Deputy Sheriff Ernest Earle Goode, Sr.

Ernest Earle Goode, Sr.

Deputy Goode was shot and killed during an escape at the Galveston County Jail. He was removing an inmate from his cell when the inmate produced a semi-automatic pistol which had been smuggled to him by a friend. The man ordered Deputy Goode to release two other inmates. After Deputy Goode complied, the inmate shot him in the chest as he pleaded for his life. As they attempted to flee they were confronted by the Chief Jailer, who was beaten severely by the men with a iron pipe.

One suspect, 28, was apprehended in Salt Lake City, Utah, on July 7, 1938. Another, 34, was apprehended in Des Moines, Iowa, in late August, 1938, in connection with a robbery committed there. The third suspect, 27, and the triggerman, was apprehended in Tacoma, Washington, on October 15, 1938. He refused to say who gave him the pistol. On November 9, 1938, the suspect, 28, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life. A week later the suspect, 34, was sentenced to 50 years. On November 23, 1938, the third suspect was sentenced to life. It was his mother that smuggled the pistol to him. On December 2, 1942, he escaped from the Retrieve Prison Farm in Angleton. On February, 24, 1943, he surrendered himself to authorities in Houston. He was paroled on March 15, 1956.