The Leavenworth weekly times., 1875-08-05

excitement ran high. The fire bells were
rung. as the easiest plan OF bringing to-
gether crowd, FROM which to enroll VOL
unteers for the pursuit. The Governor was
consulted, and permission was obtained 10
dispatch some OF the Scouts, who mounted
and rode of. without he usual forrnality
attending a call to service. The crowd
and the excitement at the Jail had been
increasing. Two hundred, possibly three
hundred, people stood about the door, and
inside there were more than should have
been allowed ~ enter, unless TO be kept
there for good.
Al the hour mentioned-that i, at four
o'clock-eyerything seemed unusually quiet
in the Jail. Captain Richard SOpris, the
taller, was up town, and 20 was Sherih VII
loughby, whose family occupy apartments
in the front part Of the building. The door
between the Office and the prison proper
was open. Lee Sopris and Edward Holtz,
the guards on duty at the time, were seated
bv the table in the office, or reception room,
one reading and the other fumbling pack
OF cards. The door had been left open, a.
usual, 10 enable the guards to hear what
was going on inside. Suddenly there was
rush through the open door, and the guards
found themselves at the mercy OF gang Of
prisoners, whose appearance was the signal
Tor murierous onslaught. Holtz received
three strokes about the head, one back OF
the left ear, one over the right eye, and an
other across the nose. Sopris, who, when
the rush was made, had attempted 10 draw
his revolver. was knocked down, and the
revolver knocked from his hand by a blow
~.
prostrate upon the floor, nearly or quite
in-ensible, and the next thing was to sub
jugate SOpris, who, being powerful man,
was fighting them hand to hand, and still
retreating into back room, where there
were some loaded guns. He was struck up
| on the arms, head and back, and finally
knocked down and overpowered, and, to-
cether with Holtz and ''Mose," the cook
who had been captured on the stairway,
carried TO ward and locked in. They
laid Holtz, bleeding and insensible upon the
floor Of the cell, showed Sopris and Nose to
the further end, and, swinging back the
heavy iron koor, invited the prisoners in
that ward to join them. Two men stepped
out, but the Others none of whom are re-
ally bad men, refused TO go, saying they
would take no hand in the bloody deed.
Locking the cell door, the big inside door,
and all the doors about the Jail, including
the one leading from the Office into the pri-
vate apartments, where a nurse girl and
Sheriff Willoughby's children were, the
prisoners took their coats on their arms and
marched out OF the Jail, taking the keys
with them.
The prisoners who escaped are L. Hall,
W. w. Wilder, Jacob Strauss, Harry Leigh
ton, Frank Collins, William Mcdonald,
and Martin DALEY. The two first named
were awaiting trial for murder. They
have been ringleaders in a gang OF thieves
and desperadoes in the pineries on the Di-
vide, in Ebert county. Harry Leighton, a
Denverite, and the SLAYER OF Anderson, is
under sentence OF ten years in the peniten-
tiary, but was confined here because there
was no room for him in the Canon City in
stitutiOn. Jacob Strauss was sentenced, at
the April term OF court, to eighteen months
imprisonment, for cattle stealing. Frank
Collins is a negro. still in his teens, who
killed another negro in a fracas in din
ing-room at Hugo. Mcdonald is charged
with highway robbery, and is Desperate
As well as thief.
How did they &c: out? They sawed of
rounding wards . and 3. When or how
they obtained the saw is mystery. They
crawled through this aperture into the aisle
or court, and must have massed themselves
about the office door before making the
dash, and doing it all very quietly. They
used the bar OF sawed iron a. bludgeon in
the attack on the guards. Hall seemed to
have charge of the gang, and led the attack.
He dealt IIoltz the three terrible blows on
the head, and WED with Wilder, leighton
and Mcdonald in telling Sopris to the floor
The iron bludgeon and the table where
Holtz was seated, are hecked with blood.
\ dirty sock, with piece Of brick in the
end of it, making a sort Of siung-shot, was
found on the Office floor, and near by it the
half of a brick, which Lad been dug ont OF
the floor Of one of the cells.-DeaUer Ners,
2SA.