FREESTONE PAST/PRESENT J. R. (Sonny) SESSIONS SHERIFF 1965-2001 Written for the Sheriffs’ Association Magazine 1982 FREESTONE COUNTY During its history Freestone County has had five County jails. The present structure has been used since November 1975, and was recently recertified by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. First certified in 1980 it was the twenty second in Texas to receive certification. The first jail was built in 1852, at the cost of $600, from logs with a plate steel floor, ceiling and cell in the center. The second jail was built in 1857, at a cost of $3000, of heavy timbers and homemade brick. There were three legal executions by hanging during its use. The first of these was “within the walls of the county jail” of a man convicted of murder and charged in the indictment with “not having the fear of God before his eyes but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil.” Sheriff E. Steele executed the death warrant on December 20, 1861. The second hanging was a man for the rape of his daughter and was done “without the walls of the county jail in gallows erected in the rear. “Sheriff James Robinson executed this death warrant on October 22, 1875. The third hanging was a man for the brutal murder of his wife and stepdaughter. The death warrant reads “gallows erected in the yard of the jail due to no gallows constructed inside.” Sheriff Robinson was also Sheriff at this execution on June 28, 1878. Freestone County’s third jail was constructed in 1879 at the cost of $5000 and was of brick construction. It is now the Freestone County Museum. The fourth legal hanging in the County was within the walls of this structure on March 26, 1880, of a man for the murder of his wife. Sheriff H. P. Davis performed the execution as was the custom and the law. The fourth jail was built in 1912 and the cost is uncertain. The last legal hanging in the County was within the walls of this jail, using the steel gallows constructed on the second floor of a man for murder. These remained in the building until it was torn down in 1976, and the gallows donated to the Freestone County Museum. Freestone County was formed from Limestone County and so named from the nature of its stone. The county was created September 6, 1880 and organized January 6, 1851. *** SHERIFF CAPTURES LAWBREAKERS ON PAPER Article written by Laura Lippman, Waco Tribune-Herald Cross Jimmy Stewart and Rona Barrett and you’ve got J. R. (Sonny) Sessions, Jr., the Sheriff of Freestone County. Easy going and quick to laugh, Sessions teases Central Texans every week with a column filled with what Miss Rona would call “blind items.” Sessions, however, doesn’t write about who’s ducking in and out of fashionable New York restaurants, but about the comings and goings at the Freestone County Jail. If the idea of reading about DWI’s and accidents on Interstate 45 sounds boring, then you obviously have not sampled “The Sheriff’s Report”. Peppered with Sessions’ tacturn observations on law enforcement and life, the plainly written column almost always makes for interesting reading. “As some people say to me, I kinda tell it like it is, Sessions said. On July 1, for example, telling it like it is included everything from a story of two coon hunters who locked a burglar in their car trunk to the account of the rape of an 11 year old girl. I’d rather stay with the funny end of the situation,” because in this business, you have to keep from crying”, he said. I don’t try to edit or correct... I try not to get to involved in one thing”. “The Sheriff’s Report” began in 1967; two years after Sessions became Sheriff. The newspaper people were always coming around, asking what was going on, Sessions said, and he kept telling them it was all routine business. So it was decided to run weekly reports from the Sheriff’s office, detailing those ordinary events. This prompted editorials in the Dallas and Houston papers, Sessions said, because it was “unusual for any law officer to tell the public what was going on. That was an era when being in law enforcement did not make a person very popular, Sessions remembers. But he said his column helped improve relationships with county residents, convincing them the Freestone County Sheriff’s Office had nothing to hide. “Once in a while, you step on the wrong toe, he admitted. He never names names, but it’s not unusual for people to try to worm out of Sessions the identities of the people he writes about. And it seems you don’t have to live in Central Texas to enjoy Sessions’ column. “Fan mail” arrives at Sessions’ office with postmarks from around the world. The explanation for his worldwide audience, Sessions said, is the number of local people who work in the oil fields. They get transferred to other States or countries, and ask their relatives to send them copies of the local paper, which they share with their friends. On ships, I’ve heard they stand in line to get it, Sessions said. Not much news to look forward to on ship anyway. His column also has been used in English class as a model of “what not to do on sentence structure”, Sessions says. Sessions, as he likes to say, was “raised in the jailhouse,” because his father was also Sheriff of Freestone County. It never seemed a very glamorous or exciting place to him, Sessions said, just an extension of home. “There were some trusties (prisoners assigned to chores) I thought were members of the family, he said. “They babysat us.” His great grandfather, James Bonner Rogers, also was Sheriff. A copy of a historical marker hangs on wall in honor of Rogers, who was ambushed and killed in 1872 by two horse thieves. The story about his great grandfather is just one of the many tales Sessions can tell, along with the one about the gypsies he arrested this spring, or the skull sitting in his office, or the monkey he arrested about 10 years ago. The monkey it seems was the pet of two young men who were growing marijuana. When the Sheriff’s office put the two men in jail, the toothless old monkey came with them. The oddest thing about the monkey, Sessions said, was that she was toilet trained. “The monkey used the toilet better than most prisoners,” he said. Schoolchildren came by with bananas for the monkey. A picture of the monkey with a hoe was taken, and Sessions tried to convince people that the monkey helped harvest the marijuana crop. Eventually, the two men paid their bonds and skipped town. “Everyone always asks me what happened to the monkey. I say, she made bond, “Sessions, said.” The FBI is still looking for the two men, but Sessions doubts the monkey is still alive. At age 55, Sessions said he is too young to retire, too old to do anything else. “So he said he will run for Sheriff again. He works on his ranch during off hours, so there isn’t a lot of time left for relaxing. His column takes about an hour to write each Sunday, and writing the column is one way of keeping his balance. If he can’t laugh about his job, he may find himself crying. “In this little old jail, in this little old town we run 25 to 40 prisoners, and most of them felons. We have our share of crimes locally and off the big road. Current deputies for 1982 are Chief Deputy, Charles Nicholson, Reserve Deputy Captain, Hugh D. Whitaker, Deputies, Bob Wilson, Robert Ramos, Dickie Taylor, Don Nemons, Wiley Richardson, Edward Johnson and Ted Spurgeon. Dispatcher-Jailers, Loretta Killough, Betty Lopes, Helen Nye; Deputy Records, Ann Wilson. Reserve Deputies, Mike Batts, Owen Morgan, Bill Sullivan, Barry Moore, Ken Aclin, J. C. Cox, M. E. Ammons, W. J. Tate, Larry Watson, Paul Spence, Richmond Claridge, James Pursell and Vernon Busby.