DOLLAR

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Monday, December 08, 2008 at 04:14:02 :

Marin Journal
Thursday, March 5, 1925
Page 1

Prison Race Feud Claims 2nd Victim

Wendell Dollar, a convict, was shot and killed by a guard at San Quentin last Monday for violation of prison rules while being returned from the bath house to the dungeon with twenty-four other prisoners.

Testimony brought out at the coroner’s inquest held the next day showed that Dollar had broken from the line and stooped to pick up some object from the ground. He was warned by C. G. Rappolee, guard on the walk it was testified, and on ignoring the warning was fired on. Rappolee said that he aimed his gun to the side of Dollar, who stepped into direct range as the trigger was pulled.

Dollar, with forty other prisoners, was locked up in solitary confinement as a result of the series of riots at San Quentin on February 18. He is said to have been a member of the gang that killed Antonio Hernandez, Mexican prisoner, in a racial feud.

Testimony at the inquest, held under Coroner J. Ray Keaton, showed that the men in solitary confinement are taken from the dungeon only once in two weeks for a bath and shave. William Gott, sergeant of the yard, stated that utmost precaution must be taken with men in the dungeon, because if they should smuggle in a piece of iron or steel, it would be used to attack the guards who _?_er for inspection twice each day.

Dollar was 26 years old, and sentenced from one to fifteen years for burglary committed in Kings county. His body was shipped to relatives by the Sawyer Co.