MILLIONAIRE IN GAOL

Hokitika Guardian, 28 February 1930, Page 8

MILLIONAIRE IN GAOL

MOTORIST AND MANSLAUGHTER. A FIVE MONTHS’ SENTENCE, “It will be u very long,time before j drive an automobile again,” These were the first words spoken by Richard Joshua Reynolds, the American millionaire, upon his release from Wormwood Scrubbs prison, after serving a sentence of live months’ imprisonment for manslaughter while in charge of an automobile. Reynolds stepped through the prison gates at 8 a.m. to find the interviewer at the gates to greet him. “How did you like it?” the write' asked Reynolds.

“Fine,” was the reply. After all prison was not such a bad experience he said.

. “At first T was in Wandsworth gaol” Reynolds said, “but sundry croole heard that an American millionaire was languishing behind the bars, am one of their number succeeded in get ting put away on a short sentence This man tried to get my sympathy with a view to exploiting me on m;> release. The prison authorities heart about it, and so I was transferred tc Wormwood Scrubbs. “Life at Wormwood Scrubbs was better than at Wandsworth, though ii made me feel awfully homesick.* I could hear the subway trains rushing [last -50 years from my cell. I went tc work in the library, which is the spec■al privilege of prisoners serving in the second division. But whether a prisoner has second division or hard lab our, the work is not hard.

“Prisoners are well fed, well clothed and better housed than many of them would be outside. All the cells arc steam heated, which is more than many London houses of the better type are. Except for the loss of liberty, T did not really mind it. I was allowed only one letter and one visitor- a month. Taking them all round, I found the warders a friendly crowd. They had an unpleasant job, and they did it as pleasantly as possible. “One thing I did not like so much was having to go to chapel—twice on Sunday and every Thursday morning. T found that the monotony of prison life was the worst part of it all. Any way, I know one thing, I am never going to gaol again.”

Reynolds has had enough of England. Shortly after his release he left for France. “Well, I guess thi s is farewell to the hospitable shores of old England for ever,’ he said as he went' aboard the Channel boat.