Raymond Blade was born 1894 in Sweden.
I found no family information.
Alias: Frank Mars Blaylock
Governor and Prison Wardens Confer on Bloody Outbreak.
Sacramento, April 6 - The four convicts who were killed by guards in the Folsom prison, Saturday afternoon were buried in the prison cemetery today. The fifth man, Percy Barnes, who was shot by the guards is improving and will recover.
In a statement given out today Warden J. J. Smith justified the action of the guards who stopped the dash for liberty. The shooting prevented the delivery of thirteen vicious prisoners, he said.
President Dennis Duffy of the state prison board returned from Folsom today and went into conference with Governor Johnson and Warden James Johnston of San Quentin. Both Johnston and Duffy were at the prison an hour after the break. Duffy would make no statement of his investigation.
Percy Barnes, one of the five convicts who succeeded in battering down his cell door, will recover from the bullet wound through his lungs. Barnes was the only convict who dashed from his cell to survive the cool and accurate work of the prison guards.
The bodies of Earl W. Siprell, Jose Lucerica, Raymond Blade and Norman C. Hair, who were almost instantly killed by guards as they rushed from their cells, have been buried in the prison grounds.
The attempt of the thirteen to break Saturday afternoon rivals the big Folsom break of 1903 in its desperate character and not since that time has there been such a slaughter of convicts.
Suspect Long Termers.
It is believed by prison officials that John Rogers, a second termer, serving ten years for burglary from Sacramento; Mike Ryan, a second termer, serving eight years for burglary in Tulare county, and Thomas Murphy, serving fifteen years from Los Angeles for burglary, were the real instigators of the plot. These convicts were older and more hardened criminals than the others in the break.
Because of the crowded conditions of the prison Warden Smith was forced to remove thirteen men from the solitary cells within the prison walls. Solitary confinement with break and water is the punishment prescribed for convicts who repeatedly break rules.
Trouble in "Bug" House.
Besides fighting at the dinner table, throwing break, refusing to work resisting the guards and becoming insolent, all of the men confined in the criminal insane building, commonly known as the "bug house," had created such disturbances in their cells within the prison walls as to become unbearable. Shouting, cursing and yelling at the top of their voices, the men had kept the guards and other prisoners awake day and night.
None of the convicts had been in the new quarters more than a week. Some of them had only been taken there two days previous to the attempted break.
Speaking in low tones through the cells the plot was hatched by the prisoners. Just when the plans for the break were arranged is not known. It is believed it was first spoken of among the convicts last Thursday. The first inkling the prison officials had of the plot, however, was when Guard John Anglin heard the convicts talking at about 1 o'clock Saturday afternoon. He heard the word passed from cell to cell that the dash for liberty was to be made soon.
Anglin was alone in the corridor at the time and was armed only with a prison cane. He called Guard T. C. Brown and then telephoned to the captain's office at headquarters, which brought out Guards T. F. Squifflet and Edward Welsbach.
Lacked Weapons.
The statement of Convict Barnes to Coroner Gormley that the convicts battered down their doors in order to be taken back to the dungeon, where they were entitled to "one meal a week," is taken as an attempt on his part to shield himself and the other eight convicts. He said that he and his cell-mate, Hair, had no weapons other than the window casings which they used as battering rams against the wooden doors of their cells.
"We intended to break the cells open and wait for the guards to come in and take us out," he said. "We did not intend to put up a fight or try to escape. None of us had much longer to stay in. Some of us wanted to back out just before the thing started, but the others told us we had cold feet so we stayed with them. We did not come out of our cells. The guards shot us as we broke down the doors. I was shot while I stood near the window and the other fellow with me was shot while he was in the cell. I did not see who shot me."
That the convicts expected to find only two guards, one unarmed, instead of three armed guards seems certain. The shooting of the first to break their doors, however, warned the other eight that the regular guards had been reinforced. They stopped immediately and left the younger and more eager of their fellow convicts to their fate.
~ Oakland Tribune, Mon. Evening, 6 Apr 1914, pg. 12
Raymond Blade was in Folsom Prison for a two-year sentence for burglary. The escape attempt was attributed to having "treated the men too well, of coddling them..." according to Prison Director Charles Sonntag.
~ Lompoc Journal, 11 Apr 11 1914
I found no family information.
Alias: Frank Mars Blaylock
Inmate #8706 Folsom Prison
Crime: Burglary 2nd Degree
Rec: 30 Apr 1913
Discharged: 30 Dec 1914
Governor and Prison Wardens Confer on Bloody Outbreak.
Sacramento, April 6 - The four convicts who were killed by guards in the Folsom prison, Saturday afternoon were buried in the prison cemetery today. The fifth man, Percy Barnes, who was shot by the guards is improving and will recover.
In a statement given out today Warden J. J. Smith justified the action of the guards who stopped the dash for liberty. The shooting prevented the delivery of thirteen vicious prisoners, he said.
President Dennis Duffy of the state prison board returned from Folsom today and went into conference with Governor Johnson and Warden James Johnston of San Quentin. Both Johnston and Duffy were at the prison an hour after the break. Duffy would make no statement of his investigation.
Percy Barnes, one of the five convicts who succeeded in battering down his cell door, will recover from the bullet wound through his lungs. Barnes was the only convict who dashed from his cell to survive the cool and accurate work of the prison guards.
The bodies of Earl W. Siprell, Jose Lucerica, Raymond Blade and Norman C. Hair, who were almost instantly killed by guards as they rushed from their cells, have been buried in the prison grounds.
The attempt of the thirteen to break Saturday afternoon rivals the big Folsom break of 1903 in its desperate character and not since that time has there been such a slaughter of convicts.
Suspect Long Termers.
It is believed by prison officials that John Rogers, a second termer, serving ten years for burglary from Sacramento; Mike Ryan, a second termer, serving eight years for burglary in Tulare county, and Thomas Murphy, serving fifteen years from Los Angeles for burglary, were the real instigators of the plot. These convicts were older and more hardened criminals than the others in the break.
Because of the crowded conditions of the prison Warden Smith was forced to remove thirteen men from the solitary cells within the prison walls. Solitary confinement with break and water is the punishment prescribed for convicts who repeatedly break rules.
Trouble in "Bug" House.
Besides fighting at the dinner table, throwing break, refusing to work resisting the guards and becoming insolent, all of the men confined in the criminal insane building, commonly known as the "bug house," had created such disturbances in their cells within the prison walls as to become unbearable. Shouting, cursing and yelling at the top of their voices, the men had kept the guards and other prisoners awake day and night.
None of the convicts had been in the new quarters more than a week. Some of them had only been taken there two days previous to the attempted break.
Speaking in low tones through the cells the plot was hatched by the prisoners. Just when the plans for the break were arranged is not known. It is believed it was first spoken of among the convicts last Thursday. The first inkling the prison officials had of the plot, however, was when Guard John Anglin heard the convicts talking at about 1 o'clock Saturday afternoon. He heard the word passed from cell to cell that the dash for liberty was to be made soon.
Anglin was alone in the corridor at the time and was armed only with a prison cane. He called Guard T. C. Brown and then telephoned to the captain's office at headquarters, which brought out Guards T. F. Squifflet and Edward Welsbach.
Lacked Weapons.
The statement of Convict Barnes to Coroner Gormley that the convicts battered down their doors in order to be taken back to the dungeon, where they were entitled to "one meal a week," is taken as an attempt on his part to shield himself and the other eight convicts. He said that he and his cell-mate, Hair, had no weapons other than the window casings which they used as battering rams against the wooden doors of their cells.
"We intended to break the cells open and wait for the guards to come in and take us out," he said. "We did not intend to put up a fight or try to escape. None of us had much longer to stay in. Some of us wanted to back out just before the thing started, but the others told us we had cold feet so we stayed with them. We did not come out of our cells. The guards shot us as we broke down the doors. I was shot while I stood near the window and the other fellow with me was shot while he was in the cell. I did not see who shot me."
That the convicts expected to find only two guards, one unarmed, instead of three armed guards seems certain. The shooting of the first to break their doors, however, warned the other eight that the regular guards had been reinforced. They stopped immediately and left the younger and more eager of their fellow convicts to their fate.
~ Oakland Tribune, Mon. Evening, 6 Apr 1914, pg. 12
Raymond Blade was in Folsom Prison for a two-year sentence for burglary. The escape attempt was attributed to having "treated the men too well, of coddling them..." according to Prison Director Charles Sonntag.
~ Lompoc Journal, 11 Apr 11 1914
Slain Convicts Buried at Folsom
Raymond Blade grave photo added by EDHGS on FAG Memorial #151383257
Nothing more is known about him, he was 19 years old in the mugshot.
what a beautiful boy, why do we always like the bad ones....
ReplyDeleteYes he was, maybe because they need more love than the others.
ReplyDeleteGwen