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Archiver > IAHENRY > 2004-03 > 1078358056


From: "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>
Subject: [IAHENRY] !! Free Press; Henry Co, IA; Aug 7, 1879 "Jail Break"
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2004 17:54:16 -0600


The Free Press
Mount Pleasant, Henry, Iowa
Thursday, Aug. 7, 1879

A STRIKE FOR FREEDOM
Seven Prisoners Escape from our County Jail.
About 4 o'clock Tuesday morning, it was discovered that seven of the inmates
of our jail had taken leg bail, by which proceeding under a new rule of court
seven prisoners were cleared on one motion without payment of costs.
Capt. Devol, residing just west of the jail, saw three or four men hurrying
past his house, about 3 o'clock, and mistrusting something wrong he called up
Deputy Sheriff Conner. Connor commenced looking around the city, expecting to
find some thieving band. Finding Night Watchman, J.S. Craig, and not finding
anything wrong, they concluded the fugitives were from the jail. On reaching the
jail they found the birds had flown, leaving only Col. Crusen to keep house. The
persons escaping were:
John Bailey, a German, aged 36; 5 feet 7 1/2 inches high; black hair;
complexion dark; ink star on right arm.
William O'Neal; 35 years old; 5 feet 7 3/4 inches high; black hair;
mustache; complexion fair; fresh cut on head.
P. Raymond; 23 years old; 5 feet 8 inches high; smooth-faced; dark hair;
complexion dark; wart on left elbow; 3 fore-fingers off left hand.
R. Beard; 32 years old; 5 feet 7 1/2 inches high; auburn hair; complexion
light.
J.F. Fetrow; 24 years old; 5 feet 9 1/4 inches high; auburn hair; complexion
light.
Harlan McKune; 28 years old; about 6 feet high; complexion fair. Murder;
killed Riley, near Marshall, Henry County, Iowa.
Silas Casteel; 34 years old; 6 feet high; very heavy mustache; dark hair;
complexion dark.
They effected their escape by removing one of the rocks of the wall, this
rock being 2 1/2 feet long, 18 inches wide and one foot thick. It is now evident
that the strong wall which was believed to be burglar proof and on which we have
been depending for ten years as giving perfect security is not safe at all. And
the very devices which were relied upon as its safe feature, under the ingenuity
of the confined, become one of the especial-if not indispensable-helps to open
the jail. The wall is 18 inches thick and made by putting one stone upon the
other, cutting in the center of the top and bottom of each rock a hole half
large enough to let in a one and a half inch iron ball. The thickness of the
mortar below and above the rock removed was 1 1/4 inches. When this was removed
then they only wanted a trifle over one-quarter of an inch more space to let
rock free. To secure this, they sawed a passage slanting upward in the rock
below just wide enough and deep enough for the ball to roll in. When they had
done this, all they had to do was to roll the rock into the cell and ease it
carefully down upon the bed, and they had a hole that anybody could go through.
In building the new addition to the jail, the cupboard is placed against the
jail wall. The rock removed extended about six inches north of the addition.
When they removed the rock, they came to the back of the cupboard, made of 3/4
inch pine matched, through this they cut, a hole 15 1/2 inches wide and 10
inches high. Across this hole, and about 2 1/2 inches from the bottom, ran a
shelf 14 inches wide and 1 inch thick. It is supposed that one of the men
crawled through the hole above the shelf, 7 1/2 by 15 1/2 inches. This one took
the sheriff's buck saw out of the frame and they soon had the shelf out of the
way. The extreme warm weather making it impossible for the prisoners to sleep in
their cells with closed doors allowed them to work at night. And the other fact
that the sheriff relied upon the assertion of the builder and others as to the
perfect safety of the wall, we think relieves the sheriff from all blame.
Now that the security of the stone wall has been demonstrated to be a
humbug, we expect there will be an overhauling of the same, when there will be
an opportunity to do something by way of ventilation and cleansing that will
render the place fit for a person to live in.
The only tool the prisoners left were a bit of steel corset stay, a table
leg, and some pieces of chair rounds, about four inches long, used for rollers,
and one old rusty gouge chisel. They used their bedding to deaden any sound.

Henry Co, IA USGenWeb Project
http://www.rootsweb.com/~iahenry/index.htm
Iowa Old Press
http://www.IowaOldPress.com/


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