San Quentin historian Jeff Craemer grew up in Marin County, looking at San Quentin in the distance.
As a young boy, Craemer watched some of the historic cellblocks being torn down to make way for a new building named the Adjustment Center — a building that would later be the setting of a bloody scene in 1971 — when George Jackson attempted to escape. That day three officers lost their lives, along with two prisoners.
Craemer worked for the Marin Independent Journal at the time of this bloody incident. An incident he remembers well, though not as well as one of his friends, Lt. Richard W. Nelson, who later became an Associate Warden.
“Dick used to turn gray when he told the story about the Jackson incident,” Craemer recalls.
Nelson had to rush to the armory that bloody day. Later he would retell the story as one of San Quentin Museum’s founders, establishing the San Quentin Museum with Craemer in 1993.
Many of the objects in the museum came from former employees and their families, as well as from inside the walls of San Quentin.
“As soon as the word spread, donations came flooding in,” said Craemer.
The museum house displays of firearms used in the prison over the years, including the one Nelson used in the Jackson incident. Some of the contributions the prison made during World War II are also displayed. There is even a model cell from the prison at the museum.
One of the strangest objects in the museum is a noose. Craemer tells the story of Rattlesnake James, the last man hanged at San Quentin in the 1930s. The noose in the museum was the same one used to hang Rattlesnake James.
According to historical records, James attempted to kill one of his wives by sticking her foot in a box with a rattlesnake. She was bit, but when she did not die quickly enough, he decided to drown her instead, thus earning him a nickname and a death sentence. James was the last person sentenced in California to hang to death in a time when the gas chamber was already in use.
The gas chamber is another story altogether. A man named Robert Wells help build the gas chamber in 1938 during a brief stint in San Quentin from 1938 to 1941. Once Wells returned to society, he killed his brother, sister-in-law and her friend because they broke up an incestuous relationship between him and his half-sister. Wells ended up being executed in the very gas chamber he helped build.
These are just a few of the stories Craemer tell museumvisitors.
The museum has gone through some rough times in the past, but in the last two years, Craemer has kept regular hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Craemer gets many requests for records from people tracing their genealogy.
“People want to know about their crazy Uncle Jack that may have done time here, or one of their relatives that worked here in the past,” he said. This keeps Craemer busy digging through old prison archives.
During one of these searches, he came across the name Hennery Plummer. The name sounded familiar to him, and from the two pages of prison records he started with, he ended up accumulating a stack of papers two to three inches thick.
Plummer was a Sheriff in Nevada City in the late 1800s and ended up being convicted of the murder of a rival. During his incarceration in San Quentin, he contracted tuberculosis and received a medical pardon. Later, Plummer ended up in Montana and landed a job as a marshal.
“They must not have done background checks back then,” says Craemer, with a chuckle.
One can tell that Craemer has an affinity for history.
While working at the Marin Independent Journal on August 7, 1970, Craemer witnessed what would later be known as the Marin County courthouse incident. Jonathan Jackson, attempting to free his brother George, took over a courtroom in Marin County.
Jonathan smuggled three guns that belonged to Angela Davis, a former UCLA professor and political activist, into the courtroom during the trial of San Quentin inmate James McClain. McClain was on trial for the stabbing of a prison guard while serving a sentence for burglary.
Jonathan and his confederates demanded safe passage from the courtroom to a rented Ford panel truck that was waiting to take them to freedom. To ensure this safe passage, they taped a shotgun around the neck of Judge Harold Haley.
A shootout ensued, leaving four men dead, including Jonathan and Judge Haley.
“I remember being in the newsroom that day, and seeing two of our photographers rush out to cover the story,” said Craemer.
One of the photographers was Jim Kean, a lifelong friend of Judge Haley. Kean watched his friend lose his life that day. When Kean returned to the newsroom to develop the film that would later be plastered across papers nationwide, Craemer watched him cry.
That day remains sharply in focus in Craemer’s mind to this day. “It is a moment that will forever be in his mind,” says Craemer. Through links like this, Craemer has himself become a part of San Quentin’s history.
