Dickey had a history of petty thefts, except he was not captured many of those times. The few times Dickey was caught he was smart enough to commit the theft in a larger County. A bigger County that comprised a major City is usually more lenient with a petty theft than a smaller County because of the city Jail overcrowding situation. Dickey always did small time. Usually he just did a few months jail time with a period of probation following him.

Dickeys last petty theft was his undoing-he was caught and arrested. He was running and a train was blocking his escape route. The train was moving slowly and Dickey caught a ride. He did not enter any of the passenger rail cars. He climbed to the top of the cars and maneuvered a final run to get just far enough from the cops where he could jump to freedom. Passenger cars near a city are connected on the top by a high voltage electric wire. Dickeys head touched a hot wire and he blew up. I mean he was zapped, shorted out falling off the train to the hard ground below. Dickey was down and out and he had fallen into another county–my County.

The cops called in an ambulance and the medics did as much as they could. He spent more than several months in a Hospital. A preliminary hearing was held at the hospital after dickey was put back together. The top of his head was fried, hair burned off, multiple stitches on the top of his head, a glass eye and false teeth were enough so he could be transported to a jail infirmary. He also lost his left leg below the knee. A wooden leg and a toupee completed his blowing up run away attempt. Dickey learned a lesson about train cables and is the talk of many police departments to this day because he survived. At the hospital he wasn’t rehabilitated, he was rebuilt and the electric zap must have scrambled his brain. His running and thievery were over. Dickeys new outlook on life was a 6×9 cement block cell.

Dickey slowly went through rehab at the prison and was able to walk, eat and talk again. Dickey knew he was fortunate to be alive. He also must have had a near death experience. He fit in with the other inmates in the main jail but his train near escape followed him. He was also an oddity with the other inmates. Dickey walked with a limp, always leaned his head toward the left when looking at someone and still talked with a slow forced verbal drawl. He earned a position in the jail kitchen and eventually up as a spare cook. As usual at the prison farm we always kept our eyes open for someone who could cook. “Zim Boom”, as he was naturally nicknamed came to the Farm Program on a trial basis. We had to be sure he could manage the steps and be able to do enough work, especially in the kitchen to warrant his farm status. Zim was easy going, got along with everyone and somewhat of a prankster. Once in a while one of his arresting police officers stopped in at the farm just to visit the “survivor”.

After a few weeks one of our cooks was discharged and Zim was made head cook. Zim was a good cook, always had the meals on time and the food was good considering he was using the Government Surplus supplies. Maybe Zim was given to much praise and the other farm inmates felt Zim was ready for some fun. I always arrived at work a half hour early, my shift started at 6am. The inmates were fed breakfast at 6am and one morning breakfast was late. Zim was never late with his meal schedule. I did not have to ask what the problem was, Zim told me first. Someone had stolen his wooden leg and getting down the stairs and working the kitchen propped up with a crutch under the left armpit had slowed him up.

About a week later like anyone else with false teeth Zim left his teeth in a solution container overnight. Zims teeth went missing and it was Steak Sunday! His glass eye never went missing. Glass eyes to me are somewhat scary and I guess were also scary to all the other prankster guys at the Farm. We had a lot of good fun with Zim. When he was finally discharged the police department talked the passenger train company to give Zim a job as a Conductor. And this job was also on a trial basis. Zim had a great respect for passenger trains.