Went to prison today.

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

I took a group here two years ago on The Fall Color Ride to see Tennessee's oldest prison my wife wanted to go today since she hadn't seen it  so I took another tour this one was better cause George went along with us most of the way. This is George fellow inmates called him " Bomber " for a reason. It was pretty cool hearing his stories today at Brushy. Took the following from a website but its pretty much the same as we talked about today .."I'll show you where i saw my first stabbing," said George Wyatt as he guided us through the empty cellblocks of Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. George, a former Brushy Mountain convict, was called "Bomber" by his fellow inmates because he'd blown up a Tennessee country club with 16 sticks of dynamite. "I done it for money," George told our tour group. "I was dumb."
Dummy prison coal miner. At Brushy Mountain, you made your coal quota or you were whipped.
The penitentiary, open from 1896 to 2009, stands in a notch in the Cumberland Mountains, hemmed in on three sides by the forbidding Frozen Head Wilderness. Over the years a surprising number of convicts escaped from the prison and headed into the hills -- including its most famous inmate, MLK-assassin James Earl Ray -- but none made it to freedom. "James Earl Ray was from Memphis, but I'd call him a Yankee, excuse my language," said George. "He was out three days and only got eight miles! You give old George three days and I'm gonna be gone a hundred."
Despite his bravado, George did not to try to escape Brushy Mountain Penitentiary. He served his time, walked out a free man in 1986, and stayed out of prison until August 2018, when Brushy Mountain opened as an attraction and hired him as a tour guide. "I'm back now, but I get to go home at night," said George.






 According to tour guides, are multiple spirits from the roughly 10,000 people who died on the property from mining accidents, war battles, disease and prison attacks.D Block this is where the worse of the worse was caged 24/7/365.





C Block cell # 28 home of James Earl Ray accused assassin of Martin Luther King.





Many inmates died behind these walls.







Takes a bad man to chop up a Bible to hide drugs in.

[Patrick]

Prisons can be interesting can't they, [as long as you're not an inmate.]

I used to have to go to Auburn Prison [ NYS] a couple times a year. Its a max security facility opened in 1818 and still going strong. It had the first execution by electric chair in 1890 and came up with what is called the Auburn System.  Wherever I went I had 2 guards with me. Its an old nasty place.
I have a story about it that I think is interesting but I won't post it now. Its about mistakes made by our system.

[bill-jr]

I hear Aaron lewis is playing there this summer

[Valkorado]

Cool tour report!   

[Jess from VA]

Interesting Joe.  

Except perhaps for a (very) short stretch, I decided long ago I'd rather die that do time in one of those places.  Misery on Earth.

Course the best solution is not to do things that get you sent to those places, and I do my best at that.

As a lifetime student of the criminal mind, one wonders why someone paid George to blow up a Tennessee country club with 16 sticks of dynamite.  Were they blackballed from (private) membership, or were the greens fees too high?  Or had they refused to pay protection money to the local criminal element?  George was probably not told;  he didn't need to know.  

EDIT:  Quick research reveals that George was trying to open a safe at that club.  16 sticks of dynamite might have put the safe in the next county.  Reminds me of the scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, where they blow up the whole boxcar.

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

Interesting Joe.  

Except perhaps for a (very) short stretch, I decided long ago I'd rather die that do time in one of those places.  Misery on Earth.

Course the best solution is not to do things that get you sent to those places, and I do my best at that.

As a lifetime student of the criminal mind, one wonders why someone paid George to blow up a Tennessee country club with 16 sticks of dynamite.  Were they blackballed from (private) membership, or were the greens fees too high?  Or had they refused to pay protection money to the local criminal element?  George was probably not told;  he didn't need to know.  

He hit the cigarette machines and other coin operated machine ( pinball, pool tables, etc ) he got $2500 in quarters said he hardly could carry it... He also said " I was dumb " . Said the safe barely moved so he got what he could . Also said if the main blast went the other way it was condos . He said if I killed people I'd been locked up for life or got the death penalty.

[henry 008]

 

[SpidyJ]

Thanks Joe.  Prisons fascinate me.
Alcatraz was the most interesting historical tour I've  ever experienced.
You put the headphones on and the audio guides you through the entire place.
The hand made gun is pretty incredible.
I guess you can get pretty innovative when you got lotsa time on your hands.

[msb]

Interesting "tour"... thanks for posting. Heck, no need to visit TN anymore... I can just learn everything about it from your always informative ride reports on here 
Closest I ever got to being incarcerated was about 10 years ago in the little town of McBride BC, where the Mrs and me stayed in a B&B called Jailhouse B&B... the town's old jail that had been converted into a B&B where the bedrooms were the old cells, complete with bars and bunks.

[0leman]

Cool report on that prison.   

The town I lived in for over 20 years in Wyoming, Rawlins, had the territorial prison for WY.  It was still in operation when we moved there in '79.   A new one was built several years later.   Did the tour thru it after the new one was built.  Interesting place.  Wouldn't want to live there.   Cold in winter and hot in summer.  Cells dark and small.  The "gas cell" could still be used, but wasn't while we lived there. 

Several years before we moved there, the guard were still using rifles on the walls.  Had a prisoner escape and shots were fired at him.   Didn't hit him but did go thru homes there were adjacent to the prison.  They rifles were replaced with long shotguns after that.    New prison is on located on a sagebrush flat, no homes near by.  Guards have rifles now and its a long way to anything that will  block their shots.   AND while I was there, there was only on guy who tried to escape in winter, he was found in a truck stop bathroom about a mile from the prison suffering from hypothermia.   

[3fan4life]

  Nice Write Up! 

[Thunderbolt]

Joe thanks for the pics and narration.  Did the missus enjoy the back seat of that new Goldwing?

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

Joe thanks for the pics and narration.  Did the missus enjoy the back seat of that new Goldwing?

We took the car she's not been on a motorcycle since she broke her back a few years ago. She claims she wants to ride again just wasn't ready yet.