William Campbell Paroled from WV State Penitentiary

WV State Penitentiary 1910
Source: WV History on View

During the early 1900's, it was customary for the governor of West Virginia to grant a Christmas-time pardon to an inmate of the West Virginia State Penitentiary at Moundsville. Usually, this was the oldest prisoner in age and/or the prisoner who at that time, had served the longest sentence and was no longer considered a threat to society. I like to feature these pardons each December, but it's rare to come across a NON-holiday pardon (or in this case, early parole) of an inmate. However, I did stumble upon one such case from 1908.

In 1905, William Campbell, an African American from Summers County, was sentenced to 12 years at the penitentiary for his alleged role in a robbery that took place on a Chesapeake and Ohio train. He, along with several other African American men were accused of robbing three white men of $1.20 in cash, a watch, and a knife. The three white men were forced to exit the train at Hinton, and Campbell was later picked up in nearby Ronceverte. 

Despite the victims not being able to positively identify Campbell, they couldn't say he WASN'T there either, so he was convicted, all the while maintaining his innocence. 

Campbell was described as a model prisoner but was unable to do much of the hard labor usually assigned to inmates as part of their punishment. Instead, he spent at least two years almost exclusively in the infirmary with a terminal case of tuberculosis. In May of 1908, the warden of the penitentiary wrote to Governor Dawson, requesting an early release on behalf of Campbell. Campbell wasn't given long to live, and he had relatives in Washington, D.C. willing to care for him. The request was granted, and Campbell went to spend the rest of his days in our nation's capital. Unfortunately, due to his extremely common name and lack of other details, I was unable to definitively confirm when Campbell did finally succumb to his illness. But, I think it's safe to say that his final breath was NOT taken behind the iron bars of the West Virginia State Penitentiary at Moundsville. 

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The Daily Telegram
Clarksburg, WV
22 May 1908