ASHBURN, GA. Museum puts a lock on history

Visitors can see how crime and punishment have changed over the decades.
ASHBURN, Ga. (AP) -- Visitors to the Crime and Punishment Museum in Turner County will see the old trap door used for hangings, the steel cages that housed prisoners and the inmates' rough black-and-white striped uniforms.
It's not the cozy Southern slammer depicted in reruns of "The Andy Griffith Show." For 90 years, Turner County's prisoners lived in bleak steel cages and slept on bolted-down steel cots.
At least two men were hanged in the old jail for murder. They spent their last hours in a death cage, then shuffled a few feet to a steel trapdoor where the hangman slipped a noose around their necks. The rope was tied to a heavy metal hook that still protrudes from the ceiling.
"At first glance, you might say these people are really sick," said Gail Walls, a local historian who is assisting with the creation of the museum, scheduled to open Aug. 27. "I know there are those who think it's extremely morbid. But I think people will see how crime and punishment has changed through the decades. It will be a learning experience."
The museum highlights harsh Southern jail conditions from about 1900 through the 1990s, when many counties, under pressure from the U.S. Justice Department to provide more humane treatment, either refurbished their old jails or built new ones.
"I think the museum will appeal to anyone who is interested in the history of the South and prisons," said Penny Baker, spokeswoman for the Ashburn-Turner County Chamber of Commerce. "It's something our young people are not aware of."
Jail history
The brick jail opened in 1907, only two years after the county was created. Locals called it "Turner Castle," because its Romanesque architecture made it look like a fortress. Prisoners were held there until January 1994 when the county opened a new jail.
It is a classic example of the way South Georgia county jails were run for much of the 20th century, with a living area for the sheriff and his family and a separate area for the prisoners. The sheriff's wife cooked meals for the family and for the prisoners.
The sheriff's quarters will feature displays, a video production, a mock courtroom and photos of every sheriff.
In the rear of the building, visitors will climb a flight of metal stairs to tour the death cell and cellblocks on the second floor. Everything is painted battleship gray.
Most of the inmates were confined in four small cages, each about 7 by 7 feet. Each cage held four prisoners, who slept in upper and lower bunks on either side. Two cells shared a corridor with a toilet.
Two cells in another area were for women prisoners.
The museum has preserved all but the most offensive graffiti in the women's cells. Amid slogans such as "Get Righteous Bro" and "Jesus is Lord," are drawings of a church, a skull wearing a hat and three playing cards, all spades.
"Women were more prone to write dirty stuff on the walls," Walls said.
A local carpenter is building a replica of Old Sparky, the state's oldest electric chair, for the museum.
Death penalty
Hangings were the legal method of execution for about 500 Georgia criminals from 1735 to 1924. They were carried out by the sheriff in the county or judicial circuit where the crime occurred.
Georgia switched to the electric chair in 1924 and assumed the responsibility for carrying out the death penalty. Between 1924 and 1937, 162 inmates were executed by electrocution at the Georgia State Prison in Milledgeville. Then the chair was moved to a newer prison at Reidsville, where 256 executions took place between 1937 and 1964, when the U.S. Supreme Court suspended all executions. Old Sparky was retired and is now on display in a prison museum at Reidsville.
After the Supreme Court upheld Georgia's new death penalty law in 1976, Georgia got a new electric chair. Twenty-three inmates were executed in it until the state switched to lethal injections in 2000. So far, eight inmates have died by lethal injection.
Turner County's first hanging occurred May 23, 1907, when Robert Henderson was executed for murdering a man during a $150 theft.
The second occurred on Sept. 14, 1914, when Miles Cribb was hanged for killing a woman. He meant to shoot his estranged wife, but the bullet went astray.
Ashburn, a farm town of 4,400 located near busy Interstate 75 about 160 miles south of Atlanta, offers walking and driving tours past its historical homes. The town claims to have the world's largest peanut -- a fiberglass monument to one of Georgia's most famous crops within sight of the interstate.
Ashburn has been unable to attract major industries, so the town is focusing on historic attractions and tourism. A feasibility study conducted by the state predicted the museum would attract 20,000 to 30,000 visitors a year.
"We're going to talk about chain gangs ... and how treatment has changed," said Walls. "Our jail and courthouse and other things in the county are special. We have to capitalize on those things."