Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-05-03

with this custom, Refer. who was
brought in some weeks ago and has
served out about one-third of his sem
tence, has of late been allowed to go
outside and has been used as chore
boy to certain extent. Sunday he
was out as usual, and during tenn
porary absence of the sheriff and his
deputies, the young rascal, as shown by
later observations, made his way to the
deputy's room by means of key taken
from the middle room down stairs.
Strange as it may seem for building
of this kind, the locks of this door, the
outside door and the door to the dep
uty's room are alike, or so near as to
allow of the unlocking of either door BY
the key of either of the others. Having
reached this room, Refer had no diff
Guilty in opening the little iron door
which let him into the outside upper
corridor of the Jail, and once there he
passed around to the south side, where the
other two prisoners were confined, be-
low stairs. Finding the coast, clear, he
then went back and procured cord
wood stick, small enough to go through
the openings between the bars, which
are three inches apart. He then has
tened back, and with this lever two of
the bars were bent back, leaving an
opening two feet and seven inches in
length and seven inches wide in the
center. This being accomplished, Fritz
and Zeiglemaire climbed up, and at
much risk of hanging themselves, sue
ceeded in working through the opening.
after which the trio went around the
cells on the north, out through the dep
uty's room, down stairs and out the
north door. They were seen to come
out this door, by party whose name is
unknown. and who happened to be sit
ting in front of a store on Maple street.
He did not, however, think anything of
the matter at the time, supposiug they
were persons who had been visiting the
Jail. According to his statement, they
first came out on the steps, whistling,
and in moment went back into the
Jail. Then they came out again, and
walked leisurely along the building,
and turned the west corner and disap-
peared from view. Tracks in an ash
pile show that they then jumped the
fence, in the southwest corner of the
Jail yard, and walked off rapidly down
the alley. They were seen later by Mr..
John Pollock, with caps drawn down,
going past his house west, but as per-
sons were passing every little while no
further notice was taken of them.
From this point the trail is dim.
The time of their escape was between
three and four o'clock. Deputy Rich
ards returned home about the latter hour
and went at once to the jail, where he
was hailed by Henning the little tailor
who is serving sixty days sentence
and who is confined with young Zeigle-
MARIE in the woinen's ward. Henning
told him he thought something was
wrong in the Jail. Ora hurried inside
but the game had flown. Gunder Gun
derson, confined for disturbing the
peace of his family near Fennimore,
was in the same tier with the escaped
prisoners but he claimed not to have
known anything about the escape, did
not hear anything and did not know
they had gone. In explanation of this
surprising exhibition of deafness, it is
said that Gunderson would do whatever
Fritz told him and he may have been
sent to his cell and not been on that
side of the Jail at the time. However
this may be it is certain that he either
will not or cannot tell anything about
the matter The only one who seems
to know anything at all about it is Hen
ming, who stated to HERALD repre-
sentative that he heard some one tramp
up the stairs and unlock the door to the
deputy's room the same as Richards
did and then heard them go down again
and come back in short time. He
claimed not to have heard any noise in
the other part of the Jail, but said the
boys had been making good deal of
racket, which statement was borne out
by the testimony of other parties outside
of the Jail. This superabundance of
clatter was obviously put in for the pur-
pose of drowning any noise they might
make in prying back the bars. Hen
ming said he was lying down and did
not see or hear them go out, which, in
view of the statement of the party who
saw them emerge from the north door,
is altogether probable. Henning places
the time of their escape at about half
past three and says they could not have
had much over an half hour start. On
being asked why he did not call some
one. he said he was not certain anything
was wrong. but had, as shown, IN
formed Richards of his suspicious as
soon as the latter arrived.
In reply to an interrogatory as to
whether Fritz had said anything about
escaping when Henning was in the
lower tier of cells with him, Henning
said he had been talking about it all the
time and wanted the tailor, whose time
is up in a few days, to get him-Fritz -
some saws rs soon as he could get out.
Henning claims to have told him he
wouldn't do it; that no one helped him
to get out and he did not intend helping
ANYBODY out From this and other
straws 1t is probable that the scheme
had been laid for some time, in fact
Zeiglemaire's sudden refusal TO plead
guilty and receive sentence in the County