The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1883-07-11
FROM JAIL TO WEALTH.
The Remarkable Career of . Burglar,
Lawyer and Spectator.
From the New York Tribune.


Wayne County, Pennsylvania, has q
character who casts Victor Hueo's "Jean
Vatican" into the shade, for, while one
reformed in good earnest, the Wayne
County man f1uctuates between deeds Of
chivalry and acts of baseness. His name
is George Avery, and at present he is
living in one Of the Western states. In
1870, when Avery was only twenty-one
years old, he was charged with the MUIR
der of John Haynes, of Rolands, Pike
County. He was arrested, and an officer
detailed to bring him to Milford. Evil
dence of the murder was said to be so
conclusive that he could not possibly
escape hanging.
On their way to Milford, where the
county prison was located, the officer inn
bibed freely of liquor and became help
lessly drunk. Avery secured the keys
which unlocked the handouts and shack
les by which he was bound, and removed
the manacles, placing them in the bottom
of the wagon, He took the reins from
the stupidity drunken officers hands, and
drove to the nearest hotel, where he ar
rived with the officer in charge at a late
hour. He put the drunken man to bed,
reused him the next morning, got him
in the wagon, and drove on to Milford,
when, after he had put the officer in bed
at the hotel, he walked up to the Jail and
delivered himself up to the keeper, tell
ing him about his experience with the
constable.
He was confined till September-this
was in June-when he was tried for
murder, and, in spite of overwhelming
proof was acquitted, to the surprise Of
everybody, the court most of all. The
day after he was discharged from custody
he was arrested, charged with burglary,
convicted and sent to State Prison for
year and half. He served the full term,
reading law during his confinement.
When he left the Eastern Penitentiary,
at Philadelphia, he returned home,
opened a law office, arrested several citi-
zens who had testified against him when
he was on trial for burglary, charging
them with perjury. Failing to make out
his case, he was sentenced to pay the
costs. He had no money, so he went to
jail again, where he remained until his
friends could scrape up enough money to
get him out.
When, finally, he became a free man
again he returned to his old home at
Rowlands. From that time forward
burglaries were numerous about there,
but never could evidence sufficient to
convict Avery be obtained. A year or SO
later he went to Oil City, Pa, where he
hung out his sign as lawyer. Clients
were plenty and fees large. Avery was
reaping golden harvest, when he was
convicted of forgery and sent to the
Western Penitentiary for four years and
eleven months. While there he fell in
love with one of the keepers daughters,
and she offered to assist him to escape,
but he refused to leave until his time
was out. At the end ofthe term he went
back to Rowlands, soon afterward pro-
fessed religion, began preaching little,
swindlcd neighbor out of 500, and was
induced by the neighbor, who enforced
argument with big shotgun, to refund
the money.
Avery then left for Luzerne County,
where he got into difficulty and was sent
to the Eastern Penitentiarv for short
term. Upon his release he stole enough
money to take him to the mining regions
of the West, where under an assumed
name he opened law Office and specu-
lated in stocks. In 1882 he 'struck it
rich," cleared s75O,OOO, gave up stocks at
once, invested his money in Government
bonds, sent for his financee, the prison
keepers daughter, who joined him in
Chicago, where they were married.
Avery is only thirty-four years old. He
never touched liquor, never gamblcd
nor used tobacco, and claims to have
been the "yictim of circumstances" He
writes to friends near here that he is
leading an honest, upright life, and that
when he comes East it will be as a
United States Senator from one of the
Western States.