The 1968 Wicomico County Jailbreak and the Murders of Sheriff Samuel Graham and Deputy Albert Kelly
On December 8, 1968, a violent escape from the Wicomico County Jail in Salisbury, Maryland, claimed the lives of two law enforcement officers. Their deaths led to a manhunt across state lines, a highly publicized murder trial, and a legal battle that would ultimately be affected by one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions in American history.
A December Night That Changed Wicomico County
On Sunday, December 8, 1968, Sheriff Samuel Adams Graham and Deputy Sheriff Albert Lee Kelly were working inside the Wicomico County Jail in Salisbury, Maryland.
The jail was located on the upper floor of the county courthouse. Unlike modern correctional facilities, where administrative offices and residential areas are typically separate, the courthouse jail included living quarters adjoining the facility for the sheriff.
By the end of that Sunday evening, Graham and Kelly would both be dead.
The man responsible was 21-year-old Joseph James Bartholomey Jr., a prisoner who had somehow obtained a loaded .22-caliber handgun while incarcerated.
His escape would trigger a manhunt that stretched from Maryland’s Eastern Shore into Delaware.
The resulting criminal proceedings would include multiple eyewitnesses, forensic evidence, conflicting psychiatric testimony, two death sentences, and a landmark change in constitutional law.
Yet behind the legal proceedings and the extraordinary circumstances of the escape were two men whose lives were taken while performing their duties.
To understand the lasting significance of the 1968 Wicomico County jailbreak, we must begin with Sheriff Samuel Graham and Deputy Albert Kelly.
Sheriff Samuel Adams Graham: A Career of Service
Samuel Adams Graham had served the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office for approximately 11 years when he was killed at age 62.
According to the official history of the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office, Graham was elected sheriff in 1958, succeeding Jesse Morris Pollitt.
His years in office brought significant changes to local law enforcement.
Under Graham’s leadership, the department began using marked patrol vehicles, and its authorized deputy strength increased from four to eight officers. The expansion allowed the department to implement nighttime patrols.
These changes came during a period when the county was confronting changing patterns of crime and increasing demands on law enforcement.
Graham’s responsibilities also included oversight of the county jail, which occupied the upper floor of the courthouse.
He lived in an apartment adjoining the jail, an arrangement that meant his professional responsibilities remained close even when he was at home.
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, Graham was survived by his wife.
His career, however, deserves to be remembered for more than its tragic ending. He had overseen changes that helped modernize the sheriff’s department, and his leadership formed part of the county’s law enforcement history.
Sources: Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office — Department History and Officer Down Memorial Page — Sheriff Samuel Adams Graham.
Deputy Albert Lee Kelly: The Man on Duty
Deputy Sheriff Albert Lee Kelly was also 62 years old when he was murdered.
Kelly had served with the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office for approximately one year, according to a memorial account based on Officer Down Memorial Page information.
On December 8, Kelly was performing the duties of a jailer, overseeing the prisoners housed in the courthouse.
His responsibilities included securing inmates for the evening.
The work required direct contact with prisoners and placed him in a position of responsibility for maintaining order inside the jail.
Although the published appellate record offers limited information about Kelly’s life outside his work, it documents his actions on the night of his death.
He was approaching a prisoner’s cell to carry out the evening lockup when the confrontation began.
Kelly was not responding to a large-scale prison riot or participating in a planned armed operation.
He was performing an ordinary responsibility of his job.
His death, alongside Graham’s, would become one of the defining tragedies in the history of the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office.
Sources: Bartholomey v. State (1971) and Deputy Albert Lee Kelly Memorial Account.
Joseph James Bartholomey Jr.: The Years Before the Murders
Joseph James Bartholomey Jr. was 21 years old in December 1968.
Originally from Baltimore, he had been living in the Salisbury area before his incarceration.
The surviving public court record provides an incomplete but troubling picture of his early life.
During his trial, family members and other witnesses testified about his behavior during childhood and adolescence.
His mother, sister, aunt, father’s second wife, and former girlfriend were among those who described episodes of erratic behavior and attempts to take his own life.
These accounts were introduced as part of the defense’s effort to establish that Bartholomey suffered from a serious psychiatric condition.
However, the court record does not provide a complete chronological biography of his childhood, education, employment, or early relationships.
Nor does it establish a single, uncontested psychiatric explanation for his conduct.
Those distinctions are important when examining a historical case involving conflicting medical testimony.
The Charges That Brought Him to Jail
By December 1968, Bartholomey was being held in the Wicomico County Jail on several outstanding criminal warrants.
Chief Deputy John Walston testified that the warrants included assault, receiving stolen goods, grand larceny, and breaking and entering.
These were pending allegations, not convictions for the offenses listed in the warrants.
Bartholomey was assigned to Cell Number One.
Within days, the offenses for which he had originally been detained would be overshadowed by two murders.
Source: Bartholomey v. State, 260 Md. 504 (1971).
A Jail Already Facing Questions
In the weeks before the murders, the Wicomico County Jail had reportedly been the subject of scrutiny concerning its security and conditions.
According to a February 2026 article about author Stephanie Fowler’s research into the case, the Baltimore Sun published an exposé about the jail in November 1968.
Sheriff Graham responded to that reporting.
His rebuttal reportedly appeared in Salisbury’s Daily Times on December 8, 1968.
It was published the same day he would be murdered.
The coincidence raises troubling questions about security inside the courthouse jail.
At some point before the shootings, Bartholomey obtained a loaded .22-caliber handgun.
The Officer Down Memorial Page reports that the gun was smuggled to him inside a box of candy.
The memorial account also states that a man and a woman were arrested in connection with smuggling the weapon into the jail.
The woman’s case eventually resulted in a conviction for aiding and abetting an escape, according to that account.
How the weapon passed through jail security remains one of the most significant questions surrounding the tragedy.
It also illustrates why the events of December 8 cannot be understood entirely through the actions of Bartholomey alone.
The security procedures, physical layout, and administrative circumstances of the jail were also part of the historical context.
Sources: The Daily Record — Stephanie Fowler’s Research and Officer Down Memorial Page — Sheriff Graham.
December 8, 1968: The Final Evening
At approximately 9:30 p.m., inmate Donald Leon Dashiell was sitting at a desk with Deputy Kelly near the cell-block area.
Kelly approached Cell Number One to secure Bartholomey for the night.
Dashiell noticed that Bartholomey had a gun.
According to testimony later preserved in the Maryland Court of Appeals’ 1971 opinion, Kelly directed Dashiell to close the cell-block door and seek assistance.
Dashiell ran to Sheriff Graham’s adjoining apartment.
He informed Graham that Bartholomey was attempting to escape and that Kelly remained inside the cell-block area.
Graham instructed Dashiell to get help.
As Dashiell entered the courthouse elevator, he heard gunfire.
Before the doors closed, he saw Kelly fall to the floor.
Graham was standing near the cell door.
Additional gunshots followed as the elevator descended toward the basement.
The Witnesses Inside the Jail
Other inmates witnessed portions of the confrontation.
Vincent D. Horsey testified that he heard Bartholomey order Kelly to open the door and threaten to kill him.
Horsey then observed Bartholomey firing the handgun.
Another inmate, Ralph A. Harmon, testified that he saw Kelly fall and Graham collapse against a wall.
Harmon subsequently saw Bartholomey emerge from Cell Number One carrying a pistol.
The testimony of these witnesses helped prosecutors reconstruct the events inside the jail.
Their accounts would later become crucial evidence during Bartholomey’s trial.
Ralph Pusey: The Man Who Survived
A third man narrowly escaped death that evening.
Ralph L. Pusey had been visiting Sheriff Graham to discuss becoming a deputy sheriff.
Earlier, Pusey had shared coffee with Graham and spoken with Kelly.
When he heard gunshots, he entered the hallway and saw the two wounded officers.
Pusey attempted to flee.
Bartholomey appeared from around a corner and fired at him.
The bullet missed Pusey and struck the elevator door.
Pusey escaped into the elevator and survived the encounter.
Bartholomey would later be charged with assault with intent to murder Pusey.
The Deaths of Graham and Kelly
Sheriff Graham and Deputy Kelly died from their gunshot injuries.
The following day, Dr. Peter Boolukas performed autopsies at Peninsula General Hospital.
The examinations established that Kelly had suffered fatal gunshot injuries, including a wound to the head, while Graham died from a gunshot wound to the chest.
Investigators recovered six bullets from the two victims.
Those bullets would become essential evidence in the subsequent murder investigation.
Source: Bartholomey v. State (1971) — Witness Testimony and Medical Evidence.
The Escape and the Manhunt Into Delaware
Following the shootings, Bartholomey escaped from the courthouse.
Authorities began searching for the armed fugitive.
Their investigation soon extended north into Delaware.
Maryland State Police Detective Sergeant Robert D. Weir received information from David Hudson, a friend of Bartholomey.
Hudson’s information indicated that Bartholomey was staying at a motel along Route 13 in Dover, Delaware.
He was reportedly using the assumed name John Davis.
On December 9, Delaware State Police surrounded the Capital City Motel.
Bartholomey was apprehended.
Officers searching his room recovered a .22-caliber pistol hidden inside an air conditioner.
The firearm was submitted for forensic examination along with the bullets recovered from Graham and Kelly.
Maryland State Police ballistics expert Russell M. Wilhelm concluded that the pistol recovered in Dover had fired the bullets that killed both officers.
The evidence established a direct connection between the weapon recovered after Bartholomey’s arrest and the two murders in Salisbury.
The manhunt was over.
The prosecution was just beginning.
Source: Bartholomey v. State (1971) — Dover Arrest and Ballistics Evidence.
The Trial of Joseph James Bartholomey Jr.
Bartholomey’s criminal proceedings were transferred from Wicomico County to Charles County.
He faced four principal charges:
- Escape from the Wicomico County Jail.
- Assault with intent to murder Ralph L. Pusey.
- Murder of Deputy Albert L. Kelly.
- Murder of Sheriff Samuel A. Graham.
The prosecution presented testimony from witnesses who had been inside the jail, investigators involved in Bartholomey’s capture, and forensic experts who examined the evidence.
The defense focused heavily on Bartholomey’s psychiatric condition.
Three defense medical experts testified that they believed he suffered from serious mental illness, including diagnoses involving paranoid psychosis or schizophrenia.
They expressed opinions that his condition had substantially impaired his ability to appreciate the criminality of his actions or conform his behavior to the law.
The prosecution presented rebuttal testimony from two psychiatrists associated with Clifton T. Perkins State Hospital.
Those experts disagreed with the defense’s conclusions about his criminal responsibility.
The competing psychiatric opinions became a central issue in the trial.
Bartholomey himself testified and made statements concerning alleged Communist conspiracies. He also admitted killing Graham and Kelly.
On October 8, 1969, the jury found Bartholomey legally sane at the time of the offenses and guilty on all four charges.
On December 30, 1969, he was sentenced to death for each of the two murders.
He also received prison sentences for the escape and attempted murder of Pusey.
Source: Bartholomey v. State, 260 Md. 504 (1971).
The Supreme Court Decision That Changed His Sentence
Bartholomey’s murder convictions were affirmed by Maryland’s highest court in 1971.
However, the legal status of his death sentences would soon change.
In 1972, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Furman v. Georgia, finding constitutional problems with the death-penalty systems then operating in several states.
The ruling affected Bartholomey’s sentences.
In December 1972, the Maryland Court of Appeals directed that Bartholomey be resentenced to life imprisonment for each murder.
His murder convictions remained intact.
The change concerned the punishment that could legally be imposed, not whether he had committed the crimes.
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, Bartholomey died in prison in 2008.
Sources: Bartholomey v. State, 267 Md. 175 (1972) and Officer Down Memorial Page — Sheriff Graham.
A Community Remembers
For the families and colleagues of Sheriff Graham and Deputy Kelly, the events of December 8, 1968, represented far more than a criminal case.
Two members of the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office had been killed in the line of duty.
The department’s official history records that the community rallied around the sheriff’s office following the murders, even as discussions continued about the future structure of county law enforcement.
Their deaths remain part of the county’s institutional memory.
On May 15, 2025, Graham and Kelly were among four fallen law enforcement officers honored during a Peace Officers Memorial Day ceremony at the new Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office.
More than 56 years after their deaths, their names were still being spoken and their service remembered.
Their legacy is not limited to the circumstances of the jailbreak.
It is also reflected in the community’s continued commitment to remembering those who lost their lives in service.
Sources: Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office — History and WBOC — Four Fallen Officers Honored in Wicomico County.
Remembering the Men, Not Just the Crime
The 1968 Wicomico County jailbreak remains one of the most disturbing chapters in the criminal history of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Its circumstances are extraordinary: a handgun smuggled into a courthouse jail, the murders of two officers, an escape across state lines, and a murder case whose sentences were ultimately altered by a historic Supreme Court ruling.
But the facts of the crime are only part of the story.
Sheriff Samuel Adams Graham had spent years serving Wicomico County and helping develop its law enforcement capabilities.
Deputy Albert Lee Kelly was carrying out his duties as a jailer when he was killed.
Both men were 62 years old.
Both lost their lives on December 8, 1968.
And both deserve to be remembered as individuals, rather than simply as victims of a notorious escape.
The legal record tells us what happened that night.
The continuing responsibility of historical storytelling is to remember the people whose lives were taken.
Sheriff Samuel Adams Graham.
Deputy Sheriff Albert Lee Kelly.
Their names remain part of Delmarva’s history.
And their stories deserve to be told.
Further Reading and Sources
The following sources were used to research this article.
Primary court records
- Maryland Court of Appeals. Bartholomey v. State, 260 Md. 504, 273 A.2d 164 (1971). Eyewitness testimony, investigation, psychiatric evidence, verdict, and original sentences.
https://law.justia.com/cases/maryland/court-of-appeals/1971/260-md-504.html - Maryland Court of Appeals. Bartholomey v. State, 267 Md. 175, 297 A.2d 696 (1972). Effect of the Supreme Court’s death-penalty ruling and order for resentencing.
https://law.justia.com/cases/maryland/court-of-appeals/1972/267-md-175.html - Maryland State Archives. Wicomico County Circuit Court criminal papers, Series TE126. Archival holdings for the original Bartholomey case.
https://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/series.aspx?id=TE126
Law enforcement and memorial records
- Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office. History of the Sheriff’s Office. Information about Sheriff Graham’s tenure and the department’s development.
https://www.wicomicosheriff.com/history - Officer Down Memorial Page. Sheriff Samuel Adams Graham. Line-of-duty death and biographical information.
https://www.odmp.org/officer/5639-sheriff-samuel-adams-graham - Officer Down Memorial Page. Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office. Fallen officer records, including Deputy Albert Lee Kelly.
https://www.odmp.org/agency/4240-wicomico-county-sheriffs-office-maryland - Maryland State Archives. Former Sheriffs of Wicomico County. Historical list of elected sheriffs.
https://2018mdmanual.msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/36loc/wi/jud/sheriffs/former/html/00list.html
Newspapers and additional historical research
- Lauren Roberts, Salisbury Daily Times, republished by The Daily Record, February 10, 2026. Double Homicide in MD Jail Examined by Author Stephanie Fowler in New Book.
https://thedailyrecord.com/2026/02/10/stephanie-fowler-1968-wicomico-county-jail-murders-book/ - WBOC, May 15, 2025. Four Fallen Officers Honored in Wicomico County on Peace Officers Memorial Day.
https://www.wboc.com/news/four-fallen-officers-honored-in-wicomico-county-on-peace-officers-memorial-day/article_9d34a00f-449f-43a5-936f-df5f4e5ede2b.html - Delmarva Public Media, October 6, 2025. Into the Night by Stephanie Fowler. Author discussion of the case and her research.
https://www.delmarvapublicmedia.org/local-news/2025-10-06/into-the-night-by-stephanie-fowler - Delmarva Public Media, February 13, 2026. Delmarva Today: The Story of the 1968 Jailbreak and Double Homicide on the Eastern Shore.
https://www.delmarvapublicmedia.org/show/delmarva-today/2026-02-13/delmarva-today-2-13-26-the-story-1968-jailbreak-and-double-homicide-on-the-eastern-shore
Book for additional research
- Stephanie Fowler. Into the Night: A Jailbreak and Double Murder on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Consult the published book for further historical context, original archival findings, and accounts not included in the published appellate opinions.
Three States, Dark Truths explores true crime, historical mysteries, and the darker chapters of the Delmarva Peninsula. Our goal is to tell these stories accurately, respectfully, and with consideration for the victims, their families, and the communities affected.
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