Pretty Paul's Gangster Days
The short, tragic life of Paul Olin "Pretty" Callin
Paul Olin Callin (1902 – 1930) was the youngest of three siblings: he had an older sister, Ruth, and a brother, Martin. They grew up in Ashland, Ohio, where their father worked as a blacksmith. Delbert Dean Callin (1863-1934) was a descendant of my 5th-great grandfather, James Callin, making Paul and his siblings my 4th cousins, twice removed.
Delbert had married Hettie Stull in June 1890, only to lose her in death that August to unknown causes. Widowed Delbert married his second wife, Mary E Coleman (1872–1962) on 31 December 1891, and Ruby was born the following October. Martin was born in 1894 and was probably named for Del’s older brother, who had been a prominent businessman in Crawford County, Ohio, until his tragic death in a train accident in 1889.1
Life as a blacksmith in Ohio at the beginning of the twentieth century was probably not easy. “By the end of the 19th century, most blacksmiths found themselves out of their typical line of work, and needed to diversify to get by. Shoeing horses became a major source of income for displaced blacksmiths, but the development of the automobile industry quickly reduced the need for this work in the early 20th century.”2
Dell seems to have found work in the shops and factories around Ashland, but his household struggled as his kids got older. In December 1914, Mary filed for divorce, charging “habitual drunkenness and failure to provide.” According to Mary, “her oldest daughter has worked to help support the family since she was 15 years old and the son since he was 10 years old.”3 The judge granted the divorce in Jan 1915 and gave Mary custody of the children.
We can only speculate as to how the children felt about this. Paul, for one, put on a brave - and handsome - face, according to his senior yearbook entry in 1918. His big brother enlisted in a medical unit in the National Army in May 1918 and returned the following year.
Paul lived in Ashland at least until 1921, when he was listed in the city directory, working as a druggist clerk. He and his family moved to Akron where they lived at 184 Eureka Terrace together. On 16 Jul 1924, 23-year-old Paul married Ruth Claudine Warren (1903–1980) of Columbus.
Akron, Ohio, had a lot going on in the mid-1920s. The Prohibition Era was in full swing, coinciding with the rise of “flapper culture” - when young women were out to have fun. “They bobbed their hair, applied colorful makeup, wore short dresses, rolled down their stockings, chewed gum, swigged gin and even smoked cigarettes. Worst of all, they listened to jazz and danced. Oh, how they danced.”4
We don’t know what Paul or Ruth thought about all of this, but it seems likely that Paul, at least, liked to live a little. We know he was proud of his looks, and if he suffered from an unhappy childhood, he may have found himself enjoying the Roaring ‘20’s - and the criminal elements of it that came along with the party atmosphere.
If I had to guess, I would say that Ruth was not happy about Paul’s life choices. She divorced him in October 1928 and moved back to Columbus. She supported herself as a stenographer and telephone operator, and as far as I can tell, remained single until she died in 1980.
On December 1, 1928, The Akron Beacon Journal reported that detectives “swooped down upon the headquarters of a holdup gang … and captured four men and one woman, who is alleged to be the ring-leader.” Members of the gang included Paul Callin, 28. All were charged with highway robbery.
Paul and his compatriots confessed to several holdups, and Paul was convicted and sentenced to 10 to 25 years. Mrs. Leona Steele, the woman arrested as the ringleader, tried to deny her involvement, but Paul and another man, Frank Butler, testified that they had plotted the robberies at her home.
The 1930 U.S. Federal Census for Columbus, Ohio, was enumerated on April 16, 1930. Paul Callin, 29 and divorced, is listed as an inmate in the Ohio State Penitentiary. Interestingly, he is listed as a veteran of the World War - though I have not found any records to support that.
A mere few days after that census was taken, Paul was killed in a terrible fire at the penitentiary that claimed a total of 317 people on 21 April 1930.
This was the deadliest prison fire in the history of the United States. An investigation, hampered by the unwillingness of the convicts to talk about what they knew, turned up evidence of arson as part of a failed escape attempt. The prison had been built for 1,500 and at the time of the fire it held 4,300.
Paul’s family had stayed in Akron. His brother, Martin, married and had a daughter, Vivian, in 1926, but sadly, his wife, Irene, died in 1931. Martin and Vivian went to live with Martin and Paul’s sister, Ruby, and their mother, Mary. Vivian married in 1949 and lived with her husband in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After Mary died in 1962, Martin and Ruby eventually moved to New Mexico, where they died - he in 1976, she in 1984.
This story unfolded in a very roundabout way for me. For a long time, all I knew about Paul came from the Census and a few city directories, and I hadn’t looked very closely at the 1930 Census. In my defense, I was in the middle of the massive project that would turn into the Callin Family History, and even though I saw he was included in the population of the Ohio State Penitentiary, I didn’t realize he was an inmate initially - since several of my family members have appeared on the census in institutions like this as employees. It wasn’t until I noticed that he was listed as divorced that it occurred to me to look harder and I noticed he was a prisoner.
Once I found the newspaper articles reporting his death, along with so many others, I began searching for other details: the trial of “Bandit Queen” Leona Steele, details of his marriage and his ex-wife’s life, and the timeline of events.
There is a technique to this kind of story recovery - check out Kate’s list of prompts on Motley Stories:
As always, it’s hard to fill in the gaps and the context accurately. I don’t know whether his arrest and conviction showed Paul the error of his ways, or if it hardened him and made him determined to be a smarter, more dangerous criminal when he got out of prison. I don’t know whether his wife was a wild flapper and partner in his criminal life, or if she wanted a quiet family life and simply wouldn’t follow him down the path he chose. I think the latter is more likely, but we don’t know.
If you are telling a factual story, like I’m trying to do, that’s where you have to stop. If you’re looking to expand the narration and capture a possible version that gives your reader insight into the times and places… you can do that. (Just make sure your reader knows what is fact and what is speculation!)
Let me know what you think in the comments - especially if you know you’re related to that branch of the family.
And if you want more stories and essays like this, I post twice a week - and there are a lot of folks like us in the recommendations section!
Telegraph-Forum, Bucyrus, Ohio; Fri, Feb 15, 1889, Page 3.
Ohio History Connection, History Blog, “Can’t Keep a Good Blacksmith Down”; Posted May 8, 2020.
News-Journal, Mansfield, Ohio, Wed, Dec 2, 1914 Page 7.
Akron Beacon Journal, “Local history: Flapper culture (and all that jazz) gripped Akron in the 1920s,” Published 24 September 2017.
I actually have blacksmiths in some of the family histories I am working on. The area I live in produces a lot of carbon and powdered metal. Carbon production in the area has been in end area over 100 years. Maybe because of the nature of the manufacturing in the area, blacksmiths were able to make a good living up until the 1960s. They were also able to become die setters and machinists.