The Daily state register. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1870-1872, 1871-09-19
STATE PRISON BREAK
4 Desperate Conflict between the Officers
and Convicts-Goverlor Denver and
four Guards badly Wounded
heroic Conduct CT the
Prison Officials.
HIATT. PIXLEY SHOT DEAD!
Great Excitement in Carsnn-Arms and
AbIe-bodied Men in DemaEd-The
Militia Called Out-Two Com
pauies from Virginia
90 Desperate Villains at Large .
Heroic Conduct of a Life Prisoner-At
the Risk of his w Life he saves
that of the Lieut., Governor.
% Desperate Villains at Large !
FUEL PlRTlCUEAR $.
From our Extra Of yasterday.I

At 6 o'clock last evening. when the
wind was blowing a gale and the
whole valley was filed With a blind
ing dust, Il desperate break was made
by the conyicts in the State Prison,
which terminated in the death Of
Matt. PixIey, of the Warm Springs
Hotel, the wounding of nearly all
the officers of the State Prison and
several Of the prisoners, and the es-
cape of t~wenty-nine as desperate vii
lains as ever trod the earth.
At the hour nameI, all the prison
ers beils in the call-room, Nolnay Z.
Rollins, Captain Of the Guard, en-
tered the room As usual fer tn pr
pose Of locking the couyic.s il their
respective cells for the night. Just
as he stepped inside the door a pris
oner struck him on top of the head
with i bo,,le. cutting a cash three
inches anI Il half long, and almost at
the same instant another struck him
with a slung-shot over the left eve.
cutting 10 the bone. He fell bleed
ing but not senseless: andas he sank.
half a dozen c~onvicts rushed ut him
TO deal the death-blow, when Pat.
Hurley gathered Rollins by the body
and threw him into an adjacent cell
and closed the door. thus saving his
life. All this took place without
alarming the guard outside. The
prisoners then climbed to the top Of
the upper tier of cells, and proceed
ed to cu-a hole large enough to al
NIT the passage of Il mans body
through the wall into n Of the
rooms occupied 10y the family of the
Lieutenant Governor. Each prisoner
had provided himself with a slung-
shot IA piece of iron or steel sewed
up in his clothes, the piece being so
torn as to form a loop around the
wrist and some of them had knives
of their own manufacture.
Rushing into the room occupied
by Mrs. Denver, her mother and
daughter, the break of the prisoners
was first discovered, and the alarm
given. Instantly they were met by
Lieutenant Governor Denver, who
commenced firing at them. The
break appeared to be under the lead
ership of Frank Clifford, a 10 year
horse thief from White Pine, and at
him the Warden directed his fire.
The Lieutenant Governor had been
followed up stairs by Robert Dech-
man Tor Deadman) a young man in
for life, who was acting as servant in
the officers quarters. Denver shot
Clifford near the navel and stunned
him, but the tide poured on, and
soon the Lieutenant Governor was
struck in the back of the head with
some sharp-pointed instrument that
penetrated to the skull, and on the
forehead above the eye by a slung-
shot which opened the scalp to the
skull for a distance of three inches
and a half. This felled him to the
floor. when the convicts rushed upon
him, seized his pistol and fired at
him. As the officer fell. Bob Dead
man lin for life seized a chair and
fought like a tiger, knocking down
no less than five of the prisoners.
one of whom he knocked over the
b~alustrading and down the stairs.
His heroic conduct doubtless saved
the life of the Lieutenant Governor.
and was the theme of universal
praise in this city as soon as it be-
came known. Deadman himself was
eventually knocked senseless and left