott Courier of August 2, 1929 sites a separate arrest in which Mr. Hall was raided and busted again, this time for “150 gallons of whiskey found in his basement ... and an- other 50 gallons together with another 100 gallons of wine ... from a nearby garage.”The original bust presented in the July 30, 1928 Prescott Evening Courier defined “300 gallons of whiskey and 100 gallons of wine, together with several cases of beer, copper tanks, si- phons ... where they had been hidden clev- erly behind a dirt wall.”
Mr. Hall appealed the judgment twice, ac- cording to the Verde Copper News for “the legality of the search warrant upon which the seizure of the liquor was predicated.”The case was seen before the United States Cir- cuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. From the Prescott Journal-Miner, March 24, 1931:
“The United Circuit Court in San Francisco yesterday upheld the lower court and the Cottonwood man must serve his sentence.” So, Mr. Hall did serve two sentences, but it is unclear whether for one or two crimes, and apparently never for the 1917 fire.
Laws be damned, there was still local pride in the illegal product. Immediately fol- lowing his arrest, the Prescott Evening Cou- rier of July 30, 1928, stated it was: “The fin- est product, some of it said to be more than three years old, none less than four months
... the whiskey tested 130 proof.”
Murder and Mayhem
Not just booze brought attention to the Jail. Deputy Sheriff Jesse Edward Hood, irony again, was killed on Main Street by a speeding automobile. Mr. Hood’s impact to the hood of the car caused its grille to smash in; he was then drug for 30 feet before the driver realized what had happened. It car- ried him another fifty-four feet “before the machine came to a halt,” Prescott Evening Courier, February 8, 1932. A death certificate shows Mr. Hood was 50 years and nine days old. A man half his age, 25-year old Alfredo Mayogoilia of Jerome, was drunk when he caused the accident. He spent time in the jail pending a hearing by the Justice of the Peace, who held office in the front of the
building. An employee of the United Verde Copper Company of Clarkdale, Mr. Mayo- goilia showed much remorse, sending a
“large offering of flowers to the slain deputy’s funeral,” stated the Prescott Journal-Miner, February 10, 1932. Jesse Hood was the first
40 • AUGUST 2012 • the NOISE arts & news magazine • thenoise.us