By Mike Simmons
The Saturday, October 11, 1952 edition of the Pensacola News Journal cost five cents and listed the weather as mild with a high of 72 degrees. The headlines read, “Harvey Bazzell is Indicted on Embezzlement Charges.” Harvey Bazzell was a Justice of the Peace in Escambia County, Florida and he was indicted by a Grand Jury for embezzling $3627.
Further down on the same page was an article that described an escape from the county jail. At that time, the county jail was located at 400 S. Jefferson Street, the current home of the Pensacola Little Theatre. Sheriff R. L. Kendrick reported that the day before, October 10, the on-duty jailor, David Parchment, was approached by a hall boy who had noticed that two bars were missing from one of the barred windows in the jail hallway. A spot check was made immediately and it was discovered that Honor Robinson, an inmate held on a charge of assault, escaped sometime between Tuesday, October 6 and Friday, October 9. It appeared that Robinson had been working on this plan for a while. He had slowly sawed the bars into, using soap to cover his work until it was complete. The hole made was about 15 inches, so it would not have been easy to get out. Once out, he climbed down a drainpipe and fled across the rooftop to safety. According to the investigator assigned to the escape, Al Bates, Robinson had previously escaped from Kilby Prison in Montgomery, Alabama.
When the authorities looked at his past, though, eyebrows were raised. Exactly twenty years earlier, on October 10, 1932, Robinson was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama as part of an investigation. On May 29, 1934, he was again arrested in Birmingham for Burglary. He was released on that charge two days later. In six months, however, On January 26, 1935, he was arrested in Birmingham a third time – this one for Grand Larceny and he was sent to the county Road Camp. He was released the same year on March 29. He was arrested again less than three months later on June 20 for another case of Grand Larceny. This time, though, he was sent to the county road camp for a year and a day.
As soon as he got out, he got right to work. On October 8, 1936, Robinson was arrested in Montgomery for Receiving and Concealing Stolen Property. He was sentenced to 5 to 7 years in prison for that. One year and five months later, on March 22, 1938, Robinson, now with the nickname, “Snookums,” was arrested in Birmingham for stabbing his girlfriend, Thelma Jackson, 19, in the chest with an ice pick. No records exist for what happened in that case.
It seems that for the next two years, Robinson either a) was in prison, b) was committing crimes but wasn’t caught, or c) he decided not to commit crimes (doubt it). Regardless, on January 31, 1940, he was arrested in Atlanta for stabbing Geneva Shakespeare to death with a knife in a brawl on Fraser Street. He was captured in Atlanta two weeks later on February 13. He was charged with murder. The next day he was charged with murder from Alabama. On May 31, 1940, he plead guilty to Voluntary Manslaughter in Atlanta. Judge Walter C. Hendrix sentenced him to 7-15 years following his Alabama 20-year sentence.
Robinson didn’t stay there long. On August 7, 1942, he escaped from the Georgia State Prison in Newton, GA, but was recaptured the following day.
Honor Robinson stayed out of trouble for the longest stretch since he was a child. There is no record of him being arrested for ten years, but it might have been because he was locked up the whole time.
In 1952, he arrived in Pensacola. On March 17, he spent the night in jail for Disorderly Conduct. Three months later, on March 15, he was arrested on a charge of beating his wife, Fannie Belle Robinson, 27, and another man with a broomstick. Judge Ernest Mason sentenced him to serve 60 days or pay $100. He chose the 60 days.
Apparently, Fannie and the other man – Sam Bailey – were seeing one another, which didn’t sit well with Honor Robinson. On August 7, 1952, he was released from the road camp. He went straight to look for Fannie in Century, where she and Sam were both from. When Honor found them, he stabbed both of them, leaving them in serious condition – not expected to live. At 8:15 PM the same day, Deputy Constable Harold Erwin located Robinson and took him in. What did Honor Robinson do? He escaped again, which is where the original story comes in. From the roof of the jail in Pensacola, Robinson somehow made his way to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
The January 29, 1953 edition of the Atlanta Georgia featured a story from Oklahoma City, OK: It is entitled, “Describe that Man again – I think he just walked by.”
“Describe that man again – I think he just walked by”
Detective L. L. Filson took the description of a fugitive over the telephone, looked out the window and did a double take.
“Read that description again,” he told Capt. Mark Bain, who was relaying information passed along by Pensacola, Fla., authorities. “A man just walked by that looks like our man.”
The repeat confirmed his suspicion and Filson stepped outside his home and arrested the man. Officers said he identified himself as Honor Robinson, 32, wanted in Pensacola on two charges of assault with intent to kill.
Twenty minutes after the pickup order was received from Florida, Robinson had waived extradition.
An Escambia County, Florida Deputy left immediately for Oklahoma and brought Robinson back to face trial. Robinson faced Judge Ernest E. Mason on February 10, 1953. Because Fannie and Sam came close, but did not die, Robinson was charged with 2 counts of Attempted Murder. His behavior came out at the hearing. Robinson clubbed his wife Fannie with a claw hammer. When Sam intervened, Robinson stabbed him in the chest. But because they lived, the judge was limited in what he could do. He said, “Honor Robinson, I regret that I cannot send you to prison where you belong.” So, I sentence you to four, 1-yr sentences, one behind the other – in the Escambia County Jail.”
Other than that, he was a nice guy.