Anton Woode

March 13, 2006
Anton Woode was convicted of shooting Joseph Smith in the back for a gold watch during an 1892 hunting trip near Brighton, Colo. What made this killing unusual was that the confessed murderer was only 11 years old. Denver Post
columnist Kreck (Murder at the Brown Palace
) has done a competent job of researching this case, providing documentation of how youthful offenders were treated at the end of the 19th century. In particular, Kreck covers the campaign of Judge Benjamin B. Lindsey, founder of Denver's Juvenile Court, who worked tirelessly to explain how poverty and neglect drove young people like Woode to crime and sought ways to reform juveniles. Woode was sentenced to 25 years of hard labor at a state penitentiary; the author includes a heartrending 1899 letter from Woode to the governor pleading for his release. Thanks to the intervention of Madge Reynolds, wife of an oil executive, Woode was released after 12 years in prison and was pardoned in 1906. During his incarceration, the poorly educated Woode became interested in art, learned to speak French and German and readvoraciously. Kreck offers an inviting but small historical window on the still burning issue of how to treat juvenile criminals

May 1, 2006
"Denver Post"columnist Kreck ("Murder at the Brown Palace" details the story of a boy who shot a man in the back in 1892 because he liked the man -s pocket watch. Anton Woode, only 11 years old at the time, received a 25-year prison sentence for his crime. Kreck has produced a well-researched account of Woode -s life -Woode was released after 12 years, having been a model prisoner -and gives an interesting overview of juvenile justice from a Colorado perspective. He shows how the pendulum keeps moving from treating juveniles as adults to treating them as kids who can be helped, back to harsher punishments in this post-Columbine world. Alas, the book would be much improved by better editing (e.g., more care with proper name references). It is obvious that Kreck is extremely knowledgeable about his subject (there is an extensive bibliography), so his failure to offer commentary on juvenile justice today in Colorado and in the United States generally makes the book feel incomplete. Likely of moderate interest for regional (Colorado) collections only. Not recommended otherwise." -Karen Sandlin Silverman, Ctr. for Applied Research, Philadelphia"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2006
Adult/High School-In 1893, all of Denver was enthralled by the story of a local 11-year-old charged with coldheartedly shooting a visiting hunter for his pocket watch. As Kreck points out, the accused was at an awkward agetoo old to set free, too young to hang. Woode was eventually convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in the Colorado state prisonthe youngest person ever sent there. The book follows his progress through the state's legal systemincluding his attempted escapesand his life after being released. He became a cause célèbre for juvenile justice reformers in Colorado, many of whom were influential in changing the system. The author focuses as much on how late-19th-century society treated juvenile criminals as it does on Woode's specific case, revealing some fascinating details about social and class prejudices at the time. He offers lurid and well-written details of Woode, his crime, and the seedy world in which he lived. However, the small black-and-white head shots don't do justice to the narrative's potential appeal."Sallie Barringer, Walnut Hills High School, Cincinnati, OH"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.