FREESTONE PAST/PRESENT J. R. (Sonny) SESSIONS SHERIFF 1965-2001 RED & JIMMY This article concerns a planned Jail escape in the old Freestone Co. Jail (l912- 1974). At this time I had 3 paid deputies, no jailers and no full time dispatchers. We fed two meals a day, had no exercise area. The Jail was hot in warm weather but a wool blanket needed to protect you from the mosquitoes and cold in cool weather as heated by only space heaters. It was easy to get dependent on so called trusty’s (don’t know who named them but it seldom represented them.) They were a necessary evil as employees poorly paid, worked long hours with little chance of doing any better. At this time the Sheriffs Office as since Freestone Co. organized was basically responsible for any police work in Fairfield. Mayor Capps and Reserve Captain Whitaker entered an agreement for the Sheriffs Office to be responsible for the City I do remember the amount but it sure helped. By using the Reserve Deputies we were able buy much needed equipment. A new l973 Police Ford car fully equipped had just been delivered. On Tuesday morning May 11, 1973 Captain Whitaker called me at home at 2:45 am. He advised there been a jail escape and the brand new patrol car missing. There were two prisoners missing both with long criminal records one known as Red, the other Jimmy. This started the longest and most intensified search0 for the pair who had nothing to loose and capable of anything. This incident lasted several weeks. We learned it been planned for sometime, had even made a key to the jail door which they planned to get gold plated in Mexico and mail it to me. When the jail was locked down that night they had fixed one bed with dummy to look like asleep and Red hid out in run around until all left then opened door with key, went down stairs, found a rifle and planned to hold up or kill Teddy Bear if necessary and take a patrol car. Fortunately Deputy Philip Barker left the new Patrol Car and keys which they took, Red even got his personal things but didn’t get his insulin as serious diabetic, he later tried to use wanting his insulin as an excuse to escape. Red’s daddy part of the escape plan as had Red’s car but out of pocket in the car when they made the break, when located he jailed in Anderson Co. on suspected cattle theft by Sheriff Herrington. Jimmy had a girl friend in Navarro Co. but hadn’t heard from them. The drove the new Patrol Car into woods near Rural Shade in Navarro Co. without injury to vehicle and left it. A few days later a local cattleman found cattle out where they drove thru fences, located the car and called us on the police radio. We learned Red had gone into a diabetic coma and some good Navarro Co. Samaritan had carried him to the Corsicana Hospital where he was treated and slipped off before we found this out. We received all kinds of information on their where abouts and searches held. Report they in house in Corsicana searched with Navarro Co. Sheriff Shelton and other local officers assisting, Deputy Tex King coming in the back way straddled a hot electric fence with stud horse attacking him on one side and bad dog on the other. Nothing found to indicate the escapees even been here. Jimmy stole a car in Navarro Co. and left it near Wortham with extensive search locally. He made it to Mineola where he stole another car and headed to Mexico making it as far as New Braunfels where arrested on traffic. Returned to Freestone Co. tried and convicted, carried to the pen. Returned for a hearing several months later during which time Red had been captured and returned to the pen the last thing Jimmy told me when leaving was Red going to kill him or have him killed for deserting him in Navarro Co. Jimmy said that if anything happened to him while in the pen Red had killed him or had him killed by Reds friends in the pen. A few weeks after Jimmy returned to the pen we received information from them Jimmy had hung himself, personally I think Red responsible. Red just disappeared from the scene until his arrest a few months later in a small hotel in Oklahoma where he working. We found where he was by the only honest thing he probably ever did. He had bought a mechanics tool set from a Palestine business paying for them by the month; he mailed a payment to the store and they gave it to us. Brought back and tried his defense was we weren’t giving him his insulin and broke jail to get it. The jury didn’t buy this as knew where it kept when he left and didn’t get it. Red and Count Attorney Gage got cross ways and Several times Red threatened Gage and would mail him hand drawn obscene cards that really upset Gage. Red gave them so much trouble in TDC with his medical and other problems no one would keep very long before sending him to another unit. Red filed the first civil suit I ever had; he also filed suits in every County he ever jailed in. Red spent most of his life behind bars, Palestine was his home base, he had a brother in Bryan he visited, he burglarized nearly every home on US 79 to Bryan over the years. He was involved in cattle thefts near Oakwood and arrested after a wild chase Special Ranger Gregory and other units was jailed on this. When Teddy Bear was being investigated by Fed’s on civil rights violation (which he was tried for and found not guilty and he wasn’t guilty) he and I saw Red in the hallway at Diagnostic Unit in Huntsville, he stopped us and told us he be glad to testify for the Bear, if he ever going to whip anybody it would have been him while he in our jail and Red flooded the upstairs and Ted’s room below. Red died from his diabetes while still in the pen and brought back to Palestine for burial. I called Anderson Co. Sheriff Roy Herrington and asked if he went to the funeral, he told me yes to see if it was the sob and if he was dead. *** Grandpa’s Report Learned Betty Nicholson’s sister Polly who lived in Arizona had died at 95 a real character and very active, enjoyed knowing her over the years. ... Memorial services for friend Joe Ahlfinger, enjoyed he and Patsy’s friendship over the years.