Willard N. Jordan author page

NOTE: This bio covers both Willard Jordan and Archie Kreiling.

A 1959 profile of Margaret Farrar in The New Yorker noted that "a good many puzzles…come from inmates of penitentiaries, who presumably have plenty of time on their hands." While it is unknown just how many Times constructors in that era were inmates, two were Willard N. Jordan and Archie S. Kreiling. From prison between 1942 and 1954, Jordan had 39 known puzzles in the Times, including the first pangram. Kreiling had at least 10 puzzles in the Times. Not only were they both prisoners, they were inmates at the same prison at the same time. Both were prisoners at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio in the 1940s. Each also was eventually transferred to the London Prison Farm, a facility for prisoners on good behavior, located near London, Ohio (though it is unknown how long, if at all, they overlapped at London). While it seems a virtual certainty that they knew each other, there is no known evidence of their relationship.

Jordan and Kreiling had similar paths to prison. Each was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1930s for killings committed in the course of much lesser offenses. In 1931, Jordan shot and killed a police officer who was attempting to arrest him for stealing five automobile tires; Kreiling killed a night watchman in 1937 during a burglary of a dry cleaning company. In both cases, the juries recommended "mercy," which meant Jordan and Kreiling each avoided the death penalty and instead received life sentences. Jordan died in prison in 1955, while Kreiling was eventually paroled in 1960.

On the topic of prisoner-constructors, Will Shortz noted in 2017 that, notwithstanding that old joke about inmates having time on their hands, he has rarely received submissions from prisoners. The first one he accepted was from Lonnie Burton in 2017. Eugene Maleska, in his 1984 book Across and Down, said that he received puzzle submissions from inmates, but did not indicate whether he accepted any.

Willard Newton Jordan was born in Columbia Station, Ohio in 1901. His father, Robert Jordan, was a grocer and his mother, Estella (Reisinger) Jordan, was a home maker. In 1932, he was convicted of first-degree murder for the killing of Columbus patrolman Leslie Green. Green and other officers were attempting to arrest Jordan for stealing five tires when Jordan fired multiple shots, killing Green. He was sentenced to life in prison. He died in prison in 1955 at the age of 54.

Archibald Sylvester Kreiling was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1909, the son of Olin Kreiling, a streetcar conductor, and Agnes (Ruche) Kreiling, a homemaker. In 1937, he was convicted of first-degree murder for killing Joseph Kristy, a night watchman, during a burglary at a dry cleaning plant. In 1960, after 23 years in prison, the governor of Ohio reduced his conviction from first-degree murder to second-degree, making him eligible for parole. He was paroled later that year. He died in 1974 at the age of 65.