Daniel Sullivan: Respected & Loved by San Quentin Inmates
by Brian K. Crawford
Daniel Sullivan was born in New York State in 1846 to Irish-born parents. He came to California as a young man. Sullivan must have been married early, because the 1880 census lists him as a widower. In 1879, he started working as a guard at San Quentin Prison. In 1882, he married Mary Ellen McCullough in Vallejo. He was 36; she 27. They had three children in six years: Laura Cecilia in 1883, Eugene Bartlett in 1886, and Ella Bernice in 1888.
Both the staff and the prisoners liked and respected Sullivan. He rose through the ranks, becoming captain of the night watch, then lieutenant of the yard, and finally chief turnkey, the official in charge of maintaining the security of the prisoners. He worked 40 years at San Quentin, and retired on November 6th , 1919, at the age of 74. At that time he and Mary Ellen lived at 352 17th Avenue in San Francisco. He died at the age of 92 on April 10, 1938 in San Francisco and was buried at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma.
When he retired, he was interviewed by reporter Milly Bennett of the San Francisco Daily News. Her report was lengthy, published in three installments from December 4 to 6, 1919. She described him as “white-haired and a trifle deaf, but all the prison had not put a harsh line in his face. His eyes are a gentle blue, and kindly.”
He said that 22,000 men had passed through his charge. He liked most of them, even the murderers, and said many were gentlemen. The men called him “Dad.” He showed Bennett a framed certificate given him by the prisoners at his retirement. It read in part:
“Having learned with sincere regret of the contemplated resignation of Daniel Sullivan as turnkey of San Quentin prison, and appreciating the fact that he has at all times during a service of more than 40 years proved a true friend and adviser, we, representing the inmates of this institution, wish him god-speed and good luck.”
The document was signed by 50 men. Sixteen of those men were murderers, the rest holdup men, burglars, bandits, forgers, embezzlers, and highwaymen.
Sullivan said conditions and officials at the prison were far better and more humane than they had once been:
“When I think of what the prison used to be and what it is now, I wonder what some of the fellows would be like if they were there in the olden days. No lashing now, no water cure, no cruelty from the guards, no bad food.”
During two different prison riots, in 1894 and 1911, he was the only prison official who dared to go into the wards to talk to the prisoners and hear their grievances — terrible food in both cases. He resolved both crises peacefully.
He was present on the scaffold at thirty hangings. Initially a believer in capital punishment, over the years he changed his mind. After he retired and felt free to speak, he advocated eliminating capital punishment as cruel and unusual, because many condemned men were innocent, and only poor men without friends were ever hanged.
He kept a photo album of the men he had met on death row. After his death, that album, together with other San Quentin photographs & ephemera, were donated to the Anne T. Kent California Room by Wally Middleton through the good graces of philanthropist Jeff Craemer.
Originally published at https://annetkent.kontribune.com.
