Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville half a century ago? It may have been a different era of history, culture and politics but there are often parallels between the kind of stories that made headlines then and today. As interesting as the differences may be, so are the similarities. These are some of the top stories from this week in 1960. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• Exchange Club Island was dedicated for the benefit of Jacksonville boating enthusiasts.
A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers detachment from Fort Benning, Ga., which was in the area for a training exercise, volunteered pontoon barges that transported several thousand people between the foot of Highlands Avenue to the island under the Mathews Bridge.
In the afternoon, the engineers further demonstrated their skill by constructing a 500-foot pontoon foot bridge that connected the island to the bank at the Arlington terminus of the bridge.
Pyrotechnics for the occasion were provided by a U.S. Navy battery, which blasted off a 21-gun salute about noon.
On the island, visitors inspected the small boat slips, picnic area and sanitary facilities which resulted from teamwork and joint financial contributions from the Exchange Club and the Board of Duval County Commissioners.
Among the officials exchanging congratulatory remarks were County Commissioner Julian Warren and Exchange Club President William H. Wood.
Members of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary spent most of the day patrolling the area around the island for safety purposes and to ferry visitors from various boat launching sites.
The occasion was particularly festive for the auxiliary because it marked the dedication of its new building, which would be the headquarters for rescue, first aid and training operations for the benefit of the county’s boating community.
Ray Chapman, commander of the auxiliary’s Flotilla 4, presented a plaque to Chuck Lightner, representing the Jim Walter Corp., which donated the aid station.
The island was formerly known as Mud Island. The Exchange Club credited one of its veteran members, Sam Millner, with visualizing the island as a boating center and helping push the idea through to completion. The island was formed from muck dredged from the St. Johns River during construction of the bridge.
Aiding in the arrangements for the ceremony was Nathan Mallison, superintendent of the Jacksonville Recreation Department.
• In U.S. District Court during a trial for civil rights violations by guards against prisoners, DeWitt Sinclair, superintendent of Raiford State Prison, testified that he cautioned guard Capt. James Henry Dunn about using handcuffs as punishment for inmates of the prison’s maximum security cell block.
“I told Dunn that using handcuffs was bad and it could cause trouble,” said Sinclair.
The superintendent, who spent the entire day under cross examination by defense attorney Chester Bedell, said he knew handcuffs, leg irons and tear gas had been ordered by Dunn after riots in May and June 1958. Sinclair said he reported to Richard Culver, director of the state Division of Corrections, that the supplies had been ordered and commented that with them on hand, custodial personnel would be better able to control the maximum security prisoners.
Sinclair insisted his report to Culver merely quoted Dunn’s monthly reports on custodial affairs and he had no personal knowledge of the type of punishments that were meted out to the rebellious prisoners. Under Bedell’s prodding, Sinclair admitted that the use of tear gas on individuals or groups of recalcitrant prisoners was an accepted practice in 1958 and continued to be so.
On the stand, Sinclair spent most of the day testifying about the personnel files of 21 prisoners the government contended were tortured and abused by 14 former guards who were on trial.
He said the prisoners were confined in maximum security for offenses ranging from refusal to work to destruction of prison property, cursing, threatening guards and physical attacks on them.
Sinclair said some prisoners threatened to kill guards, engaged in fights with other prisoners, robbed fellow inmates and that one prisoner, Raymond L. Butler, murdered a cellmate.
Bedell also drew from Sinclair a statement that the case histories of the prisoners he reviewed were typical of all of the 105 inmates who were transferred to the maximum security cell block when it opened May 23, 1958.
In other testimony, a 20-year-old ex-convict, Thomas Jack Shaw, gave the jury the first description of alleged tortures and abuses inflicted in the prison.
He was released from prison four months earlier after serving a two-year sentence for resisting arrest plus another year imposed for escaping from the Appalachee Correctional Institution, where he was first incarcerated.
Shaw had been ordered confined to the maximum security building after refusing to work on his dining room kitchen detail. He testified that after an unauthorized metal cereal bowl was found in his cell, he was shackled to the bars of his cell, nude, in a sitting position, with handcuffs and leg irons. He said the shackling was done by one of the defendants, Earle Leslie Chesser, former guard lieutenant, and by Johnny O. Dobbs, a guard.
Shaw said he was “hung up” about 11 a.m. one day until about 9 a.m. the next and was doused with water under high pressure twice during that time by another guard and defendant, John C. Batten.
• A 1959 legislative act designed to eliminate “bottle clubs” through imposition of a $25 daily license fee was declared invalid by the Florida Supreme Court. The tribunal ruled the law set up arbitrary and unreasonable classifications for a business which in itself was not dangerous, immoral or contrary to public policy.
The high court’s ruling reversed an earlier decision made by Duval County Circuit Judge A.W. Graessle Jr. in a suit challenging the law brought by three Jacksonville club operators. They were Murray Segal and George Paul, owners of the Five O’Clock Club, and Rose Turner, owner of the Band Box. The club owners were represented by attorneys Albert J. Datz and Leonard Silver.
The term “bottle club” was a designation for an establishment which offered live entertainment for guests and allowed them to drink from their own bottles. The clubs held no regular beverage license and were not regulated by closing hours and other rules which controlled licensed liquor establishments.
The 1959 legislature, in an effort to block club operations, enacted a law requiring the $25 daily license fee.
The court said the end sought by the licensing law might be within the police power of the state, but the 1959 act, “was not formulated with the circumspection that law requires.”
• A mongrel black dog named Butch was apparently struck by a car and found in a ditch at New Berlin Road and Magnolia Avenue with his hind legs paralyzed. Frightened by a gathering crowd, he crawled into a 30-foot-long sewer pipe about 9 a.m.
Despite the urging of County Patrolman James Pfeiffer, Humane Society employee J.C. Sparkman and members of the Oceanway Volunteer Fire Department, Butch refused to come out.
The firefighters tried to wash the dog out of the pipe, but failed. A bystander, J.H. Spalding, crawled into the slimy pipe, looped a rope around Butch and eased the injured animal to safety.
The dog’s owner said she couldn’t afford to have the animal treated and asked that he be destroyed. However, another bystander, William Bown, volunteered to pay for the dog’s treatment.
Later, a veterinarian said Butch had a good chance of recovering.