The Jailhouse Brawl of Sam Quinn, the Man Married Eighteen Times
A South Park character with a legendary temper and a reputed eighteen marriages ends up bloodied in the King County jail after a mysterious fight with a fellow prisoner.
Sam Quinn, of South Park, who has been held in the county jail for several days on a commitment from Justice Small's court in connection with 'keep the peace' proceedings instituted by an Italian whom Quinn claims had been robbing his garden, looks as if he had got out to see a man and had met a club. Mr. Quinn is always in trouble; in fact, he has the reputation, according to King County Jailer Terry King and Jimmy Campbell, of having been married eighteen times. A few nights ago one of the employees of the county, who was working late, rushed down to the jailer's office and asked King what kind of a circus was going on in the room under him. King went over to investigate and found Quinn standing over Sam Watson, a petit larcenist, licking him for all he was worth. Quinn held in his hand a round of hair he had taken away from Watson, who had whacked him on the eye. Quinn's face was covered with blood and the skin over his nose was cut open for an inch or more. The cause of the row is a deep mystery.
“Mr. Quinn is always in trouble; in fact, he has the reputation ... of having been married eighteen times.”
Sam Quinn's story reads like a turn-of-the-century tabloid item, but it also captures how the papers turned jailhouse violence and private lives into public spectacle. The 'eighteen marriages' detail is almost certainly gossip, yet it hints at how easily a poor or unruly man could become a recurring character in the local press.
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