Texas Prision Museum - Huntsville
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 30° 44.144 W 095° 35.076
15R E 252540 N 3403169
The Texas Prison Museum, in existence since 1989, is a non-profit charitable corporation.
Waymark Code: WMMX3K
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 11/18/2014
Views: 1
From Roadside America:"The Museum's prize possession is Old Sparky, an electric chair that fried 361 prisoners between 1924 and 1964. It was made by prison workers, rescued from a prison dump, and is now displayed in a replica Death Chamber."
"The Contraband Exhibit showcases "the craftiness and creativeness of inmates," evident in many improvised knives, pry bars, and lifelike guns. Also here is a ball made out of slivers of compressed paint, the size of a baseball, that was dropped into a sock and used as a weapon (lead-based paint is heavy); and a boot worn by prisoner Charles Harrelson -- Woody's dad -- with a hollowed-out heel in which he smuggled drugs."
"A display of a prison uniform -- a white jumpsuit -- explains that, contrary to what you might see in photos taken at the Texas Prison Museum, the only time that Texas prisoners wore striped shirts was at the Texas Prison Rodeo, chronicled in another exhibit at the museum. Staged from 1931 to 1986, the Rodeo was the most popular sporting event in Texas for many years, drawing crowds of over 75,000 a day."