The Man With Two Pardons

From working as a prisoner on a chain gang to doing missionary work in Japan was quite a jump for Ed Martin. But two pardons helped him bridge the gap. It's hard to believe that this soft-spoken, white-haired man with the free, easy smile, was once a fugitive from justice. A fugitive with bloodhounds on his trail and a bounty on his head!

Edward, the grandson of a preacher, was 13 when his home broke up. He went with his father, a builder, and they traveled so much that he went through first grade three times. These were difficult years. Ed hated school. Not so much because of the studies, but because the other kids made so much fun
of him. He wore coarse clothes and he remembers that his lunch pail was an old lard bucket. Lunch, well, that was mostly corn bread and pinto beans.

No doubt to make up for all his insecurities, Ed found his niche with a "bunch of other rough kids." Together they became a headache for the local police. It wasn't surprising that "that Martin boy" was finally caught, though actually on a minor offense, and sent to reform school.

At this time, Ed's sister, "who had always tried to do what she could to keep the family together," he remembers, became a Christian. Her letters to him from then on show2ed her love and concern for this wayward brother.

But Ed was not yet ready to change his way of life. Once out of reform school, he started working at a sawmill, drinking and carousing, writing bad checks, and finally stealing a car, which led Ed once again into the arms of the law. This time he was sentenced to 4 years in the Richmond, Virginia, penitentiary. There he and other prisoners were put on a 6-foot length of trace chain to do roadwork.

It wasn't many months until Martin, now in his early twenties, and another convict began plotting their escape. The chance came when the two of them were doing roadwork separate from the rest one day. And their one guard had only a .38 revolver in his hip pocket. Faking a shoe problem, which he asked
the guard to check, Ed grabbed the man's revolver and he and his companion fled into the Virginia hills. Here the fugitives dodged mountaineers (anxious to get an offered reward) and armed men with bloodhounds for 7 days. They were hungry, thirsty and too tired to resist capture when a squad car caught up with them on a narrow, winding mountain road.

Back in prison Ed found he now had a short step-chain on his legs. He was bitter and hot-tempered.

Then one day he got a letter from his sister's roommate. She wrote, "Looking at your picture on your sister's dresser, I'm sure you have many fine qualities. She and I are praying for you, together, every day..."

Later this girl, Alfreda, visited him and explained to Ed how he could find peace for his troubled heart and life. After she left, alone and in chains, Ed prayed and asked the Lord Jesus to come into his heart.

That's when he got his first pardon.

The change was dramatic and affected every part of his life. One day the sergeant in charge asked him to preach to the men. He did.

A short time later this same sergeant startled Ed one day with, "Ed, you'll be leaving us next Tuesday." In explanation, he added, "You're one of the first men to be paroled under the first parole board in Virginia." Thirteen men were up for consideration, but only Ed made it.

Sometime after this came the second pardon--an absolute pardon from the governor of Virginia!

Ed married Alfreda soon after he got out of prison and they spent 15 years working in Japan as missionaries. Three sons joined their ranks. Then back to Virginia they were involved in prison evangelism. Fitting work for a man who understands prisoners, the man with two pardons.