The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-08-21
Insurrection in q Prison.

| eral interest for our readers. Mr.. Hoge
tie lessee of the penitentiary, and Mr.
Blackley ARE both claimed as Stauntonians
A Louisville. KY, special says: There
was desperate insurrection among thu
| convicts in the penitentiary at Frankfor
on Thursday morning, where about eight
hundred prisoners are confined. About
O'Clock John Wolf, a convict who was sen
fenced for forgery for twelve years. came
| to the prison Office with Il box on hi:
shoulder. which, he said, was to be sent
| by express. Capt. Johnson, the turnkey
opened the gate, and Wolf was allowed t
pass out with the box, which he left at thu
oflice-dOor. a few feet from the prison
gate. Wolf then turned to go back into
| the priSon-yard, and as he passed johnson
| dealt the officer a terrible blow on the
| head with blunt instrument. and followed
| it up with several other blows, which
| felled Johnson to the ground and rendered
! him inSenSible. In an instant George AL
sop, a desperate murderer. sentenced from
| Louisville for life: Cash Grove, Bob
Graves, sent up for twenty-one years fol
murder, and William Grant, sentenced tx
| tWenty-One years for murder, ran out OF
| the hour-mill passed through the gate
and, running into the prison armOry, took
possession of the stand OF arms. Then al
ran out, fully armed with Henry rifles ani
[ Ballard musketoons. Grant then opened
| the prison gate leading to the yard, and
shouted at the top of his voice to the con
victs to come on, as they had control OF
| the prison. Colonel G. E. Hoge, one Of
| the lessees of the convict labor, and his
clerk. Mr.. Blackley, who were busily en-
gagged in the prison office, started toward
| the door on hearing the noise, when George
| Alsop fired two shots at them. Captain
| Holloway, the State S clerk at the prison
was in an adjacent Office. Heput his head
out of the window to see what was up
when he was fired at by a convict. Capt
Holloway jumped out of the window and
ran out at the entrance gate to the street
the cOnyicts firing several shots at him.
The alarm was sounded to the prison
guards, and a fierce battle followed, which
lasted for two minutes, during which time
100 shots were fired. Captain Owen Rob-
inson, an officer of the prison, started to-
| ward the gate from the yard, when Alsop
| fired at him from needlegun. The ball
struck Robinson in the right leg above the
knee, and it is believed that amputation
will be necessary.
While the firing was going on the con-
victs kept backing toward the street, but
load left. .Budn South, a nephew of
Captain Barry South warden of the peni-
Tertiary, ran out OF his house with his
gun us soon us he heard the first shot, and
as soon us he stepped on the pavement the
convicts fired several shots at him. He
got behind Il tree and fired with needle
gun. Wolf, the ringleader. was danger
onsly and perhaps mortally wounded. lie
was shot with Aeedle-gun, the ball enter
ing the left thigh near the groin, badly
SCATTERING the bone, and it is thought his
recovery is impossible He is q handsome
young fellow. who stood high in society
He was for many years clerk ina George
town bank, and his father is ut present
county clerk of Scott county. Wolf says
that there were nearly fifty in the plot to
escape. and WAS severe in his denunciationS
of those who did not follow. calling them
"a lot OF - towards He said, also.
that he was sorry that he had not killed
George Alsop for going back on his word.
The arrangement between him and Alsop
was to stand at the gate and kill the first
guard who dared to approach them, and
to remain there until the whole gang i'll
the plot came out. This, he says, Alsop
didn't do. while he himself was true to
his word.
The news that there was an insurrection
among the conyicts spread like wild fire
throughout the city. a convict, mounted
on horseback, came through the principal
streets at killing pace, and notified Judge
Thomson The courthouse bell sounded
the call for the military, and members of
the military companies and others were
soon coming in all directions toward their
armory for arms. In twenty minutes after
the outbreak fully two hundred citizens
were armed and stationed themselves
around the prison.
Deputy Sheriff Ben. Suter, with large
posse of citizens on horseback, armed with
neede-guns, started in pursuit of Asop,
Grant, and Cash Graves, the three despe-
rate murderers who made good their es-
cape. They are all heavily armed with
guns and shoe knives. A young man who
was on his way to the city in a buggy was
stopped on the road about a mile from the
city by three desperadoes and ordered to
jump out OF lose his life. He jumped out,
and the three convicts got in and started
away from the young man with the horse
at a gallop. Parties who saw them on the
road say two Of them are undoubtedly
wounded as blood was flowing freely from
their faces. After driving the buggy for
three miles OF the road they left it and
took to the hills.
1t is singular fact that all the ringlead-
ers in this plot to escape were members of
the Sunday-schoOl class. There has GER
tainly been too many outsiders allowed to
go to the prison Sunday school, and the
outbreak of to-day, which may have been
melted by some visitor, will doubtless have
the effect of excluding any one from going
into the prison on Sunday.