PALO PINTO – Before longtime county resident Jacqueline Hinkson passed away last August, she and her brother, former County Judge Rob Smith, agreed to donate the infamous “soap pistol” back to the place it was used in a 1938 jailbreak.
That would be the former lockup that is now the Old Jail Museum Complex in Palo Pinto.
County Health Officer Dr. R.H. Smith, Jacqueline and Rob’s grandfather, was involved in the escape – as a victim, not a participant. Dr. Smith held onto the dummy gun and it was passed down through his family’s generations for 85 years, until recently. Rob carried out his sister’s wishes and returned the nefarious arts and crafts project to its original home after she died.
The soap pistol is now a permanent fixture at the museum, donated by the Jacqueline Hinkson and Rob Smith families.
Here’s how the story goes, according to Rob and newspaper clippings from yesteryear…
On Dec. 28, 1938, two prisoners were housed at the old jail – W.T. Haley Jr., 24, and A.G. Patterson, 27. Haley was serving 14 years at the state penitentiary for cattle theft and burglary. He was transported to Palo Pinto to stand trial on another theft charge. Patterson, of Jack County, was awaiting grand jury action on a forgery charge.
Haley complained of an ear infection and Dr. Smith went to the jail to treat him. The inmate pulled what appeared to be a .38-caliber automatic pistol on the good doctor, locking him up in a cell with jailer Otto H. Howard on the second floor of the two-story building.
Brandishing the gun, the prisoners proceeded to imprison Otto’s wife, their 23-year-old daughter Mrs. Jack Cardwell, her two-year-old son Sammy, and jail cook Adolph Hubbard in a steel-barred entry leading to the foot of the stairs.
Earlier in the week Haley asked for a large size cake of laundry soap and a can of black shoe polish. On the day of the breakout, the soap and polish were missing and the fake firearm appeared – pointed at Dr. Smith.
“The more I think about it the more I think it was not a real pistol,” Dr. Smith was quoted saying at the time. “I don’t know, though. If I’d grabbed him I might have a hole in me.”
The prisoners didn’t try to rob their victims, even though Dr. Smith had about $40 on him. They also overlooked the doctor’s new model coupe, parked on the west side of the jail. The car had a full tank of gas and a loaded .45-caliber revolver in the glove compartment.
Instead, they fled in Howard’s vehicle and ran out of gas less than 10 miles out of town headed toward Jack County. Reports state they took off into the brush and the search was called off in Oran, near the county line.
Rob said they were later picked up in Dallas.
“Had they gotten my granddad’s car they may have had a better chance,” he chuckled.
Rob noted the jailbreak earned his grandfather a new nickname.
“It didn’t take long for the local cowboys and people to start calling him Soapy,” he said.
The escapees left the phony firearm made of soap and shoe polish behind. Dr. Smith snatched it up as a keepsake.
“It’s been in the family ever since,” Rob said. “It was in pretty bad shape. I fixed it up.”
Visitors can see the soap pistol now on display at the Old Jail Museum Complex, located at 231 S. 5th Ave., in Palo Pinto.
While you’re there, check out the museum’s new visitor center and gift store. Retired Master Electrician Allan Sparkman donated materials and his time to install an electrical system for the center.
Sparkman said it saved the Palo Pinto County Historical Commission about $8,000 in electrical work. The PPCHC is a nonprofit which documents and preserves materials regarding county history since 1890. It oversees the museum complex.
The Old Jail Museum Complex is open from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., Thursday through Saturday. For more information, visit palopintohistory.com or call 940-325-2557.
