San Quentin Lore : Grim History of Prison to Be Museum’s Fare

SAN QUENTIN — Prison officials here are planning to open a small museum that would depict 134 years of life inside San Quentin, home to some of California’s most notorious criminals.

The plans include the construction of model jail cells and a gas chamber similar to the real one that was installed in 1938, after then-Warden James Holohan succeeded in having death-by-hanging banned.

Also included would be artifacts dating from the days when inmates were whipped for misbehavior.

“There should be some way of preserving the history of this grand old place,” said Associate Warden Richard A. Nelson, of the penal complex perched on a rocky outcropping overlooking the bay in Marin County, about 20 miles north of San Francisco.

Volumes Scattered Over State

“Right now, there are just volumes of historical material scattered all over the state,” he said.

Officials also intend to renovate the prison cemetery, which is no longer in use. The graves of 694 people are located high on a hill in a eucalyptus grove, far enough away from the watchful eye of guards so that vandals over the years have stolen the original wooden markers and disinterred several of the plots.

The cemetery, like the prison itself, is off limits to tourists and would remain so after its renovation. In fact, even the museum would be open to the public by appointment only, at least initially.

“We don’t have the parking and the county roads couldn’t handle the tremendous amount of traffic that would be generated,” Nelson said.

View From the Outside

Until the museum is installed in the small, mint green, stucco building that once housed the inmates’ mail room, visitors will have to be content with purchasing inmate-made handicrafts such as desk accessories in the hobby shop just outside the prison gates, and with peering in at the 432-acre complex.

If the museum opens by January, 1988, as planned, it would be the first glimpse the public would get of the maximum-security institution since it stopped conducting public tours in 1976.

Public tours are no longer conducted since the state began sending all disruptive or violent inmates from its 11 other major institutions to San Quentin, said prison spokesman John W. Reid.

Today the prison houses 3,429 convicted rapists, killers, thieves and other assorted felons, about 1,700 of them under high-security conditions.

Isolated on death row are 203 men, including Charles Manson and David Carpenter, who was convicted of killing two 20-year-old women in 1981 along Santa Cruz County hiking trails.

The prison contains so many dangerous criminals that the few law enforcement officers, judges and journalists who tour it are given a stern warning--though delivered with a dash of humor:

“Are you aware of the state’s no-hostage policy?” each person is asked in a standard speech given by the guards. “If you are taken hostage, the state will do everything in its power to negotiate your release. However, no exchanges will be made.”

The visitor is then told, “Have a nice day,” and allowed to pass, escorted, through several steel gates to the prison’s central plaza.

To satisfy public curiousity about the 134-year-old institution, Nelson and a group of citizens and employees, including Warden Dan Vasquez, formed the San Quentin Museum Assn.

The association, which was recently granted nonprofit status by the state, has collected about $3,400 so far in its efforts to raise the $200,000 needed for the museum. Nelson, who is the group’s president, said several corporations and trusts have expressed interest in donating funds.

Source of Fascination

“There is just a tremendous fascination with this place’s macabre history,” said Nelson, 49, a short rotund man with silver hair. “Everyday, we turn away people at the gate asking for tours.”

The old and dilapidated penitentiary is currently undergoing a $36.9-million renovation to comply with court-ordered improvements in living conditions. In April, Gregory Harding, a deputy director of the state Corrections Department, said the improvements could only extend the life of the institution by about 12 years. After that, it would have to be abandoned and torn down.

Longtime Marin County real estate broker Aldo Pasquinelli said the property is one of the most desirable in the county. “A developer could make a fortune on San Quentin, depending on what the county would let you build on it,” Pasquinelli said. “It’s right off the freeway; it’s waterfront, and it overlooks either San Francisco or San Pablo Bay. What more could you ask?”

But Nelson has no intention of letting such a historical treasure trove fall into the hands of real estate developers.

“That’s one reason why we set up the museum association--to have a vehicle to make sure it gets to be a state park in case the state decides to close the prison,” Nelson said.