Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-01-30

Two Murderers, Shooter and one Horss-thiei
Escape From the County Jail Night
Before Last, and are still
Al Larre

At O'Clock yesterday morning the color
ed turnkey at the jail entered the lower hall
to build a fire and get things in shape for
the prisoners. On reaching the
stove he missed the iron bar used - poker,
which was always left at the stove. be
suspected something, and went
around among the cells on the ground floor.
Finding everything all right in that quarter,
he went up fig ht Of stairs reaching to the
top tier of ..cells, and there, to his surprise,
he found the door to the corridor in
front of row of cells, where three
United States prisoners and one State
prisoners were confined, wide open the pris-
oners gone. Descending the steps he search
ed around the Jail, when just under the win
dow at the southwest corner of the jail be
found hole sufficiently large for man to
pass through. A blanket was pulled partly
through the hole, the end hanging to the
ground on the outside. He Immediately
gave the alarm and Sheriff Fisher hurried
to the telegraph Office and heralded the
news, together with a description of the iu-
gitivss to the officers at all points of the
surrounding country. He also wired the
intelligence to the United States marshars
Office at Topeka; next he sent deputies
out on all the railroads leading
from the city. He then took the
east bound train on the SunHower road
himself. Whether by accident or design
the prisoners chose favorable night for the
work. During the two proceeding nights
the sheriff and his assistants had been kept
awake by crazy prisoner and on this night,
having Quoted him with medicine, they all
slept soundly. Owing to the extreme cold
the sheriff exercised his humanity by not
locking the prisoners in their cells, feeling
confident that they could not escape through
the heavy iron grating encircling and cover
ing the corridor in front of the cells. The
door to this corridor was fastened BY three
locks, one of which is enclosed in an iron
easement which is also kept locked. Another
is attached to the end of a large bolt, which
bolt is fasteced by another lock on the in
side of the easement. The other fastens the
foot Of the door, which is built Of strong
iron bars, sufficiently far apart to admit 9
mans hand. All the locks are padlocks
such as are common now on doors, etc, the
key entering the base of the lock. One key
fitted all the padlocks, and the door of thu
easement was locked with large common
key. All these locks were opened and I
portion of broken key, made of Babbi
metal, was found in one of the padlocks
The key used in these padlocks contains ,
dozen notches. The key used By
the jail-breakers was nodded, cor
responding exactly with the sher
ifs key, and as the prisoners had ne
material nor facilities for making q dupli
cate, it is plain they had q confederate out
side the Jail who had the duplicate mad,
and sent in to them. Once outside this doc
the prisoners were at liberty to descend t,
the floor of the Jail, where they found tn
big iron bar or pocker and selected the spo
for making hole in the brick wall, directl,
under the window where they could get th
point of the bar between the brick and tn
window sill. In order to prevent noise B.
the brick falling upon the floor they sprea
a blanket beneath, and performed the wor
so noislessly that the other prii
oners say they heard nothing q
their operations.
The names of the fugitives are: Ed Nc
Sweeney alias Ed Smith, soldier dresse
in U. S. uniform, who was indicted BY th
grand jury at the recent term of the Unite
States district court, for the murder of Mr.,
Mary Elliott at Fort Reno, l. T., last sum
mer. Robert Perry, also United State
prisoner, charged with having committe
murder in the Indian nation. Georg
Scribner, charged with assault with inten
to kill, and Frank Hazier, horse thief cap
tured short time ago at Derby, who ha
an examination before Justice Thomas an
was bound over to the distric. court.
They will probably make towards the ter
ritory but can hardly manage to elude tn
officers; the cold will drive them into house
and they will probably be captured.