Murderer Philosophical About Life Sentence, Sept. 6, 1926

Life in Prison About as it Was in Army. . . “Any Situation Is Only as Bad as You Make It,” Says Campbell

Raleigh, Sept. 6 (AP)—Will Campbell has a lifetime in prison before him, but he is making the best of it.

“Any situation is only as bad as ou make it,” he declared. “I was in the army seven years, and life in the state prison isn’t much different. In either case you can get along all right if you work with the people over you.”

Campbell came to the prison four years ago from Buncombe county for murder. He was first sentenced to death but gained a reprieve that carried with it life imprisonment whe it was determined that he was not mentally responsible at the time of his crime.

He killed a nurse while he was acting as police officer at Oteen hospital. The woman is said to have spurned him, and he slew her in a blind rage.

Now he is paying society for his disagreement from his strict code—and because he is physically unable to pay the debt in the hard labor ordinarily exacted from state prisoners, he is devoting his time to service of his fellow prisoners.

Visitors to the penitentiary find him either at work on the flower beds in the rear of the enclosure or behind the counter of a little store, built under the back porch of the central prison building.

The store is a unique enterprise. It was started with the permission of Supt. George Ross Pou when it developed that the life-termer was suffering with disorders that made him unfit for routine prison duty.

Its stock is composed of a great variety of fancy groceries, confections and cold drinks. The goods are sold to prisoners and visitors at the proson at a profit of only five per cent—just enough, the storekeeper said, to protect him from losses and mistakes. He doesn’t wany any profit—just the privilege of operating the one place where delicacies can be bought inside prison walls.

Superintendent Pou said that Campbell’s store was very popular, and that he was one of the best prisoners he had. He said that his health was mending rapidly.

From page 6 of the Concord Daily Tribune, Monday, Sept. 6, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-09-06/ed-1/seq-6/