Lewis Edward Lawes (September 13, 1883 – April 23, 1947) was a prison warden and a proponent of prison reform. During his 21-year tenure at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, he supervised the executions of 303 prisoners.

Biography

Lawes was born on September 13, 1883 in

Elmira, New York Elmira () is a city and the county seat of Chemung County, New York, United States. It is the principal city of the Elmira, New York, metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses Chemung County. The population was 26,523 at the 2020 cens ...

. He was the only child of Henry Lewis Lawes (died 1925) and Sarah Abbott. His father worked as a prison guard at the New York State Reformatory, now called the Elmira Correctional Facility. Lawes ran away at 17 and joined the United States Coast Artillery. Afterwards, he worked at an insurance company before beginning his prison career as a guard at Clinton Prison in

Dannemora, New York Dannemora is a town in Clinton County, New York, United States. The population was 4,898 at the 2010 census. The town is named after Dannemora, Sweden, an important iron-mining region. The town of Dannemora contains a village also called Danne ...

on March 1, 1905. On September 30, 1905, he married Katherine Stanley. He subsequently worked at first Auburn Prison, then

Elmira Reformatory Elmira Correctional Facility, also known as "The Hill," is a maximum security state prison located in Chemung County, New York, in the City of Elmira. It is operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. T ...

. In March 1915 he was named Superintendent of the City Reformatory on Hart Island in New York City. Lawes became warden of the Massachusetts State Prison in 1918. New York Governor

Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928. The son of an Irish-American mother and a C ...

asked him to take over as Warden of Sing Sing. Lawes took charge on January 1, 1920. He was featured on the cover and in an article of '' Time'' magazine issue of November 18, 1929. His wife, Kathryn (1887-1937), died on October 31, 1937 at Ossining Hospital after she fell at the Cortlandt, New York end of the Bear Mountain Bridge. The heel of her shoe was caught between two boards and it caused her to fall and break her leg. She wasn't found until nighttime and she died from hypothermia. He remained at his post as Warden of Sing Sing for twenty-one years, instituting reforms, until he retired on July 16, 1941. He was replaced by

Robert J. Kirby Robert John Kirby (October 20, 1889 – January 15, 1944) was the Warden of Sing Sing prison from 1941 until 1944. Highly regarded for his integrity, Kirby brought respect back to the administration of Sing Sing, and order to the prison after the o ...

. Lawes became the president of the Boy Rangers of America in 1941. Lawes died of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

on April 23, 1947 at age 63 in Garrison, New York. He was interred at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Writings

Lawes wrote several books. Several of his works were made into films. His most famous book, ''Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing'', was made into a 1932 movie under the same title, starring Spencer Tracy, and again in 1940 as '' Castle on the Hudson'', featuring John Garfield. '' Over the Wall'' was produced in 1938 based on the life of one of his inmates,

Alabama Pitts Edwin Collins "Alabama" Pitts Jr. (November 22, 1909 – June 7, 1941) was an American convicted felon who garnered media attention in his attempt to play professional baseball after his release from Sing Sing prison. While serving five years for ...

. '' Invisible Stripes'' in 1939, with

George Raft George Raft (born George Ranft; September 26, 1901 – November 24, 1980) was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is ...

, was based on his novel of the same name, while

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...

starred in '' You Can't Get Away with Murder'' in 1939, an adaptation of ''Chalked Out'', a play Lawes co-wrote. His papers are archived in the Special Collections of the Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

References

External links

* *
Lewis E. Lawes Papers (1883–1947)
(finding aid); collection housed in Lloyd Sealy Library Special Collections, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Photographs from the Lewis E. Lawes Papers (digitized)
in the Lloyd Sealy Library Digital Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Lawes, Lewis 1883 births 1947 deaths American prison officers Penal system in New York (state) Penologists Wardens of Sing Sing Burials at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery People from Elmira, New York People from Ossining, New York People from Garrison, New York Elmira Correctional Facility 20th-century American male writers