My Personal Gatesville State School for Boys Ghost Story

In October of 1976 I found myself back at Terrace dorm 4 contemplating how I would get back to the free world faster than what my caseworker’s plans were. I decided to go out the cloths room window during shower time. That night Booboo, a floater was our dorm man and it was movie night for the level 3’s so they would be off the dorm. I can’t remember Booboo’s real name, he didn’t like being called Booboo and would put some hurt on you if he caught you. While Booboo was in the bunk room shuckin and jivin under the guise of coordinating showers, I used a pillow to muffle the sound and broke the window in the clothes room. When I had as clear a jiggers as it was going to get I was out the window and gone.


I had trash bags for my feet to throw off my scent to the dogs. I started feeling pretty good about my run that it would be a success as the sound of the dogs faded. There was a full moon that night and it was getting a little chilly as the night wore on.

I began to hear sounds that sounded like a Boy Scout camp out. I saw what appeared to be a campfire with several boys dressed in blue jeans and white T shirts shooting marbles. As I got closer I thought they were on a run from another school and felt safe enough to light a fire. When I got closer and called out, they were gone, just like that.

Needless to say the run wasn’t a success and my caseworker Jenson had his usual cunt attitude about the whole thing and left me in CIC, lockup, until January. I thought the ghost stories told by those people down there were to keep us from running. They were real, I saw them. Mayberry, who used to hold Terrace dorm 5 was now working CIC. He knew all about the ghost and other weird shit like the goat man. The jeans and t-shirt style was the state issue of an earlier time. A 60’s era Gatesville. And marbles, who would have thought.

Every October when the moon is full I think about those boys, the ones who never went home. One day, God willing, their bones will be discovered and their souls can get closure.

Protest March to Austin

I remember in 1975 some of the older boys, the II and III timers who were at Valley, Hackberry, and Riverside at the time spun stories about a group of boys who were going to march to Austin in protest of the horrible conditions. It was widely known and respected by the state boys of my time. Never referred to as a Geronimo.


According to Dr Bush’s research, he talks about a riot that took place Labor Day morning 1971, the day before the start of Morales vs. Truman court proceedings. That previous July there was a letter sent to every inmate at Gatesville, Mountain View, and Gainesville from Judge William Wayne Justice explaining that tyc was on trial and to please fill out the attached survey. The story tells of a group of about 90 boys at Sycamore School gathered on the athletic field around breakfast, then marched off campus. Guards attempted to block but the boys laughed at them and kept on going. News reporters and TV cameras showed up just as security, the local enforcers, and the High Way Patrol put down the protest. It lasted all morning and marked the beginning of the end.

State Boys who participated in that protest sent a tremendous message. Anyone out there who remembers this event be sure to leave a comment.

The State of Texas as Parent

Book Web Site

I recently attended a panel discussion at the capital in Austin during the book fair with same title as this article. I wanted to meet the historian Dr Bush who was one of the panelists. Bush has done extensive research for his book that chronicles cycles of scandal, reform, and retrenchment in the Texas Youth commission. Sherry Matthews, author of We Were Not Orphans was another panelist. Both spent time discussing the abuse issues that plagued the Waco State Home and Gatesville State School for Boys. At one point in the discussion Matthews made a statement about how the kids are looked upon in many cases by staff and politicians as having mental issues but after all her research she has come to the conclusion that it is the staff who gravitate to these jobs with the mental issues. This received applause and cheers from a relatively packed chamber room.

The moderator, Michele Deitch, pointed out the coincidence of having the panel discussion in a chamber where many discussions regarding the most recent fate of tyc had been held.

The take away I received from the discussion was the entrenched culture of what could be called state sponsored child abuse in state schools/homes can’t be fixed. There is absolutely nothing that can be done, no matter how many well intended hours are spent by qualified individuals tasked with reforming these places. The people of Gatesville were so bad, apparently our legislators  thought they weren’t good for anything else but abusive penal work. Evidence the growth of facility’s out there in the last 30 years. The old buildings and land were turned over to tdc where the indigenes could continue to profit on the miseries of others, a local custom started in 1888.Who knows what secrets lie buried out there.


I found it very informative. The best part was getting to meet Dr Bush and have him personally autograph a copy of his book. Thank you Dr Bush for being a voice.

School Staff Very Good At Producing Young Men With Authority Issues

I just recently discovered that one of my dorm mates was gunned downed by police officers. Roger was a big guy from Houston Texas with a big heart and a very mild disposition. After I had left he got into some issues with staff and was sent to Mountain View, which in the final days of boys inhabiting the schools the boys who pissed off staff were housed at Hackberry.

Apparently Roger had escaped from Coffield unit and made it to Colorado where he was murdered, in what appears to me from the video, cold blood by local authorities. I’m certainly not condoning the acts Roger committed that took him from nice 15 year old kid seeking help from the state school in 1976 into this escaped mad man of 1988. However this graphic video highlights how incredibly well our old school was at turning relatively nice kids who came there in need of help into people who have issues with authority and in many cases are not fit to live in polite society. I don’t think any of us former students would be surprised how many of our school mates went on to prison or were murdered by authority’s. I say murdered because many graduates of gssb and tyc in general really never had a chance indifferent of the crimes they went on to commit. It was foolish for people in our home counties to think those monsters in gatesville could help a kid and the same holds true today for our state’s juvenile agency.

RIP Roger, when I knew you, you were a decent human being. A real shame what happened to all involved. It’s my opinion tyc is indirectly responsible for the mayhem in this video.

Some Thing’s Change But The Attitude of Staff Towards Inmates Remain The Same.

Much of our old school has become known as the Crain unit and even though some things change much of what is etched in our memories remain the same. Many of you who were there during the Morales v Turman lawsuit remember how troubled the staff was about being told they couldn’t beat state boys anymore. Well the thugs of gatesville got a reprieve when the boys were moved out and the state had tdc move in the ladies. A widely held suspicion was due to fear of developers digging up bodies of boys in unmarked graves. However the generational curse placed upon that backwoods town for its abuse of children was all set to continue on for the towns indigenous species through the abuse of the female inmates. After all people in a town whose existence was based on the blood of children, need a steady crop of helpless human beings to abuse to feel better about themselves in their own miserable lives. So the legacy of gatesville continues from the abuse of children and orphans to ladies and widows.

I remember the plumbing being an issue in the 70’s and today the ladies have to go to a “shower house” at the schools like Terrace. The old woodshop has been turned into a visitors area and they wrapped a fence around the schools. The buildings built in the 50’s and 60’s were of poor quality constructions and the place seems very dilapidated today. If it weren’t for the fear of what might be dug up around that place and the need to provide victims for the indigenous I’m sure our states leaders would like the horror story of our old sate school to be bulldozed away.

Gas for round trip to visit inmate at Christina Crain Unit $25.00
Quarters for vending machine to feed starved inmate $20.00
Lunch on the way home (Not in gatesville) $10.00
Look of sheer terror on various CO’s face when inquiring about a former state boy reunion to be held in town. Priceless!

So what’s in a name change???

The state of Texas must feel that when an agency goes rouge it can simply change its name to protect the states perpetrators. Texas legislators have made it a practice to change the name of the state youth corrections agency when the public is made aware of what really goes on behind their walls, and how far up the chain of command this knowledge is known. According to this link,

In 1919 the 36th Legislature created the Texas State Board of Control (Senate Bill 147, Regular Session). The legislation directed the Board of Control to take over management of the state juvenile training school, abolishing the Board of Trustees. The school was renamed the Gatesville State School for Boys in 1939. In 1949, the State Youth Development Council (later named the Texas Youth Council) took over management of the school (House Bill 705, 51st Legislature, Regular Session).

Well State Boys with this latest tyc scandal the agency will have yet another name change. The previously known Texas Youth counsel, formally known as the Texas Youth commission will be known on 12/01/2011 as the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. 120+ years of state sponsored child abuse and covered till the next big public scandal, uh I mean “name change”.

In 1971 a class-action lawsuit was brought against the Texas Youth Council on behalf of juvenile defenders (Morales vs. Turman). This led to sweeping changes in the Texas juvenile justice system. The presiding federal judge, Judge William Wayne Justice, ordered the closing of the state schools at Gatesville (boys) and Gainesville (girls). The Gatesville State School for Boys closed in 1979. The Texas Youth Commission (Texas Youth Council was renamed the Texas Youth Commission in 1983) today manages several facilities throughout the state for juvenile offenders.

And many of you comment about the times leading up to this classic law suit that changed the name from the Texas Youth counsel to the Texas Youth commission.

 

The Little Boys

In the 1880 the Texas state prison had an interesting problem, what to do with the convicts to sick, lame or old to work in the convict leasing farms. Prison officials figured they could make as much per convict with state run farms then lease farms. They did, $500.00 per convict verse $175.00 per convict lease annually. So good was the profit in 1877 Texas Legislators agreed to purchase more land for state run farms and one of the first purchases was outside of Gatesville. The surveyor reported back to Austin; it’s a most beautiful valley suitable for raising cotton and food crops and the town is eager to supply workers. August 30 1887 a story in the Dallas Morning News “Gatesville Triumph, Reformatory for vicious boys to open”. Right from the start the reform school was stigmatized with vicious boys who will provide free farm labor for the state and surrounding farms. A far cry from what the Victorian reformers had in mind.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatesville_State_School
After 90 years of scandal the doors finely shut on Gatesville’s house of pain and the facility was turned over to the Texas Department of Corrections. Today TDCJ houses female offenders in our old schools and among the well known stories that are told; the spirits of the little boys who are still there.
http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/mediasvc/connections/SeptOct2005/features3_v13no1.html
So common is the talk of the essence of former inmates of that place, the Little Boys, that while visiting a female offender, she turned to the guard walking by, and referred to me as one of the little boys. The look on the guards face and her response said it all. The guard responded, we all know how rough it was for you, it appears you are doing all right?” There I was, in the converted bunk room of dorm 10 at Mountain View, a living member of a legacy etched in the prison lore of Christina Crain Unit, a member of Gatesville’s Little Boys.