Prison History
Over its one-hundred and one years of operation, the penitentiary received more than 13,000 inmates, with a maximum population of a little over six-hundred. Two-hundred and fifteen of the inmates were women. Two famous inmates were Harry Orchard and Lyda Southard. Harry Orchard assassinated Governor Frank Steunenberg at the turn of the 20th century and Lyda Southard was known as Idaho's Lady Bluebeard for killing several of her husbands to collect upon their life insurance. Two serious riots occurred in 1971 and 1973 over living conditions in the prison. The 416 resident inmates were moved to a modern penitentiary south of Boise and the Old Idaho Penitentiary was closed on December 3, 1973.
In 1992, the Idaho State Historical Society recorded oral history interviews with fifteen former prison guards. These tapes and transcripts cover prison operations and remembrances from the 1950s to the closing of the prison. The collection is open for research at the society.
The prison has been featured on the television series Ghost Adventures.
Read more about this topic: Old Idaho State Penitentiary
Famous quotes containing the words prison and/or history:
“Anyone who has been to an English public school will always feel comparatively at home in prison. It is the people brought up in the gay intimacy of the slums ... who find prison so soul-destroying.”
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“These anyway might think it was important
That human history should not be shortened.”
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