The Converted Fugitive Who Asked to Go Back to Prison
Richard Livingston had been on the run for four and a half years. At a Tacoma mission, he confessed, wrote to Indiana, and offered to finish his sentence.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A wanderer on the face of the earth for four and one-half years, and hunted by officers in every state in the Union because he broke parole from the Indiana state reformatory, Richard Livingston, 29 years old, stands on the eve of becoming a free man because he was converted in Tacoma six months ago.
One-half year ago, Livingston, a fugitive from justice, crept into the Peniel mission. He became converted, and started life anew. The stain was in his soul, however, and finally he broke down and told Arthur Lewis, one of the mission workers, of his being wanted in the East as a parole-breaker. The teacher talked to Livingston, and finally persuaded him to write to the Indiana authorities, which he did. He said that he had been converted and that he was willing to go back and serve out the remainder of his sentence, if necessary.
A letter reached Livingston Saturday from W. H. Whitaker, general superintendent of the Indiana reformatory, stating that the matter would be placed in the hands of Chief of Police Duley of Tacoma, and that, if the chief so decides, Livingston will become a free man. The matter has not been taken up by Chief Duley, but he has signified his intention of recommending a pardon for the converted convict.
“He said that he had been converted and that he was willing to go back and serve out the remainder of his sentence, if necessary.”
A century later, Tacoma still runs on the same questions of parole, reentry, and who gets a second chance. Livingston’s story was framed as a conversion spectacle, but the choice at its center—accountability instead of flight—is timeless. The mission worker who persuaded him to write Indiana did the quiet work that reentry programs still do today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.