The New York Tombs, inside and out! Scenes and reminiscences coming down to the present.--A story stranger than fiction, with an historic account of America's most famous prison

Front matter

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SEYMOUR DURST

When you leave, please leave this book

Introduction

By Rev. Madison C. Peters, D. D.

I have known the author of this book for many years. He was once associated with me in my ministerial work. I know all about his work as Chaplain of the Tombs, and have often spoken with him about the conditions prevailing in that institution, and have again and again urged him to tell the public all he knows about its inside workings. I have every reason to believe from what I know of the author, that he has written a true story, one which every citizen of Greater New York should read, and which ought to arouse the red-hot blood of every lover of his kind.

The book ought to be in the hands of every clergyman, lawyer, physician, and of every good citizen. It will furnish material for sermons and addresses, and give impulse and impetus to all the workers for social betterment, and bring to us the blessings of Him who said: "I was in prison and ye visited Me."

THANKS.

In the preparation of this work, I feel I am under lasting obligations for discriminating advice and kindly suggestions tendered me at different times by many friends. But I am under special debt to Mr. George H. Sandison, Managing Editor, and J. A. Belford, Art Editor of the Christian Herald, for valuable suggestions.

I also express my sincere thanks to the Rev. Madison C. Peters, D. D., whose clarion voice against wrongs and abuses of various kinds has been heard all over Greater New York, for many helpful suggestions. I am also thankful to many of the New York magazines and papers for kind words and much interest in articles of mine on Prison Work that have appeared from time to time. These magazines and papers include Harper's Weekly, Success, Van Norden, Intelligencer, Christian Advocate, Examiner, Press, Presbyterian, Witness and many others.

I extend my thanks also to Messrs. Harper & Bro., for the use of a cut, and to the Evening Journal for the loan of photographs.

The Author.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

The Author, Rev. John J. Munro Children's Court General Sessions Judges Criminal Branch of Supreme Court Ex-Police Commissioner Theodore A. Bingham Police Commissioner Baker at His Desk New Tombs Prison Corridor of Women's Prison Old Tombs Entrance on Leonard Street Davis, Who Pardoned Himself Out of Prison Sing Sing Prison Entrance Sing Sing Chapel The Death Chamber at Sing Sing New Police Headquarters Sunday Morning Service in the Old Tombs Old Police Headquarters Justice Blanchard of Supreme Court Justice Goff of the Supreme Court The Bridge of Sighs

Hon C. V. Collins, Superintendent of Prisons Hon. John F. McIntyre, Criminal Lawyer Scene in the Tenderloin Station House Mrs. John A. Foster, the Tombs Angel Putting a Crook Through the "Third Degree" at Police Headquarters Roll Call in a Station House at Midnight Men's Prison Women's Prison

Foreword

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

The strange circumstances of a visit to the Tombs on an

errand of mercy. — Early impressions more than

thirty years ago. — Recollections —

Humane Overseers.

Chapter I. What I Know About The Tombs

A modern Prison Barracks — Personal Experiences — Amazing stories of corruption — Ruth Howard's bomb — Charges pigeon-holed — Commissioner Hynes' Administration— Bissert in clover — Drunken prisoners — The gamblers' paradise — Lawyers and clients — Privileges for the few — Abusing the unfortunate— The food — Tammany Politics— City Prisons in charge of State authorities.

Chapter II. An Historical Account Of America's Most Famous Prison

The Collect Pond of three generations ago — King William's Experience — Agitation to fill up — How it came to be called the Tombs — Size of the old Tombs — Retrospect — The New Tombs — When Opened — The semi-official characters.

Chapter VIII. Leaves From The History Of A Checkered Career

The remarkable confessions of one of the brightest, brainiest and smartest crooks of his day.

How He Pardoned Himself Out of Prison

Admits total depravity — His prayer — Serving time in a Coal Mine — Impersonating a clergyman — Feigning to be deaf and dumb — Bemoaning His sad condition.

Chapter IX. The Autobiography Of A Crook

How a Young Life Was Wrecked

A New England ancestry — An indulgent mother — Idleness and bad company — The feelings of a guilty conscience— Work or crime, which? — State prison — Liberty — Again arrested — A new career in crime — Many burglaries.

CHAPTER X. WANDERING STARS AND BUZZARDS OF THE TOMBS Thrilling Experiences

The study of human nature — Deception of the looks — Chronic liars — A deserter from Russia — Chump of Harlem — Many dark records — Four years for telling a lie— Capt. Jack— Crooked Kahn— The Panel Crooks — Wilson's career — The dress slasher — Amazing cheek.

Chapter XI. Brilliant Forgery Crooks

Forgery as a fine art — A skilled crime — Forgery experts — -

Becker, the King of Forgers — His career- Three of a kind.

Chapter XII. Changing The Grand Jury Into A Board Of Criminal Experts

A New Classification of Criminals

Popular demand to abolish the Grand Jury — Judges ask for

legal indictments — Too rapid work in Grand Jury room —

The weakness of the system — Rich men on the Grand

Jury — Under the control of District-Attorney —

Board of Criminal Experts — Save the county

millions of dollars — Cases — An

original classification.

Chapter XIII. Schools Of Crime

How Young Crooks are Educated

Crime both infectious and contagious — Importing crooks —

New York prisons, crime breeders — Modern

Fagins — Breaking up Faginism — Best

remedy morality in the

public schools.

Chapter XIV. Youthful Delinquents And The Children's Court

The cause of temptations — Reasons for children in crime — Evil resorts — Conversations with child criminals — The German boy — The Children's Court — Its origin — Crime among poor children the result of social conditions — Incorrigibles — The good work of the Children's Aid Society — Foolish "coddling" of lawless children.

Chapter XV

THE ROD AS A REFORMATIVE AGENT IN THE EDU- CATION OF YOUTHFUL LAWBREAKERS

A recent ruling on corporal punishment — Favored by best prison reformers — Horace Mann — School Principals and teachers — Supt. Brockway — What they do in England and Germany — Rights of parents — Lawless homes — Crime more demoralizing than pain — An experienced probation officer — What others say.

Chapter XVI. Crime Among Women

(1) The Social Evil. (2) Felonies. (3) The Shoplifter.

Causes of crime among women — Reasons for moral leprosy — The Cadet system — How carried on — Examples — The celestials of Chinatown — Women of the Tombs — Mother Maundelbaum — Queen Bertha— A belle from old Kentucky — Others — The modern shoplifter— Examples.

Chapter XVII. The Steal Or Starve Unfortunates

A great omission — Poverty and social conditions the cause

of crime — The unemployed — Hungry children —

Poverty homes and crime — What ex-convicts

say — Hungry men commit crime to be

sent to prison — Want food.

Chapter XVIII. How Young Men Break Into Prison

Startling facts — Save young men — The way of the transgressor— How young men go down — Example — Percentage of young men — Opinion of Supt. Brockway — Generators of crime — Fast living — Examples— Bad associates- Need of agencies.

Chapter XIX. Our Police Guardians

Prevention better than cure — An experienced Superintendent— Politics the curse of the Department — The Lexow investigations — The single-headed Commissioner— Present standing of the Police — The work of a policeman — The cost of the police for 1909 — General Bingham.

Chapter XX. The Detective Bureau

The Detective Bureau — Early heads — Modern methods — Crime as a science — The Dewey parade — Detectives in disguise — Old world methods — Scotland Yard and French methods — The work of the stool pigeon — Examples.

Chapter XXI. The Rogues' Gallery And The Third Degree

The Gallery — Measurement of crooks— Clippings — Up to

date records — Arrests last year — Curiosities of crime

— Mugging crooks — The third degree, what is

it — Inspector Byrnes and Jake Sharp —

The third degree in Germany.

Chapter XXII. The City Gangs

City gangs for sixty years — Political clans — The Bloody Sixth — The Whyo Gang — How they lived — Relation to crime — Paul Kelly and Monk Eastman Gangs — Their East Side pull.

Page 185 CHAPTER XXIII.

CRIMINAL TRIALS AND THE GLORIOUS UNCERTAINTY OF THE LAW

Noted criminal trials — Catering to depraved tastes — Some great trials — Legal loopholes — Beating the case — Many trials a farce — Swift justice for criminals — Homicide trials — Lax condition of courts — Greasing the machinery of the law — Crooks at the bar of justice — Noted criminal lawyers — Strange sentences— Examples.

Page 190 CHAPTER XXIV.

CRIMINAL BRANCH OF THE SUPREME COURT

The new Constitution — Abolition of the Oyer and Terminer — An exclusively criminal court — The highest Court in the State — Criminal branch of the Supreme Court in session nine months — Cases of great public importance — Narrow margin between civil and criminal law — Dead sympathies — Variety of thinking— Merging the General Sessions.

VIII Chapter XXV

SHARKS AND SHYSTERS OF OUR CRIMINAL COURTS

Fallen on evil days — Robbing clients — Examples — Steerers and policemen — The City and District prisons— Grafting around Courts.

CHAPTER XXVI.

SCENES IN OUR POLICE COURTS

The sorting Criminal Bureau — How crooks are gathered in

the pens — The Magistrates' Court — The shyster and

ward heeler — The power of a pull — Examples —

Mike Maguire — The drunks — Sunday

morning at the Tombs Court — Small

justice — Good Judges.

CHAPTER XXVII.

CROOKED CROOKS IN PRISONS

Crime Committed in Penal Institutions

Brilliant men in prison — Bold crooks — Dr. Robertson's experience with crooks — Shepp of New York — A big undertaking — His success — Counterfeiters in Auburn — Big discovery — Sent to Clinton Prison.

IX Chapter XXVIII

SCENES DURING VISITING HOURS IN THE TOMBS

A polyglot assembly — Many nationalities — Pathetic scene*

— The guilty son — The young woman — Mothers

kneeling — The newsboy — Murderers' Row

— Negroes — Italians — Germans

— The prisoner's plaint.

CHAPTER XXIX.

DOES IMPRISONMENT REFORM?

A hard question — Changing character — Cure for crime — Brooding over the past — Born crooks — Lines of circumvallation — Efforts made to reform — Evolution of prison reform — Needed reforms to-day — The greatest barrier.

CHAPTER XXX.

STRONG DRINK AND CRIME

Personal observations of the effect of strong drink — Close the saloons and you will close the prisons — Moral supineness — A New York expert on murders — The Medical News — Empty jails in Prohibition States.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE ANGELS OF THE TOMBS

The phrase originally given to only two missionary workers— How Mrs. Schaffner became a Tombs Angel — Her work as a missionary — The second Tombs Angel, Mrs. John A. Forster — A night in the Death House — How missionaries are deceived.

CHAPTER XXXII.

■ WEDDINGS OF THE TOMBS

Marriages performed since 1838 — Two kinds, voluntary and

compulsory — One of the earliest marriages —

Married on the train to Sing Sing —

Lawyer Patrick's venture —

Other marriages.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

AFTER SENTENCE, WHAT?

From Tombs to State Prison — English system — Received in prison — Initiation, classification and shops — A prison reformer — What he has done to improve the prisoner's lot — A new discipline— The soul of reformation.

XI Chapter XXXIV

THE INFLICTION OF THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE TOMBS

John C. Colt — A suicide — Hanging day in the Tombs — The

hanging of Harry Carlton — Scenes around

the building — Official list of

the executed.

CHAPTER XXXV.

A VISIT TO THE DEATH HOUSE AT SING SING

A never-to-be-forgotten visit — Supreme Court orders — The

earliest victims — The escape of Pallister

and Roche — What I saw — The men

present — Casconea's

experience.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

A TRAMP COLONY

What shall be done with our tramps? — Organize a colony — How graded — Working on business principles — The cost of such an undertaking — What the French do — Habitual criminals and misdemeanants— How they may be segregated and classified.

XII Chapter XXXVII

THE COST OF CRIME IN GREATER NEW YORK

A staggering question — Rickers Prison — A national waste — careful study of the cost of crime — Crime on the increase — Direct expenditures — Indirect expenditures— Tables showing how money is spent — Criminal loopholes— Results.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE AGE OF GRAFT.

The bane of our municipal government — New York's prosperity— What it cost to run the city — Assessments and commissions — Ancient and modern grafters — Police graft — Fortunes for the few — Various grafting schemes — The new water works.

XIII

A Sunday morning service in the old Tombs prison.

FOREWORD Some Personal Experiences

My first visit to the grim old Tombs Prison was in the early part of 1875. I have never forgotten that visit and the deep impression it left on my mind. The scenes I witnessed that day have come back to me scores of times and I have wished that I had the power to have changed the things I then saw. At any rate, that memorable experience started in my soul a deeper sympathy and pity for erring humanity.

Afterwards I spent much time visiting the old prison, as* I had the opportunity, and I found it a splendid place for the study of human nature, and especially the criminal side of life.

When speaking to New Yorkers of the scenes I had witnessed in this prison, I found them to be densely ignorant of its history and management. Why should they take any interest in the old Tombs? New Yorkers are too busy in commercial pursuits to give much time to such trifles! I found, however, after they were aroused on the subject of abuses they wished to know everything, and they wondered like myself why politics should be allowed to have such a controlling power in the City Prison.

At this time I was a lay missionary. My field of labor was the old "Red Light District." This part of New York was not as densely populated as now. It contained a large number of people, mostly of the thrifty Irish and German class. It had many large tenements which contained from eight to twelve families, which were veritable "bee hives" of the human species.

While visiting, not far from Essex Market Court, a lady informed me that a member of my Sunday School was then in the Tombs, and asked me to go and see him. This was new work for me and I confess, I did not know how to go about it. I called to see the boy's mother, who kept a beer garden in the neighborhood. But I could get nothing out of her, and came away feeling that my labor was all in vain. The woman was so much absorbed in her saloon business and so benumbed and besotted with beer that she seemed devoid of all motherly instinct and feeling. And she seemed not to care the snap of her finger about her boy.

After a good deal of difficulty I made my way to the Boys' Prison in the Tombs, which was in the rear of the building. To my amazement I found a crowd of young thieves and pickpockets huddled together, and this Sunday School lad in the midst. In those days the authorities made no attempt at segregation or discrimination. The boys were all together, cursing and howling like a lot of devils! I was pained beyond measure, and I regret to say when I returned to the City Prison after nearly twenty years, almost the same condition existed. I found the Boys' Prison in a filthy condition — damp and foul, more fit for hogs than human beings, and this besides the continual noises, yelling, howling, cursing, swearing and cat-calls in ten languages!

I made a hurried investigation and saw the authorities, after which the boy was discharged and returned home. He never forgot his experience in that gloomy old prison ! I kept watch of him but I do not think he was ever the same person. Those few days in the Tombs as the companion of thieves and pickpockets not only marred his future life but came near blasting his usefulness forever!

I kept up my interest in the poor, gaunt, ill clad, badly fed and poverty stricken unfortunates of the old Tombs, a large number of whom were criminals simply because of their social conditions and for no other reason. I was a frequent visitor till my graduation from Union Theological Seminary in 1880.

In 1897 I again took up my residence in New York. I felt my interest in prison labors come back with the freshness of youth, and at once gave my Sundays to the prosecution of the work.

I have found that the Boys' Prison has always been the hardest department to manage in the entire Tombs system. Sometimes a keeper was placed in charge who knew how to handle boys. But in later years the conditions were worse than ever. We knew one keeper who was a common scold. He swore at the boys and they swore back at him, using the most vulgar and lurid profanity. Then they would steal from each other, fight among themselves like old time pugilists and they could always depend on outsiders to smuggle in cigarettes and blood curdling dime novels. On account of the lack of discipline, the Boys' Prison became one of the most proficient Schools of Crime. Here they learned to become expert pickpockets under the very nose of the prison authorities!

I have often told my friends when showing them around the building I would rather bury a relative of mine than have him spend a week in this dirty, immoral pest hole. During the past five or six years there has been an average of 75 to 80 boys a day in this prison, and shocking to relate, one-half have frequently to be treated for venereal disease. If you want your boy to be a full-fledged degenerate and outcast send him tc the Tombs Prison, for only a few days, and when he comes out of this School of Crime he will dare anything in the line of criminality!

It is a fact that cannot be denied that in this prison some of the boys plan crime and execute it on the outside. This has been proven scores of times, when these young crooks return to the prison on fresh charges. If you question them they will admit that they received their incentive to do crooked deeds while in the Tombs. Those who are sent to the Protectory and the House of Refuge are seldom improved when they come out. Barney McGill, who had been a lieutenant in the Navy during the Civil War, was one of the best and kindest of keepers. He was in the Department of Corrections for many years and was noted for his outspoken fidelity. While in charge of the Boys' Prison a few years ago, he wore a gold watch and chain exposed to view. Some of the "kids" thought it was a "dead-easy" thing to get Barney's watch. An East Side boy named Mickey Cohen, promised to secure it without much trouble. One morning this young crook called Barney to his cell and said, "Keeper, I want to speak to you. Excuse me, I am afraid to speak loud 'cause if some of dese kids hear it, dey will kill me." "Speak out, my little man," said Barney, "I will see that no one harms you." Then he told Barney a "fake" tale of some boys who intended to escape. While he was doing this he stole Barney's watch, leaving the chain dangle in front of his vest. In half an hour Barney missed his gold watch. After threatening to "kill" a half a dozen of the suspicious crooks, the guilty one confessed. Afterwards the watch was found in the cell mattress.

When Jimmy Hagan was boss of the Tombs he took Billy Evers from Murderers' Row and sent him to the Boys' Prison for some trifling offence. Billy was a good keeper and a favorite among the boys. He had a fatherly way of getting around them and into their affection. He never swore at them! Whenever I made trips to Sing Sing in after years in the interest of the discharged prisoner and met any of the old boys they were sure to ask after Billy Evers.

Then there was Larry Creevy. Some boys were afraid of him but he knew how to keep them in their place. Then there were John O'Conners and Mike Breen, two most excellent keepers. Under John E. Van De Carr, who can truthfully be called the Prince of Wardens, the Boys' Prison was carried on above reproach!

It is needless to say that some of these boys were the children of well-to-do parents who allowed them to be sent to the City Prison for the "scare" it would give them. But it had no apparent effect on most of them. Many times a mother in silks and satins with a full display of jewelry would visit the Prison. One day a mother went to one of the judges to ask clemency for her boy who was up for sentence. The judge was disposed to be lenient with the lad as he was not a thief. But the Court had made inquiry and learned that the parents were more to blame for his downfall than the boy. I was glad the judge spoke as he did, before he got through that mother's face was crimson. "Woman," said the judge, "why don't you look after your boy? You are responsible for his disgrace. You go out at night to the theatre and other social functions, and while you are having a nice time your boy is going to the Devil ! If you promise to stay at home and try and bring up your boy the proper way, I will suspend sentence." She did.

For several years after I went to the Tombs there was a man who acted as school teacher and probation officer, whose vile relations with the boys in his rooms on Chrystie street, was scandalous. Several had confessed to me as well as to Father Smith, the Catholic Priest. As soon as I learned that the shocking information was true, I sent the boys and their parents to Commissioner Hynes, and with the aid of Justice Meyers of Special Sessions he was "bounced." The general opinion at the time was that the brute ought to have been sent to Sing Sing for twenty years. Warden Van De Carr deserved great credit for the help rendered on this occasion. These and similar abuses have been going on in our prisons for years, but no body is willing to stop them or expose them? The present missionary mollycoddles would not dare to speak against them, and as far as the Tombs abuses are concerned the Prison Association has been dumb on these and similar subjects. The courts find it hard to secure the right kind of Probation officers. This is especially true in regard to Boys. A loud mouthed, untruthful grafter should not be allowed to manage boys under any circumstances. There are two notable exceptions, one in Brooklyn and the other in New York — both reliable men, Messrs. Baccus and Kimball.

Chapter I. What I Know About The Tombs

No prison on the American continent has had such an unsavory reputation as a corrupt grafting institution as the New York Tombs. This has been especially true when City politics had decreed it to be in charge of the House of Grafters on Fourteenth Street.

In giving my personal experience of what I have beheld with my own eyes in America's greatest criminal barracks, I do so with the sole object of letting the light in, and making it easier, if possible, for future unfortunates who may be domiciled here for any length of time.

For many years the Tombs Prison has been the happy hunting ground for graft and "rake-offs" of various kinds, given in return for all kinds of privileges. Money has always been used to awaken the darkest passions in man, those who are mad for the "dough" take all kinds of chances to secure it.

To the daily visitor who comes to the City Prison, everything looks beautiful and serene on the outside. But the careful observer sees things in a different light and as he reads between the lines he can detect the spurious from the genuine.

In endeavoring to carry on the work of a prison from a business standpoint we must rid ourselves of everything romantic and deal only with facts and common sense. It is not a pleasant task to expose infamy, no matter where it is found. And you can rest assured that the one who dares do it will be rewarded with invective, abuse and slander. On the other hand, to pass it by without making some effort to change the wretched conditions is cowardly.

The stories told of the abuses of the Tombs seem as strange as the Arabian Nights! But most of them were true and would have made fine reading for the average New Yorker, but graft kept them out of the newspapers and from publicity.

One of the earliest "bombs" that struck the City Prison, was hurled by an inmate named Ruth Howard during the sitting of the Mazet Committee, in 1897-8. The Committee threatened to make an investigation and expose the vile conditions which then existed. In her letter to the Committee, Mrs. Howard describes the place as grossly immoral and, of course, excoriated several of the officials by name. It was the general opinion at the time that if the case had been pushed against these Tammanyites they would soon be wearing striped suits either in Sing Sing or Blackwell's Island. After this the Commissioner refused to allow certain ones to inspect the Women's Prison.

For a number of years charges have been made at various times against the Tombs Prison in general and the Department of Corrections in particular, which many of our City newspapers and a score of criminal lawyers who have come in contact with the conditions have known to be true, but nothing has been done to clean out this sink of iniquity.

Whenever any person has had the courage to call attention to the grafting abuses, common assaults, whiskey and dope smuggling and other unseemly conduct of the Tombs officials, the usual response was "Traitor, humbug, liar," and a volley of anathemas! Such an answer sufficed for the time being. Frequently these officials would resort to a "white wash" paper, signed by missionaries and other hangers-on in the building who would be compelled to affix their names to the document or else be "bounced." It seems to me all such whitewash "buzzards" were no better than the real inmates of the cells!

I recall now when I first went there that there were two Wall Street swindlers in the old Prison who were said to be rich. They had sumptuous privileges. One of these crooks fought for his liberty in the state and federal courts but did not succeed, but as he had the ready cash on hand he found a good cell in the annex. He had everything he desired. The other man who was convicted, but had appealed for a stay, fought against being bled any longer and was removed to an inferior cell. I remember he sent out for reporters that he might give them a tale of oppression, but they were not allowed to see him. The "grafters" told the newspaper men that the fellow was crazy.

In those days some of the abuses were of a gross sensual character and had been going on for years but who would dare speak against them? And so the grafters had everything their own way!

I have nothing but kind words for the excellent work of the Hon. Thomas W. Hynes, who was an ideal Commissioner during the Mayor Low administration. Mr. Hynes was an honest, upright and fair Commissioner and sought in every way to keep his department clean. He removed Warden Flynn and it would have been well if the Courts had left hirn out as he certainly has made a poor Warden.

Whiskey, Gambling asd Other Privileges

When Warden Bissert was an involuntary inmate of the Tombs in the fall of 1901, he had so many privileges and such an old-fashioned good time that many persons rightly concluded that he owned the City Prison. Not only did he eat, drink, smoke the best Havanas and play cards at the Warden's table, but he was allowed to receive from ten to thirty plain clothes policemen as his visitors daily! They had no passes whatever when they came to the Tombs, but these were not necessary. All they were required to say to the gateman was, "We are the Wardman's friends." On Sunday afternoons, when everything was quiet, a woman was allowed to pass through the front gate, enter a cell and be with a prisoner for immoral purposes! The Keeper had orders to allow her pass into the prison. I watched her enter the corner cell in the annex, which had a gas jet, she came every Sunday for weeks and usually stayed an hour. Nor was this an uncommon occurrence. Francis J. Lantry was Commissioner of Corrections, James Hagan, Warden, and William Flynn, the present Warden, was head keeper. Did I speak about it at the time? Certainly. And an investigation was promised but like all of Tammany's investigations it never came!

The city cops that came daily to see the wardman always brought a plentiful supply of whiskey. And judging from the number of empty bottles found around the ten-day house, the quantity consumed on the premises was enormous. And often keepers, "trusties" and prisoners were found more than half drunk.

In these days Joe Williams, ballot-box stuffer, who was afterwards sent to Sing Sing for a term of years, had special privileges. Joe was seldom locked in his cell night or day. Many months afterwards when I personally visited Auburn Prison, I found a man who had been at that time in the "hall" with Williams; he informed him that the reason Williams had so many privileges bestowed on him was on account of being the "graft collector" in the ten-day house.