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On a cold February day in 1916, subscribers to the Idaho Statesman woke up to a chilling image. The headline read, “MOTHER PARTS FROM BABE AT PRISON GATE.”
The stacked headlines, common in the day, told the worst of the story:
“Leaves Infant at Children’s Home While She Serves in Penitentiary”
“NO PRISON ACCOMMODATION”
Then, the zinger:
“Governor Vetoed Appropriation to Provide
Addition Women’s Ward.”
If you didn’t have the gist after four headlines, the article started with, “A pathetic scene was enacted at the Childrens’ Home Funding Society Friday afternoon when a sobbing little woman parted with her two-months-old babe, leaving the infant in the dainty basinet (sic) in the nursery of the Childrens’ home, while the mother was taken to the penitentiary where the prison gates closed behind her for a period of not less than six months and not more than five years.”
Prison Warden Snook added a little color to the story. “Had we had any kind of quarters for women at the penitentiary I should have permitted the mother to have her babe, but we have just one room and in this room are five women. Two of them are diseased…”
The headcount was important. Governor Moses Alexander—better known as the nation’s first practicing Jewish governor than for any ill will toward women—had made the small number of women in prison the point of his vetoing a bill that would have added more room to the penitentiary’s tiny women’s ward. When he used his rubber veto stamp, only three women were in prison. He could not foresee there being any more, so he deemed the facility adequate.
The original story appeared on the 19th, a Saturday. Cue the outrage. The next story came out in the Statesman the following Wednesday, informing readers that Mamie Ross, of Albion had picked up her child—now just one month old, according to the paper—and taken a train back home. The governor had received a little pressure and had the woman released.
It all happened so fast that readers were barely catching up. You may feel a bit behind, too. Why was she arrested in the first place? What kind of cruel judge would sentence a darling young woman to prison when she had a (now) two-week old baby to care for?
Mrs. Ross, in her story, was the innocent victim of a couple of her sons who had just lately strayed from the straight and narrow. Those loving sons brought their Mormon mother some presents. She had no idea from whence they came. Albion likely didn’t have bus service then, but Mamie quickly tossed her progeny under a metaphorical one.
Mamie Ross said, “We had never been in any trouble before, and when the officers asked me if I received the articles, I said I had, for my son and stepson brought them to the house and gave them to me. My husband was not even at home at the time it happened, yet we have both had to pay the penalty for what the boys did. It has been a terrible lesson to them, not only to suffer for what they did, but to see us suffer also, when they knew we were innocent.”
As public support swayed in the direction of Mamie Ross, ripped from her loving home by thugs in uniform, the local sheriff made public the circumstances of her arrest. Her home was a rented shack, 8x14 feet, in which 10 Ross family members lived. Many of them were suffering from a “loathsome” disease.
Law enforcement considered the family a gang of thieves. The sheriff said, “Mrs. Ross knew what was going on. She did her utmost to throw us off the scent when we were hunting for stolen goods. Even the bed on which her two youngest children lay contained a quantity of stolen goods. There were bolts of stolen cloth between the mattress and the springs, and other stolen goods concealed about the bed.”
Mamie, her husband Daniel, and their son, J.D., were each sentenced to six months to five years when they pleaded guilty to receiving a wagonload of goods stolen from a store by Lee Ross, another son, and Orville Duncan, Mamie’s son, from a prior marriage. Duncan and Lee Ross got sentences of from one to 15 years.
The judge in the case, William A. Babcock, of Twin Falls, had asked during her trial if Mamie should be put on parole, given her status as the mother of young children. Cassia County officials insisted that “she was the brains of the crowd and the instigator of the whole affair.”
Mamie probably holds Idaho’s record for the shortest prison term. The rest of her family/gang didn’t stay in much longer. Their booking photos, sentences, and release dates are listed below. All were booked on 2-17-1916.
On a cold February day in 1916, subscribers to the Idaho Statesman woke up to a chilling image. The headline read, “MOTHER PARTS FROM BABE AT PRISON GATE.”
The stacked headlines, common in the day, told the worst of the story:
“Leaves Infant at Children’s Home While She Serves in Penitentiary”
“NO PRISON ACCOMMODATION”
Then, the zinger:
“Governor Vetoed Appropriation to Provide
Addition Women’s Ward.”
If you didn’t have the gist after four headlines, the article started with, “A pathetic scene was enacted at the Childrens’ Home Funding Society Friday afternoon when a sobbing little woman parted with her two-months-old babe, leaving the infant in the dainty basinet (sic) in the nursery of the Childrens’ home, while the mother was taken to the penitentiary where the prison gates closed behind her for a period of not less than six months and not more than five years.”
Prison Warden Snook added a little color to the story. “Had we had any kind of quarters for women at the penitentiary I should have permitted the mother to have her babe, but we have just one room and in this room are five women. Two of them are diseased…”
The headcount was important. Governor Moses Alexander—better known as the nation’s first practicing Jewish governor than for any ill will toward women—had made the small number of women in prison the point of his vetoing a bill that would have added more room to the penitentiary’s tiny women’s ward. When he used his rubber veto stamp, only three women were in prison. He could not foresee there being any more, so he deemed the facility adequate.
The original story appeared on the 19th, a Saturday. Cue the outrage. The next story came out in the Statesman the following Wednesday, informing readers that Mamie Ross, of Albion had picked up her child—now just one month old, according to the paper—and taken a train back home. The governor had received a little pressure and had the woman released.
It all happened so fast that readers were barely catching up. You may feel a bit behind, too. Why was she arrested in the first place? What kind of cruel judge would sentence a darling young woman to prison when she had a (now) two-week old baby to care for?
Mrs. Ross, in her story, was the innocent victim of a couple of her sons who had just lately strayed from the straight and narrow. Those loving sons brought their Mormon mother some presents. She had no idea from whence they came. Albion likely didn’t have bus service then, but Mamie quickly tossed her progeny under a metaphorical one.
Mamie Ross said, “We had never been in any trouble before, and when the officers asked me if I received the articles, I said I had, for my son and stepson brought them to the house and gave them to me. My husband was not even at home at the time it happened, yet we have both had to pay the penalty for what the boys did. It has been a terrible lesson to them, not only to suffer for what they did, but to see us suffer also, when they knew we were innocent.”
As public support swayed in the direction of Mamie Ross, ripped from her loving home by thugs in uniform, the local sheriff made public the circumstances of her arrest. Her home was a rented shack, 8x14 feet, in which 10 Ross family members lived. Many of them were suffering from a “loathsome” disease.
Law enforcement considered the family a gang of thieves. The sheriff said, “Mrs. Ross knew what was going on. She did her utmost to throw us off the scent when we were hunting for stolen goods. Even the bed on which her two youngest children lay contained a quantity of stolen goods. There were bolts of stolen cloth between the mattress and the springs, and other stolen goods concealed about the bed.”
Mamie, her husband Daniel, and their son, J.D., were each sentenced to six months to five years when they pleaded guilty to receiving a wagonload of goods stolen from a store by Lee Ross, another son, and Orville Duncan, Mamie’s son, from a prior marriage. Duncan and Lee Ross got sentences of from one to 15 years.
The judge in the case, William A. Babcock, of Twin Falls, had asked during her trial if Mamie should be put on parole, given her status as the mother of young children. Cassia County officials insisted that “she was the brains of the crowd and the instigator of the whole affair.”
Mamie probably holds Idaho’s record for the shortest prison term. The rest of her family/gang didn’t stay in much longer. Their booking photos, sentences, and release dates are listed below. All were booked on 2-17-1916.
Mamie Ross, sentenced to 6 months to five years, was released after 4 days in prison on 2-23-1916 and pardoned on 12-21-1916.
Daniel Ross, Mamie’s husband, was sentenced to 6 months to five years, paroled on 9-6-1916.
Duncan Ross, son of Daniel and Mamie, was sentenced to 1 to 15 years and pardoned on 8-1-1917.
Lee Ross, son of Daniel and Mamie, was sentenced to 1 to 15 years and paroled on 88-8-1916.
J.D. Ross, son of Daniel and stepson of Mamie, was sentenced to 6 months to 5 years and paroled on 9-6-1916.
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