Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1871-10-26
NEVADA ooNvICqrs.
A1ress or One fthe Escaped Pris.
Snors In this City-His story. z

. ~ - r FL.
From tho s. F. Alta OF ycsterdsyl
On the evening of September 18th,
twenty-nine ~convlcts made suecess-
ful break from the Nevada State Prison
at Carson. Full particulars of the
hand-to-hand conflicts that en-
sued, and the subsequent efforts that
were made by the officers and citizens
to capture the refugees. were given.
Yesterday afternoon Captain Lees and
Bohen arrested, on Vallejo
street wharf, William Russell,
n OF TUE ESCAPED coNv1cTS.
Russell Is man about. five feet ten
high, thlrty-two years old, and
a native of Ohio. Some years since
he was convicted in this city of felony,
and sent to San Quentin, whore he
served his time out. He then went to
Virginia City, and had only been out
of prison about three months when no
committed highway robbery, for which
he was tried and convicted III the
District Court of Storey county and
sentenced to State Prison for Six years.
Al tho time of the break he had served
one wear and three months OF this
term. Russell Is q wicked and dcs-
nerate character. While In prison at
Carson he had several bloody scrapes.
In one ARRAY he cut the notorious Tom
Heffron In the abdomen. This grew
out of some trouble regarding q break
that had beeu attempted, IN which sew
eral prisoners were shot, among them
being Jim Garnett, a partner OF Rus
sell. The attempted break, In which
Russell was one OF the leaders. proved
q failure, and the Hebron gang charged
that Russell was a coward, and he de-
terminea to show to the contrary by,
au attempt to take Heffron's life.
~RUssELL.'s STORY.
Last evening one of the reporters Of
the alta visited Russell in his cell, to
whom he related a story substantially
as follows: The break hal been In
contemplation about two weeks, Hef-
from and Roberts being tho leaders.
Il was all arranged quietly among the
men willis they wore ut work In the
stone quarry. Only a few were in the
confidence of the leaders, being first
told of 1t. Some were not aware OF
what was to take place up to within
three days of the occurrence. The
officers rooms are ON the east end OF
the prison, the dining room being on
the west end, aud rows of cells on the
sides. For some days previous d hole
had been cut through tho wooden roof
large enough for a man to crawl
through, and everything was put In
readiness when the time came for the
signal. All day long Sunday the
prisoners, about seventy in number,
were kept In the large dining ball.
At @ o'clock In the evening, the hour
for the prisoners to be taken to the
cells, the Captain Of the Guard I'M
locked the iron gates Of the dining
hall for the prisoners to 80 to the coils.
As soon as he entered the door Pat
Hurley, alias Nose Boucher, gave tho
signal for the break by dropping the
iron ball attached to his leg to tho
hall floor. The Captain Of the Guard
was Immediately seized by Squircs and
floored. l then caught hold of the
Captains hair, and Squlres struck at
his head with a bottle, but he hit me
on my right wrist, which soon swelled
up; the Captain received several
blows. I took the keys from him,
threw him in q cell and locked tie
door on him. Nearly all Of US had a
tool Of some kind or other; 1t was
very easy to get tools there. The boys
then made a rush for tho roof, run
along until they got to the head Of the
main staircase, and from there made q
break for the office, surprisedal hands
and the fighting commenced ; l heard
several shots fired ; we climbed over a
fence, sono went up on ladders, and
others were hauled up ; We kept pretty
much together for about two miles ;
had cut my chains before | left the
prison some had their chains cut
| when we we're short distance off; !
then went with McCue, Ingram, Bige:
low and Mcnamara, and remained
with them for n night and n day; !
read n good deal about the bravery OF
officers and others, but l did not see
any of 1t ; the first night my party
camped out In the sagcbrush n fire
was lit while I was asleep; l awoke,
and seeing some men a distance of on
horseback, I had the fire squclched
my party of five wanted me rs their
leader; I said "All right" but the
five could not agree; they would not
do as I wanted them, and when 1t was
dark on Monday evening l left them,
and have seen nothing of them since
| travelled all alone; they may talk as
they please about their brave men ]
passed two on horseback, raised an old
musket with the lock broke, and they
| went in another direction l crossed
the Carson river and went toward the
Sierra Nevada mountains ; on the road
I met two men, and was supposed to
be Thomas Hebron; they had some
grub, which I took and walked OF
with; | was 20
WITHOUT FOOD THREE DAYS.
And walked all the way to Lake Ia.
hoe, and lost the trail to Truckee ; on
the way to Truckee I went IN a cabin
and tooka pistol. which Isold for 81
at Truckee ; | had on my prison clothes
and a s~ix-shooter hanging out from my
vest; l went into the hotel and de-
manded breakfast; Il woman and ten
men were there they concluded IL
was best to satisfy me, and ! took my
meal facing tho door so I could be
ready ii any ono came for me while
at Truckee 1 went into a bar-room for
q glass OF water, two men, who, were
drunk at the bar, asked me If T would
take q drink ; I said certainly called
for some whisky and filled my tumbler,
as It was the first I had since Igot out;
one of the men went In tho street; he
said he had dropped five dollars in the
sawdust; J. saw lie had three dollars In
his hands so I went up to him and
said to myself wanted the three dol
lars worse than no did.
ITooK THE MONEY FROM HIM,
Then lit q candle for him to look for
his five dollars and walked. OF; on the
road I found a sack ; think 1t belonged
to some mason, and as l wanted to got
rid Of my prison clothes I opened the
sack and took out an old coat and q