An obliging prison cook received a pistol from an O'Connor accomplice outside the walls and had smuggled it into Tommy's death row cell. The rest as they say, is history. O'Connor commandeered a get away car and disappeared into the County. The rotting wooden gallows reserved for O'Connor were not dismantled until 1977, by which time it was apparent that Tommy would not be coming back. That might refer to our county jail.
Conditions there are absolutely appalling.
If the people knew how bad conditions were they would not go to sleep at night, or they would wake up screaming. The attending scandal, and the absence of adequate policing for the 1,600 square miles of suburban expanse in Cook County underscored the crying need for the creation of a Highway Patrol Police. The frequency of armed holdups on the rural highways was becoming more alarming to the law abiding citizens of the metropolitan region who were venturing further and further outside the city limits, or as far as their Model-T Fords could carry them on Cook County's rough, uneven suburban roads. It was common practice in those days for robbers to hide in the ditch while a female accomplice would lure the victim into a trap by lying across the road, feigning injury. The crime victim often found himself marooned on a deserted country road, having been relieved of his cash, his valuables, and his automobile.