Grand Rapids morning telegram., 1885-04-24

The Clever Escape of T~O Prisoners
fron the CeantY jail.


( Al 80 a. n yess~riAy, Sheriff Kinney
f discovered that two prlsoners had escaped
/ from the jail They sre Joseph Morrison.
I the chicken thief AID ~as arrested March
I ~, waived eAaminAtios and vas being held
T for trial Ia ths Circuis Count, aud Lorenzo
F Paine. formerly of Spsrsa. ~ho wss arrested
+ IN Detroit and broggid 10 Lowell - answer
10 the charge Of obtsiHiisg money ty false
T pretenses. They ocerAped double cell Al
/ the south end OF the esss tier on the second
+ foof, and an examination showed that they
had been furnished With two ine steel SAWS,
and first sased throagh the bars ia the cell
around the hole throusa which food III passed.
( Three of these bars one and a half inches
wide aud one-third of an inch thick were
/ severed, winch allowed them 10 get oat Of the
/ cell Then 10 get out .of the corridor i've
bars were cut OF near she door at the south
end and under the sink. The cell bars aud
the corridor bars are of wrought iron, and
were easily cut with steel saw. After get
ting outside the CORRIDOR only the Outside
windows are guarded by round steel
bars about an inch in diameter Two
/ of these were sawed off. which made
a hole - xl2 inches. Then they descended
To the ground-about twenty four feet-by
means of the bed-quiIts aud blankets. The
hole through which they left the cell is but
! 7tsxlllz inches, and il Is a mystery how Nor
rison. who is five feet eleven inches in height
and weighs nearly 10 pounds, could get
through it. Four other prisoners were con
fined in the same tier of cells, and one of
them, John Cairns, who Is serving twelve
days sentence for drunkenness, told the
story of the escape as follows: ''They have
been working on the job three or
| four days. They sawed the back
| of the cell door bars 80 that only ten or
! fifteen minutes were required Wednesday
night to break out and the saving was not
visible from the outside. The corridor bars
under the sink were also severed IN the day
| time when the fellows could work safely. 1t
was a dark corner and the officers could not
see the work unless they got right down TO it.
| The saving of the window bars was
| all done Wednesday night. lmmedi-
ately after the doors were locked
the two fellows broke out of their
cell, crawled through the hole in the corridor
and went 10 work on the window. They fin
ished their work about O'Clock yesterday
morning and bid us all good bye when they
left. The holes were pretty small and Nor
rison, who is the heaviest of the two, had
some difficulty in getting away. We didn't
! sleep much that night, but listened 10 the
! others working and wondering il they would
escape. Morrison was sorry he couldn't
| take his brother With him. but he didn' have
time to saw the bars for him. The two who
| got away threatened to kill if we said
word about them being at work trying to
get away, and we didn't dare to even whisper
| to an officer"
The other Morrison, is also a chicken
| thief, arrested with the one who escaped.
/ Sheriff Kinney tells the story of the escape
! in this way: about half past eight, Nednes-
day night, received a telephone call from
man who said his name was Blakeslee or
! Blakely. de said that he had information
that some of the prisoners were al work on a
scheme to get out of jail. He said he did
not know how much there was in the thing.
| but gave il to me for what ii was worth. l
| thanked him for his kindness and told him
that we would put a man to watch the cells
| that night and in the morning would make
a special examination. and if we found any
thing wrong / would buy him new hat for
| giving o. the pointer. / did not place much
| importance on the information, for the rea-
son that it is no unusual occurrence to re
ceive such messages from prisoners after
| they have been let out, and sometimes from
those in the Jail but | told one of the depu-
ties about the matter and directed him 10
watch the cells until morning and then we
would make a search. He watched until
after midnight. when. becoming convinced
that all was secure he went to bed. lie says
| he was up on the second floor several times,
and did not hear any unusual noise. / had
| been in the country and was tired. and went
/ to bed. / got up at 3:30 and partially
dressed and went up stairs. Through the
bars / saw what appeared to be a rag IN the
south window on the east side IN
the second story. Then l went down,
dressed. and going outside saw the quilts
/ hanging out OF the window. | then walked
them all up and you know what we discov-
cred. | suppose the saws were brought into
the Jail by Morrison's wife, who Is IN a deli
cate condition and was allowed TO visit him
two or three times. I do not wish to throw
the responsibility on Others, but the deputies
have been a little loose of late and ! have
spoken to them about the matter frequently.
but it seems they did pot heed my warnings
soon enough"
II Is supposed that outside parties helped
the prisoners to get away from the city. A
carriage was stolen from Joel Collins on
East Bridge street on Wednesday night, and it
may have been ssed by the escaped couvicts.
The man vho gave the information about
the attempt % escape on Wednesday night.
first telephoned Police Headquarters. Night
f Officer Quigg was in charge ard asked the
man why he did not talk 70 tde jail direct.
The man then asked "Whsts their nun
I berg Mr Quigz answered. 81. Call
them up and that viii give II 90 them direct =
f The man answered -All night. and from
F Sheriff Kinney statement it appears did 81