, 1888-06-19
GONE TO JOIN MCCOY.
Three More Prisoners Escape from
the County Jail.
They Crawl Through Small Open
ings Sunday Evening.
Stand on the Roof of the Jail in the
Moonlight.
Gehm and Waller, Thieves. and Nc
Pherson, Sho0tist, the Men.
One Fugitive Captured and Re-
leased Again.


In the bright moonlight Of Sunday
night three desperate men stood on the
roof of the county Jail, ready to fight for
liberty. The trio was seen by John Ed
son and his wife and several other resi-
dents of the locality. With one accord
they began to shout and scream.
The three men hesitated a moment, but
a longing for liberty overcame their fears
and they descended to the ground hand
over hand on a rudely fashioned rope of
blanket strips.
THE MEN.
The men were Charles Waller, John
Gehm and Ed. Mcpherson. The two
former last week pleaded guilty to the
burglary of R. s. Van Tasselrs barn and
the theft of two saddles. The third is
held to answer to the charge of commit
ting an assault with intent to kill. Last
winter he fired upon a Cheyenne bartender
from under cover. but fortunately did not
iniure his human target.
q BREAK.
AT 5 o'clock Sunday evening the cells
of the county Jail were locked and nothing
unusual noted. 1t afterwards developed
that Waller, who had been confined in the
dark cell at the southeast corner of the
corridor, had Joined Gehm and McPher-
son in their apartment on the west side.
So soon as Deputy Smalley left the
Jail the plotters were at work. On the in
side of the cell they unserewed the nut
holding in place the staple which formed
a portion of the lower lock. The staple
was showed outward and with the heavy
lock fell to the floor with a clang. The
noise was unnoticed, however. and work
proceeded.
The cell door was showed outward far
enough to allow the men to squeeze
through and they stood in the inner cor
ridor. A defective bar almost directly in
front of the cell was pryed from its fasten-
ing at the bottom and
raised a foot or more from the floor.
Another exit was made, and nothing but
the walls stood between the men and the
outside world. They then assembled to
the top of the cells, thence to the roof of
the steel cages from which the former
escape was made. Here a short halt
was made. A hole was cat or rather bat
tered in the ceiling of the jail and the
men climbed to the rafters above and
halted in the darkness between ceiling
and roof. 1t is figured that they tarried
here fully an hour, and did not make the
final exit through the ventilator until after
the guard had been at his post for more
than two hours. The only tool in posses
sion of the men was a short, heavy blud-
geon. The work was nearly all done by
main strength, without the aid of saws.
IN PURSUIT.
Sheriff Sharpless, Deputy Sharpless,
Deputy Smalley and half a dozen others
were in pursuit of the prisoners within
five minutes after the escape, but the
men managed to elude the officers. Tel
egrams were sent in every direction, and
all ranchmen within a radius of twenty
five miles apprised of the occurrence of
the delivery.
Mrs. S. K. Sharpless saw the prisoners
running toward Eddy street and a score
of people saw something of them after
wards. A man believed to have been
Waller at once struck down Eddy street
towards the railroad. He ran at the top
of his speed through one of the principal
streets, but seems to have attracted no
particular attention.
MCPHERSON made off in the direction of
the hills to the west. Near the stock
yards he was halted by an employee Of
Sheriff Sharpless who had been stationed
at that point with a shot gun. The
armed man conducted his prisoner to the
ranch a short distance away and exhibited
him to a fellow workman. The latter had
heard that the prisoners continually wore
cloth slippers, and noticing that McPher-
son was equipped with light leather foot
coverings held in place with rubber bands
concluded that he was a peaceable citizen
running across the p%rairies for pleasure
and released him.
THEY RE ALL RIGHT.
Waller and Gehm, who were under
sentence of thirteen months each, are
] cowboys and well acquainted with the