Twelve-year-old Jimmy Melton was convicted of killing his 16-year old sister, Phyllis, as she sat under the Christmas tree looking at family photos on December 16, 1947. He shot at her twelve times with a .22 caliber gun hitting her with five shots. He said he did it because, "I never liked her. She was always nagging me." Their father was raising Jimmy and his sister Phyllis in a single-parent household and Phyllis tried to act as Jimmy's mother. At the time of the killing, Colorado had two facilities for the incarceration of boys, but all murderers were required to go to the penitentiary no matter what their age. Jimmy's sentence was twelve years to life. Efforts were made to have Jimmy accepted into Father Flanagan's Boys' Town as early as February 6, 1947, in order to avoid sending him to prison. But at the time of his conviction on February 25, 1947, there had been no firm answer. Father Flanagan was waiting to speak with psychiatrists who had examined Jimmy in Denver, therefore, he was sent to Cañon City after his conviction.
When Jimmy arrived at the penitentiary in 1948, Warden Best allowed him to be "muggged" and finger printed but decided not to allow him to spend one night in prison. Best commented, "If this boy is to come out of here a decent citizen, he must have the same advantages as other boys—insofar as they are possible under the circumstances. He won't get them behind bars with the toughs I've got here."
Best tried to insure that Jimmy got an education, but when he was enrolled in school, the parents in Cañon City protested. Therefore, Best paid to have Jimmy tutored by a former school teacher, Verna Heaton. When asked if she was frightened to have Jimmy in her home she said, "Bosh, I know boys."
Best and his wife treated Jimmy as their son and tried to teach him the importance of work and responsibility. They believed he should be conscientious about his chores and his studies. Best is quoted as saying, "Jimmy is a fine boy, just like a son, and in the last six months he has been here, he never has done anything to make us want to put him in a cell." Jimmy was allowed to play sports with the trustees and learned to play the piano.
Warden Best believed Jimmy should spend time with boys his own age and in 1949 he went to Boys' Town near Omaha, Nebraska, to speak with the Monsignor Nicholas Wegner, head of the institution, about allowing Jimmy to be paroled into his care. Best went back to Cañon City to speak with the judge in charge of Jimmy's case and Monsignor Wegner approached Colorado's Governor Lee Knous to approve Jimmy's parole. Jimmy was granted parole in 1949 and sent to Boys' Town. However, shortly after his arrival he slipped into the back seat of a visitor's car and hit him over the head with a metal pipe. Melton sped away in the car only to be arrested and returned to the state penitentiary. When he returned to the prison, Best put him in the cellblock with the other prisoners.
When Jimmy was seventeen, he was given another chance for parole. During October in 1953 Jimmy was sent to live with his mother in California. Once again in 1954 he ran away from the California jurisdiction where he was assigned and was recaptured hitchhiking in Colorado. When Jimmy was arrested he had a knife and a rope with him and admitted to officials that he wanted to kill his father.
In June of 1957 Jimmy went to the Parole Board again but this time Warden Harry Tinsley (1952-54, Acting Warden 1954-1965) suggested his parole. It was his third and final chance at parole and he was sent to northeastern Colorado under the jurisdiction of the Greeley State Patrol. Officials believed that Jimmy might have a better chance at success because he was then twenty-two and more mature. Jimmy said, "I'm confident I can make good this time because I'm older now." Wayne K. Patterson State Parole Director at the time said, "This third chance is his last. If it fails, the book is closed." Jimmy was put on parole for life and part of his parole agreement included psychiatric counseling to help him succeed as a free man after having spent his entire youth in prison.
Jimmy Melton did break the terms of his third parole and was sent back to prison to serve a life sentence. In 1971 Melton was released from prison for the last time. Wayne Patterson (1965-1972) was warden of the prison. Jimmy refused to leave his cell on the day he was released, and Patterson had to coax him out from under his cot. It was decided that Jimmy Melton would not survive in the outside world, and he was sent to the mental hospital in Pueblo to get the care he needed. He escaped from the mental hosptial in 1973, and it is uncertain what happened to him between 1973 and his death in Los Angeles in 1985.
"Jimmy Melton Goes To School At Pen." Cañon City Daily Record 9 September 1949.
"Jimmy Melton Expected To Be Okayed For Boys Town Today." Cañon City Daily Record March 19, 1949.
"Jimmy Melton Goes To School At Pen." Pueblo Chieftain 9 September 1948.
"Prison Gates Open For Jimmy Melton." Cañon City Daily Record 25 July 1957:1.
"Third And Last Chance: Jimmy Melton Trys After Prison Confinement." Cañon City Daily Record 26 July 1957:1.
"Warden Adopts A Young Murderer: Boy Shot His Sister Is Given A Chance To Lead A Normal Life." Life Magazine 12 April 1948: 55-58, Volume 24, No 15.
Paterson, Wayne K. Warden Colorado State Prison (1965-1972). Interview. 15 August, 2000.
1 LHC: Photograph of Jimmie Melton, Patterson Collection.
2 LHC: Photograph of Jimmie Melton standing next to Warden Roy Best and five other people, Patterson Collection.