Fact Sheet

  • The jail is 118 years old, the oldest government structure in the county
  • Construction was accomplished by local builders J.T. Cornett & J. F. Akin in 1891. These pioneer families still have roots in Motley County.
  • Stone for the jail was hauled in wagons from Salt Creek, 5 miles west of Matador.
  • Cells are on the top floor of the jail, and jailer’s living quarters were on the lower level.
  • The jail has a “run-around” that opens onto the street. In the old days, the cowboys who had been thrown in jail (usually for getting drunk and shooting up the town) would call out to any passerby in the hopes of getting a cigarette: “Hello out there,” they’d yell.
  • This story was related to William Saroyan, a playwright, who wrote a successful stage play entitled: Hello Out There.
  • Various sheriff’s and deputy’s lived in the jail until 1981
  • The hanging gallows were never used, and the state sealed the gallows
  • The first sheriff of Motley County was Sheriff Joseph P. Beckham
  • Beckham turned outlaw because of circumstances related to his position as sheriff
  • Beckham had a gun fight with a former Matador ranch hand, Jeff Boone
  • Boone was wounded in the arm, later died of gangrene, and Beckham was charged with murder
  • These charges were dismissed, but he was not reinstated to his position as sheriff
  • He left to go to Oklahoma to stake a land claim, and when he returned he was arrested for fraud
  • Before his trial, the sheriff at the time (G.W. Cook), vowed to kill Beckham, and gunned for him in Seymour, Texas
  • Beckham beat him to the draw, and killed Cook, then escaped to Indian Territory
  • He joined an outlaw gang in Indian territory
  • Beckham was killed by Texas Rangers on December 28, 1894
  • There have been numerous escapes from the jail: The first prisoner housed in the jail in 1891 escaped twice! Once through the roof, and once by “bed-sheet” method from second floor.
  • Two cow thieves escaped in 1904, and attended a tent revival meeting before making a dash for freedom. They were recaptured (found asleep in the old gin, just east of the jail)
  • In 1913, two men charged with murder escaped by sawing out a window on the second floor. They were eventually recaptured, and sent to Huntsville. Evidence of this escape can still be seen on the south-east window of the run-around where the bars of the repair were placed horizontally, rather than vertically.
  • There were numerous other escapes from the little jail, but all were recaptured, and returned to prison.
  • One notable escape in 1957 was a 15-year-old burglar who escaped by squirming his way beneath the barred cell door, in a space about the height of two ordinary cigarettes. He was later caught and sent to State School at Gatesville, and escaped from there in 1957. He was recaptured in Briscoe County and brought back to Matador jail where he was lodged for the second time in less than six months.
  • There is a “crazy cell” upstairs, a cage built to house the “criminally insane and women.”