In 1894, the two-story building at the southwest corner of Ferris Street and Gratio Place in Green Cove Springs was built and became the pride of the county. The new jail was considered the state of the art in jail construction – concrete and steel.

If buildings could talk, this one would certainly have a lot of tales to tell. Luckily there are still some people around to tell those stories.

Former Sheriff Jennings Murrhee served Clay County during the 1960’s and 1970’s. For most of his term in office he operated out of the old jail. In the latter years of his tenure, he supervised the construction of and the move to Clay County’s next new jail. Unlike the old building, Murrhee does tell stories – like this.

Billy Joe Kreb and his bunch were terrorizing Northeast Florida. They had robbed over 50 or 60 businesses and knocked off more than 20 Post Offices. But they made the mistake of robbing the Post Office at Middleburg and Clay County got them.

Now Billy Joe was not your average prisoner and used his skills as a locksmith to shape a key from a spoon with a file smuggled in by a fellow prisoner.

Deep in the night, he began to unlock doors starting with the one to his cell. Then, creeping past sleeping fellow prisoners, he opened the cellblock door and finally unlocked the door barring the iron steps down to the first floor. Clutching his heavy boots to his chest he held his breath and began to ease down the stairs.

He was especially careful to make no sound that might alert the jailer and his family sleeping on the other side of the wall. Sweat was surely forming on his brow and he could probably smell what the family had for dinner and could hear if the jailer snored. There was only one more door at the base of the stairs between him and freedom.

The next morning, before good light, when jailer, James Corbin, walked around from his house in the front of the jail and opened the exterior door, he got a surprise. There on the concrete floor sat Billy Joe, holding his modified spoon and looking kind of dazed. He had unlocked almost every door in that jail but the most important one. It was solid steel - and had no lock on the inside.

It was all over but the shoutin’.