The “Oregon Boot” — originally called the “Gardner Shackle” — was invented and patented by Oregon State Penitentiary Warden J.C. Gardner in 1866.

It was described as “the dread of the captured criminal … the wonder of the western police world” and it was advertised that no one had ever escaped from an Oregon Boot.

The device consisted of a heavy iron ring — weighing between 5 and 28 pounds — that fit around one lower leg, with supports on either side of the ankle that attached to the heel of a shoe with screws.

These boots were used regularly in Oregon jails for decades, and crippled many prisoners along the way. They eventually went out of use in the 1920s.

But, in 1920, after the capture of Sheriff Til Taylor’s killers, Oregon Boots were brought from Walla Walla, Washington, and Salem for the prisoners to wear — assuring that they could not escape from the Umatilla County Jail again.

The East Oregonian of Oct. 8, 1920, described the “clink of steel as they put their right foot forward” as Jim Owens and Jack Rathie filed out of the courtroom after being sentenced to die at the state gallows.