Who Was Inmate Dan Tso-Se?

At age 13, Dan Tso-Se (b. abt. 1896-?) was probably one of the youngest inmates in prison during this time period in the United States. So who was inmate Dan Tso-Se?

Dan arrived at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas on June 21, 1909, found guilty of manslaughter for killing four people. Dan’s intake record shows that he is 5 feet, ¾-inches tall, and weighs 98-pounds. He cannot speak or understand English and his ears are pierced. He is also listed, probably mistakenly, as age seven. He lists his parents as dead, making Dan Tso-se an orphan.

A poignant statement is found on Dan’s 1913 Trusty Prisoner’s Agreement that reads:

“It was alleged that in November 1908 in New Mexico I killed four men whose names I do not remember. I was only 13 years old at the time and these men were continually mistreating and whipping me. I had no one to look after me, being an orphan. I plead guilty.”

It is noted on Dan’s intake record that he “cannot speak or understand English” so this Trusty Prisoner Agreement must have been made a few years after his arrival in Federal prison.

A Murder Mystery

At some point in this young man’s incarceration, he must have asked about the whereabouts of his sister and family. A letter from W. T. Shelton, Superintendent of the San Juan School of Shiprock, New Mexico to United States Marshall J. H. Anderson of Salt Lake City, Utah from 1910 reads:

“I am in receipt of your letter dated Dec. 28, 1909, asking for the whereabouts of Dan-Tso-se’s sister and other kinsfolk. In reply, I have to say that unfortunately, Dan killed his sister and two or three of his kinsfolk. He has a brother in this school by the name of Tony Tso-se. I will make further inquiry of his kinfolk.”

This letter is forwarded to Warden R. W. McLaughrey who, in turn, was asked to give the letter to young Dan.

So, did Dan Tso-se kill his sister and other members of his family? Or did he kill “four men whose names I do not remember?” There is a big discrepancy here. It is also interesting to note that Dan writes to Mr. Shelton at least twice during his incarceration. (We don’t know what the correspondence content was but there is a log of all letters in and out of the prison to Dan.)

Youthful Offender

An examination of Dan’s disciplinary record while in prison shows the antics of someone who is still quite childlike. For example:

Nov. 15, 1909: Breaking dishes. This prisoner broke a number of bowls by carelessly running the truck which he was pushing against the table. (Dan broke a lot of dishes and has several disciplinary notes regarding this subject.)

Dec. 27, 1901: Vulgarity. This prisoner was kicking up his heels and blowing with his mouth imitating breaking wind in a loud, boisterous, vulgar way…

Oct. 9, 1911: Skylarking with [inmate] #7656. This prisoner was wrestling and also laughing with [inmate] #7556 around the dining room, taking advantage of the guard's absence…

Oct. 29, 1912: Failing to obey orders. This man has been instructed time again not to put any dirty rags under the dining room tables but is still keeping them there.

It is interesting to note that Dan receives no disciplinary write-ups from October 30, 1912, until his release on March 7, 1916. Perhaps Dan matures a bit in these four years.

Feral Child Myth

Contrary to articles written about Dan Tso-Se, he was not raised in the wild and he was able to speak. However, he was unable to speak English when he was sent to Leavenworth. A memo shows that Dan sent a letter to his brother in New Mexico using the Navajo language.

At Dan’s trial in Salt Lake City, there is a brief report from June 18, 1909, in The Standard of Ogden Utah that reads in part: “The boy came into the courtroom dressed in an old pair of overalls, and an old khaki colored canvas coat. His long straight hair fell around his ears and well into his neck, and as he took his seat in the courtroom and looked toward the judge he seemed to be absolutely free from any realization of the heinousness of his crime.”

And… “He was to all intents and purposes a wild boy of the hills, and as such, he excited sympathy from all present. The boy stated to the district attorney that he had never received any kindness from anyone excepting a brother and a sister. The hand of everyone else, he intimated, had been against him. If he did not do as he was told he was beaten and ill-treated. As he told his story he shed tears, which showed some susceptibility.

The myth of Dan Tso-Se as a feral, nature boy seems to come in part from a sensationalized article from the Deseret Evening News, December 28, 1909, that is deemed important enough to be tucked into his prison records online. In part, the article reads,

“Under the influence of discipline and surroundings at Leavenworth prison, to which he was sent last summer for shooting four relatives in the extreme southeastern part of Utah, an Indian boy, Dan Tsose, has undergone a remarkable change. When he was in Salt Lake City, and appeared before the United States district court for the sentence he was clad in worn and old overalls, and a shirt that appeared as if it had never been washed, and his long and unkempt hair and apparent nonchalance of the seriousness of the crime, evoked feelings of sympathy for the child of nature, whose angry passion lead him, childlike, to take summary vengeance on those whom he thought unkind to him.”

The End of Dan

Dan is released in 1916 and seems to disappear. A letter from the warden to Charles E. Dagenett in February says that Dan wants to go to the Arapahoe Indian Agency in Wyoming. A letter to the Warden of Leavenworth from C. H. Asbury, Special Agent in Charge, in Fort Washakie, Wyoming, says that Dan went to New Mexico after prison but was not welcomed there. Does this add credence to the notion that Dan had committed a horrible crime? Searches in subsequent census reports from 1920 and 1930 reveal no more mentions of young Dan Tso-se, perhaps one of the youngest people ever sent to Leavenworth Federal Prison.

You may read the inmate file of Dan Tso-Se at the US National Archives here.

Who Was Prisoner Hyman Polski?

“The war on alcohol in the 1920s and the war on drugs of the ’70s and ’80s are symbiotic campaigns. The initial edifice of the war on drugs was built with similar logic, the same cast of characters, and some of the initial infrastructure that came out of the war on alcohol.”

~ Lisa McGirr

This is the story of Hyman Polski (1885-1939), merchant, husband, father, and resident of Minnesota, USA. Mr. Polski was born Chaim Krasnopolski about 1885, a Russian Jew who immigrated to the United States around 1905. In 1927, Mr. Polski is sentenced to two years at the Federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, for Conspiracy to Violate the Prohibition Act-- Mr. Polski is a moonshiner who was caught with storage tanks of alcohol and a still operation in a barn in Minnesota. According to the record in the district court:

“...did feloniously have in their possession and under their control, a certain still and distilling apparatus set up, used and intended for use in the manufacture of distilled spirits, to-wit, whiskey, which said still and distilling apparatus was not and had not been registered with the Collector of Internal Revenue for the District of Minnesota…”

The Appeal

While Hyman Polski was sentenced on December 30, 1927, he does not begin his sentence until almost two years later. A letter from 1928 in his inmate file shows that a judge granted Polski and his co-defendants more time to appeal their conviction. Polski’s co-defendants include Charles Geller, Harry Skar, Maurice Ruben, Jacob M. Fredgant, Louis B. Wiggins, Charles J. Stock, Lawrence Jenson, William Ledgerding, Henry Lotfog (aka Isaac L. Rabinovitz), Louis Wittles, and Clarence F. Bradfield.

Ultimately, Mr. Polski’s appeal is denied and he is received in Leavenworth Prison in Kansas on December 29, 1929. Hyman Polski appeals his conviction but loses. An order from May 1929 directs Polski and his co-defendants to surrender themselves to prison within 30 days. Instead, Mr. Polski et al filed a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States. The writ asks for an appeal or review of the case that leads to the conviction of Polski and others. On October 21, 1929, the US Supreme Court denies the petition of certiorari, and Hyman Polski et al must surrender themselves to the proper authorities to serve their sentences in prison. (This same court case from 1929, Polski v. the United States, is sometimes cited in other legal cases due to the nature of Mr. Polski’s arrest.) On January 3, just five days later, Polski sends a worried telegraph to his wife Tillie in St. Paul, Minnesota, concerned that he has not heard back from her. Three days later on January 6, Ms. Polski telegraphs back to say that all is well and that she had sent a letter out just recently.

One interesting historic aspect of Hyman Polski’s file is a memo from J. Edgar Hoover (dated January 24, 1930) addressed to the Superintendent of Prisons at the Department of Justice in Washington DC, with a copy going to Leavenworth, Kansas, that states that Mr. Hyman’s fingerprints reveal that he has no federal record of previous convictions. The translation: Mr. Polski has no prior convictions.

J. Edgar Hoover & the FBI

There is another memo from April 10, 1937, that is personally signed by J. Edgar Hoover at the Federal Bureau of Investigation that shows Mr. Polski’s criminal record and felony registration. Presumably, the detail-oriented J. Edgar Hoover created a felony registry with Hyman Polski having registered on March 6, 1937.

A sad aspect of imprisonment during the Great Depression is that Mr. Polski’s wife and three children lost their house due to foreclosure. Mr. Louis Hertz writes, “Mr. Polski until convicted and imprisoned had a good reputation, and had never been involved in any trouble before that time.”

With no breadwinner in the household, Mrs. Polski was unable to pay the mortgage. Where did they go? What did they do? Only history knows. Friends of Mr. Polski, Mr. Hertz, and Mr. Gordon write poignant letters to the parole board on behalf of Mr. Polski and his family. There is also a letter in support of Mr. Polski from J. Clair Stone, the president of the Elk Laundry Company in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Polski Released

The good news is that Mr. Polski is released on parole after a little over a year in Leavenworth, Kansas. Presumably, Hyman Polski leads a law-abiding and productive life after prison.

Luckily for Mr. Polski, there is a job waiting for him with the Milton Rosen Tire Company of Saint Paul, Minnesota when he is finally released in December 1930.

It is somewhat sad that Polski only has less than a decade on the outside before he dies in 1939, but his wife Tillie (1889-1989) lives to be 100 years old. They are both buried at the Sons of Jacob Cemetery in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

A book by Lisa McGirr, The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State (2016), talks about how the penal system in the United States grew and developed during Prohibition at both state and federal levels. This dry, dark time in American history also lead to the rise of organized crime and the Ku Klux Klan. From 1920-1933, the National Prohibition Act made illegal the production, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. Can we call this the War on Alcohol? Yes, we can. Many who tried to illegally provide this demanded product ended up in state or Federal prison. During the years of the Great Depression, it only seems natural that many would try to supplement their income with the illegal manufacturing and distribution of alcohol. Many who were locked up on charges of making and selling alcohol were first-time offenders, minorities, or recent immigrants, just like Hyman Polski.

For more context, watch this video on Reason TV featuring Lisa McGirr, author of The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State. You can read the inmate file of Hyman Polski at the National Archives online catalog here.