Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-06-04
A DASH FOR FREEDOM.
A Number Of Tarrant County Prisoners
Break jail.
Recapture Of Some of Them and Pursuit
Of Others,

The insecurity of the present Tar
rant county jail was demonstrated
yesterday by the comparatively easy
escape of eleven prisoners In broad
daylight. About o'clock p. IN, a
lady living in the rear of the jail saw a
number Of prisoners issuing from the
roof and screamed to give the alarm; a
crowd of children on the corner Of
Weatherford aud Jones streets joined In
the cry and attracted the attention of
everyone in the neighborhood. Mrs,
Woody, who lives just west of the Jail,
looked out and saw several OF the pris.
oners leaping from the roof on a small
shed In the rear Of the jail. She rushed
to the jail fence and informed woman
prisoner, who goes by. the name Of
the freedom OF the jail, that
Mollie at once informed Doc Neil
assistant jailer, and he rushed out
around the Jail, but by this time those
who had escaped were out of sight, and
the pris oners in the Jail saw that 1t
would be useless for any more to try to
escape.
LIKE wILDFIRE
the news was spread over the city and
hundreds Of men were soon running
In the direction of the Jail. Sheriff
Maddox was in the courthouse
talking with group of
gentlemen, and Deputy Sher-
If r.. III. Tucker was standing on the
courthouse steps, when Gen. Peers
called from the opposite corner that
the prisoners were adj escaping from
the jail. In an instant nearly every
one In the neighbor hood was flying In
the direction of the Jail.
A GAZETTE reporter stopped i'm the
midst of free-grass argument and
joined the mob running down East
Weatherford street.
| AT THE JAIL
q surging mass OF men were trying to
get into the building, while the taller,
J. G. Mccain, and his assistant, Doc
Nicely, were vainly trying to keep them
back; on the roof were several men,
one with gun in his hand guarding
the hole through which the eleven
prisoners had escaped inside the Jail
i'll the corridor were mass of prisoners
jibing and jeering at the crowd outside,
and laughing at their excitement; Off
GERS on horseback were seen dashing
up and down the streets in search of
the escaped men; every one was anXi-
Gus to know all about the escape and
an intense excitement was visible in
faces of all except the prisoners behind
the bars.
THE MODE OF ESCAPE.
THE GAZETTE man climbed through
a window in the second story cut on
the roof and examined the hole
ttrlNt .I, 1A 4
From the outside 1t measured exactly
ten by twelve inches, and marks of
blood were seen near its edges, show
themselves in squeezing through the
narrow aperture. 1t would have been
impossible for large man to climb
through the hole, and some who did
escape must have been squeezed very
tight in their exit. The hole was cut
from the inside of the southeast cell in
the second story, by first removing the
rivets In piece of the iron plating on
the ceiling, then saving through six
pieces of two-by-six studding with the
narrow end towards the workers, and
then through the rafters, roofing and
| tin covering on the roof.
. THE INSTRUMENT USED
0 was saw made from an iron hoop and
fastened in a rude pine handle with
wire. 1t was skillfully made and was
s eight and a quarter inches in length
from where it entered the handle to
the point. The point was very fine
and fashioned with saw teeth on each
i side to distance of two inches
y With this rude instrument the prison
ers had sawed through the studdin,
twelve times. After the plate on tn,
:, inside was removed they had used tn,
}. sharp point of the saw until a small
hole was punched nearly through
piece of the studding, thereby securin:
g start for the saw teeth to operate on
NJ A stone wall several feet high Do:
o. jects above the roof and. sree.ed, -
I, men from the view OF persons On: a
y street, and possibly those who got on
!" first crouched down behiud this wa
until most of the eleven who escape
Id crowded through the narrow hole.
n. THOSE WHO WERE CAUGHT.
III In about fifteen minutes Cunstabl
w. Is. Hall came marching into tn
jail with Lewis Brown, one of thos
f who lad escaped. He isawaitinp tri,
on a charge of theft. Shortly af,el
wards City Marshal w. NJ. Rea brougi
u In another, in the person of M. i
Adair, charged with burglary, VIII
- was captured by the officer on Ea
~ Third street. The next one brought i
o' was VIM. Bradley, charged with burt
~ larry. Deputy Sheriff John Thoml
We son caught him in closet in ii
az Kitchen Mt DIR, William Ferguson
-. house. The officer was told that
-. ~ man had been seen going In the hou:
~ ~ and he asked permission to search Ii
~ house. A short hunt disclosed IL
~ escaped prisoner
HID IN A CLOSET.
He was marched back to the iail, n,
III In the wheel aud turned once mo
into the company OF his companion
In crime.
Officer Nelly brought in the ne,
25 one, named Charlie Macon, charge
tz. with theft and burglary, whom he hs
Of captured under Mr.. Willis kirkland
'or house on East Weatherford stree
When discovered by the officer, Cha
lie tried to escape on the opposite sid
aa but the officer
Ir SIRED HIS PISTOL,
under the house to scare the man al
this had the dssired effect, for Mace
rs quietly came out at the officers bi
ding, and was soon being again take
e,s into the jail corridor, amidst the iIb
VI. OF his old companions.
DIG Newton Buntain, who il awaitlr
nd the decision OF appeals on several cas-
ng. OF theft for which he has been Sc
ale fenced to five years in the penltentiar
was the next and last man caugt,