Publisher's Synopsis
In 1894, seven wards left San Quentin to spend the rest of their sentences at the new State reform school in Ione. It didn't take much for the courts to commit a boy to the Preston School of Industry. Career criminals accounted for a major portion of the population, but orphans, vagrants, and children whose parents could no longer care for them also called the facility on the hill their home. Some wards made headline news, like Alan Smiley, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel's right-hand-man, or Burroughs McGraw who could forge a signature perfectly after seeing it only once. Dell Richardson who murdered his wife after one week of marriage by dumping her in a scalding bathtub. Arnold Sharkey, a boxer who dressed in a nightgown when entering the ring because he sent so much time lying down. Enjoy these stories about wards who walked the halls of the Preston School of Industry.
