The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1876-01-19
The Merriisstsewn Gazette
WEDNESDAY. j AN. 10, 1876.
Escape of Two Knox County
DesperadOes from the Peniten-
tiary.


The Nashville An9e1'5eaB discIoses
the startling fact that two noted
East Tennessee couvicts are missing
from the penitentiary-the notorious
desperate, Mynatt, whose terrible
deeds attracted SO much, attention
some months ago in this county, and
the burglar Bill Smith, who a few
wears since raided on some of our
Gay street merchants, was captured
and confined in Jail, from which he
escaped, and after a lively race, was
recaptured west of the city. My
matt, it appears, escaped three weeks
ago, and remarkable enough, the
fact has been kept entirelysfrom the
public. The american, speaking of
the affair, says
It now appears that Mynatt, whose
very name was long a terror in East
Tennessee, escaped three weeks ago,
with another prisoner, whose name
we have not learned. We do not
know what notice has been taken of
it by the prison officials. No men
tion has been made Of the fact by
the press of the State, for the sim
pie reason that the information was
never given them. Why this per-
feet silence has been observed is q
mystery which we cannot solve.
Mynatt was notorious desperate,
who rode over Knox county and al
joining portions of East Tennessee,
robbing and shooting in broad day
light, and defying the officers Of the
law to take him. He and Manoum,
his associate, were among the most
desperate ruffians that have afflicted
Tennessee since the days of John A.
Murrell. Permitted to 60 out of the
prison with the steward, who had
no gun nor other arms, before day,
all that Mynatt and the convict who
escaped with him had to do was to
walk off unmolested, and they did it.
Where they are, what effort if any,
has been made to reeapture them or
procure their recapture, we know not.
The antecedents of Bill Smith,
who escaped Sunday night, have
some points ofinterest. He entered
upon his career of crime when quite
young. Born in Flushing. New
York, he is q years Of age. His IA
ther was a Spaniard, his mother an
Italian. She now lives at Richmond.
Va, where she keeps peanut stand.
Her son is 3 feet q inches in height,
weighs 144 pounds, has a gunshot
wound in the right shoulder and
one on the left wrist. His complex
ion is dark, and he has a vilIainous
cast of countenanee. He was first
sentenced to the pententiary from
Knox county in 1868, flor fourteen
years, for larceny, After having
been there for q short time lie at
tempted to escape through a sewer
and was shot by guard, one ball
striking him in the face, two in the
neck and two in the breast. About
six years ago he scaled the walls Of
tie penitentiary with Bill Hewlett
and was subsequently recaptured at
Louisville and brought back, but was
pardoned the succeeding Christmas
After his former escape Smith
shot and seriously wounded Nash
vile policeman who attempted to
arrest him, andsin making off fired
at a man passing on horseback,
missing him, however, but causing
the animal to throw him.. when
Smith mounted the horse aud es-
capped, and was afterwards badly
wounded in being recaptured. He
was again brought back. and both
his and the policeman's wounds
were for sometime regarded as fatal.
Both, however, eventually recover
ed.