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Florida’s official reformatory started in 1900, closed down 2011, male offenders housed there called “nickel boys” in a novel about fictional Nickel Academy with the same title.
But they themselves said it was because their lives “were not worth 5 cents.” Because it was a hell-hole for both white and black youths.
The sadistic monsters hired as guards at the place would often take one boy at night to a concrete block building named the White House. There they kicked and beat the helpless kid, tortured, sexually assaulted him and sometimes killed their victim.
Who was then buried in an unmarked grave, the burial grounds separated by race.
If loved ones of the victims appeared asking about their missing child, they were told that the boy had escaped and was no longer there.
Survivors told stories of the midnight terror that threatened them all until finally investigations were made, public hearings held and state autopsy specialists began literally digging up skeletons on the big prison estate.
State to make amends
A ceremony was held at the White House torture chamber and a memorial plaque placed there, recognizing that helpless children were slaughtered inside its walls.
Florida’s legislature finally passed a bill last year that set aside $20 million to be awarded to men who suffered there. The deadline to be considered was the last day of December, just weeks in the past.
Final tally was a total of 800 “nickel boys” who applied for funding.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to participate in granting money to them, many who were imprisoned on minor charges, such as running away from home, not attending school, smoking cigarettes.
Murphy proves dead end
Blain Stalcup was sheriff of Cherokee County in the 1970s and we were friends, as were our daughters. So sometimes I would hang around in the old brick jail building that adjoined the rear of our courthouse, for it also housed the radio dispatcher and I could chase news stories there.
I heard one afternoon that our local deputies had caught three white teenagers in our county, Culberson maybe, in a stolen car that broke down or run out of gas.
Escaped prisoners from a Florida reformatory, they were being brought to our jail here at Murphy for safekeeping. Word had been sent back to their prison unit and guards had been dispatched to return them to it. They were told.
They had to spend a night or two in our jail and during that time one of them, a 16-year-old boy, hanged himself.
Our jailer was a gentle giant who looked after his prisoners and took his job seriously. It broke his heart, and he soon quit the job.
Book, film recognition
Novelist Colson Whitehead wrote a book of historical fiction about the brutal prison, titled it The Nickel Boys, in 2019.
I read it and thought it was great. Was not surprised when it won the Pulitzer Prize the next year.
A movie, with the same title, came out last year.
Did not see the movie, but apparently it, too, was very good.
For the National Society of Film Critics met Jan. 4 and named The Nickel Boys the Best Movie of 2024.
Incidentally, I once hired a drifter to work in our store on Martins Creek, now the new Masonic lodge. Paid him $5 cash an hour to run the place, never missed any money, never heard a cross word.
Jailed on just a domestic violence charge, hanged himself in the Cherokee County Jail. Turned out he was prime suspect in unsolved murder of a girl in backwoods Florida. Thought he was caught.
Wally Avett is a resident of Martins Creek.