TWINS’ BLACK MARKS
TROUBLES OF A WARDER. The mystery of the respective identify of a pair of twins has been troubling officials of the San. Quentin Convict Prison in California. The twins are Ernest and Elgin Gagson, negroes. They were sentenced for the murder of a tramway motorman in 1920, Ernest for life and Elgin for ten years. The pair look exactly alike, and this similarity proved the downfall of Elgin when he came up for parole. The Board of Prison Directors found too many black maks against him. They asked for an explanation. ‘“lt was not I, but my brother,” said Elgin. They called the brother. “It was not I,” said Ernest, “it was Elgin.” They called the warders. “We do not know which one does what,” said the warders, “so we give them both black marks, just to be fair.” Elgin’s case was postponed until the black marks can be clarified.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19310626.2.25
Bibliographic details
Southland Times, Issue 21430, 26 June 1931, Page 4
Word Count
153TWINS’ BLACK MARKS Southland Times, Issue 21430, 26 June 1931, Page 4
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Southland Times. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.