While serving time at the Caledonia State Prison Farm in Halifax County, North Carolina, Williams related that the superintendent, H.T. Peoples, noted his mechanical aptitude and allowed him access to the prison's machine shop, where he demonstrated a knack for fashioning his own tools the shop lacked. He began servicing the weapons used by the guards at the prison. His skills in the machine shop permitted him to stay ahead of his assignments and allowed him time to develop his ideas for self-loading firearms.