Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-09-23


How . Daring Criminal Escaped 1roO
the Wisconsin State Prison.
A burglar named Charles O'Leaxy.
alias Honest Charley, was sent to thu,
Wisconsin State prison for a term os
seven years, but even before he enter
the prison his friends offered to bet two
to one that he would make his escape
inside of a year. O'Leary was posted
about the prison before he became
an inmate. He was not looked upon .
q desperate man. but rather as . sly
one; but after he had been in prison for
two months and no fault had been found
with him, any extra surveillance was re-
Taxed. O'Leary was at first placed in
the dining-rOOm, but at his own re-
quest was changed to the kitchen, he
being fair hand at cooking. All the
food of the convicts was received at the
kitchen doors from teams driven into
the yard. The supply for the day was
then carried to the store-roOm, which
adjoiDed the kitchen. 1t often happened
that two or three teams were in the
yard at once, while on regular days
wagons came for swill and ashes.
O'Leary had planned from the first to
escape by way of the kitchen. but he
found the difficulties almost without
number. Nearly all of the cooks, bakers
and helpers in that department were
short-time men who would not have
taken advantage of an open gate. None
of them could, therefore, be relied on
to help him out. The wagons were al
ways under the eyes of the guards ON
the walls, and were quite often inspected
at the gate before driving out. Had
two convicts placed O'Leary in bar
rel, covered him up with refuse and
lifted him into wagon, the chances
were that he would have been safely
carried out, but there was not man in
the kitchen whom he could trust. TWAS
part of his duties to rake the ashes out
from under large oven and keep them
raked in pile and wet down until an
old Irishman with a one-horse cart came
to draw them off. This happened every
other day at ten o'clock in the morning.
The Irishman brought large ash psil
with him, and when it was full OLeary
helped him to carry ii out and empty it
into the wagon. The time occupied in
filling the wagon was about forty min
utes, the man making two calls before
coming to the kitchen.
O'Learv determined that this Irish
man should be the means of restoring
him to liberty, and he set to work after
a carefully matured plan. He noticed
that the mans breath always smelled
of whisky, and that about every third
time he came he was quite stupid with
drink. He took strong liking to
OLeary, and after few weeks yolun-
teered to bring him in bottle of whisky.
The offer was accepted, and Thanks
giving Day named as the time when he
should bring it in. The afternoon Of
this day would be observed as holi-
day.
O'Leary could not further his plans
during the interval. He would gain all
or loose all at single stoke. When
the day finally arrived he was as ready
as he could be, and he noticed with
great satisfaction that the 1rishman had
a good deal of drink aboard. The place
where they got the ashes was in an
alley-way between the oven and the
wall of the kitchen. Itwas in one sense
secluded, and yet some of the men were
liable to pass at any moment. The
tean,ster had started out with a pint OF
whisky, but on his way had drunk .
third of it. twas cold. raw morning,
and he had on an Overcoat, comforter,
3 SLOUGH hat, pair of mittens and
pair of overalls over his trousers. The
two were no sooner in the alley-way
than the heat made the team
ster so sturid that he wanted to lie
down. This he was permitted to
do while O'Leary carried out four or
five bushels of ashes. and in few
he was in drunken sleep.
When the burglar had carried out
enough ashes for blind. he turned tn
on the sleeping man and he was not
three minutes stripping OFT his outside
garments and getting into them He
then took the ash bucket and walked
out. climbed upon the wagon under the
eyes of three guards. and drove to the
gate. 1t was opened after little delay.
and O'Leary drove in the direction Of
the city. He expected every moment t.,
hear the alarm, but he dared not push
the horse faster than a slow trOt for the
first half mile. When a safe distance
away, he quickened his pace, and pretty
soon he reached a locality where he
abandoned the rig and struck out on
foot He had been gone thirty minutes
before an alarm was raised, but this
was time enough. He suffered some
what from cold and hunger. but eluded
all pursuit, and he died three or four
Years later in an Eastern prison.-N Y
SIN