The Old Clay County Jail in Green Cove Springs, Florida was built in 1894 and is the second oldest, still standing jail in the state. Constructed of one-foot-thick red brick walls, there are sixteen (16) jail cells in various sizes with a Maximum-Security wing upstairs. The Pauly Jail Company built the jail, which is still in business today. A year before the Old Clay County Jail was built, they built the Old Hamilton County Jail in Jasper, Florida. The jail held men, women, juveniles, and the mentally ill. There were seven executions on site between 1894 and 1916. All were conducted on a scaffold by hanging. The giant oak trees on the lawn were saplings then, and not used for executions.
The jailers and their families lived in the building’s section that is now the Clay County Historical Archives. Several children were born here, including Jerri Knight Williams, the first female mayor of Green Cove Springs. Her father was Will Knight, Chief Deputy for Sheriff John P. Hall. The Hinson brothers grew up in the jail and later became state death row prison guards. The Archives Reading Room was once the booking/dispatch room, and the Archives Specialist’s office was the jailer’s bedroom. The jail’s red brick exterior was painted white in 1963, however the red brick showed through the white paint, making the jail appear pink. The sheriff had it repainted several times over to conform with other buildings in the courthouse complex.
The prisoners were fed a decent meal with fresh vegetables, eggs, meat, and coffee prepared by the jailer’s wife. Despite proper meals, the Old Clay County Jail was nowhere anyone wished to be. Behind the jail was a small sweat box reserved for troublemakers. Prisons once used this archaic punishment technique as a method of solitary confinement. There was no air conditioning and little ventilation in the sweltering summer months, combined with disease and the cries from the mentally ill, made conditions hard to tolerate for most inmates.
Throughout the decades, there were several documented escapes and attempted escapes from the jail. In August 1938, three prisoners escaped by sawing through the bars. Deputy Sheriff W. L. Knight listed the fugitives as Gene Todd, sentenced to 4 months for carrying a concealed weapon; Henry Bell, awaiting trial on a charge of cattle theft; and George B. Masser, awaiting trial on a forgery charge. In August 1958, George E. Austin, a 27-year-old from Jacksonville, was being held on a charge of drunkenness. He spent several hours arranging his escape. When he finally sawed away two bars in his cell and slid to the ground on a blanket-sheet rope, waiting officers hustled him off to a maximum-security cell.
In July 1963, two escapees from the state prison camp at Doctor’s Inlet were captured and brought to the Clay County Jail. Roy Yates Jr., a 20-year-old from Crestview, serving 7 years for breaking and entering, and Joseph T. Tindall, a 24-year-old from Ocala, serving 5 years for larceny, ran away from the road maintenance detail. On August 1, 1963, the duo escaped from the Clay County Jail after they pried open their cell and assault jailer John Cercy with a piece of an automobile leaf spring. They stole $300 from Cercy and fled. Officers found tracks crossing U.S. Hwy 17 and the two men were soon captured without resistance. Cercy had three deep gashes in his scalp and was taken to the hospital where he was listed in satisfactory condition. On Monday, August 5, 1963, both prisoners pled guilty to the charges of assault and robbery, and both received an additional 30 years added to their state prison sentences.
The following year, in 1964, Billy Joe Krebb was being held at the Clay County Jail. He fabricated a key out of a spoon and let himself and the other prisoners out of their cells. However, the make-shift key did not work for the main front door of the jail, so the would-be escapees were stuck, and placed back in their cells.
The Old Clay County Jail remained in service until 1972. The 1963 escape was one of the reasons local funding for a modern jail was approved. Nationally, a prison construction boom took place in the 1970s and 1980s along with widespread prison reforms. Today, the Old Clay County Jail is the home of the Clay County Archives and Historical Resource Center. Over the years, there have been a number of rumors claiming the old jail is haunted. Local paranormal investigators claim to have consistently recorded electronic voice phenomena (EVP) in the empty cells. These investigators tell of voices, footsteps, shuffling of feet, and the sound of cell doors creaking open. Their cameras have also caught unexplained apparitions and photographs show unexplained anomalies. The building garnered so much attention that The Syfy channel’s Ghost Hunters series filmed an episode in the jail and in the 1890s courthouse.
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