St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-14
Three OF Sheriff Richter's
Boapders Decide to Quit
80 His House,
Which They Do Without Civ
% 70 ing the Usually Pre-
10 Scribed Notice.
They Sawed Through Iron
Bars and Are Now Enjoy
ing Freedom.
O'Connor, the Minneapolis
Stamp RobbeP, the Leader
,.q,h of the Gang.
Three prisoners have got out of Jail.

Three prisoners have got out of Jail.
This startling information was con-
conveyed to Sheriff Richter over the
wires to Milwaukee yesterday morning.
He lost no time in reaching st. Paul,
and making straight track to the jail.
Jailer Peterson was about the most
astOnished man in the city when he
went into the upstairs corridor, on the
Fifth street side of the Jail, yesterday
morning at the customary hour,
o'clock. 1t was the time for unlocking.
Everything was apparently all right,
until Mr.. Peterson peeped into Cell No.
4, the one which had been occupied
O'COnnor, the MINNEAPOLIS postOffice
robber. He thought he saw bunk
upon which was repOSng a sweetly
SnoOzing prisoner. But there were no
clothes hanging on the walls. He called
the prisoner and then went to the ham,
mOck-or rather where the hammock
ought to have beeu-to arouse the Occu-
pant, but 10! there was no prisoner
there. Then he turned around and OBJ
served that hole had been cut through
the bars of the cell door. at the bottom,
and on the side where the hinges are.
Where was John w. O'Connor? Mr..
L
occupied that corridor of six cells had
skipped. But no: ''Dutchy' Burk-
hardt, a United States prisoner, who
was O'COnnor'S cell-mate, was present
in the fieSh-a very puzZling circum-
stance to Mr.. Peterson. The jailer
LOST NO TIME
in looking through all the cells. His
surprise was increased when he found
n1 hi nl, hod t,an
the home temporarily of Frank st.
Clair, a burglar, and William Thomas,
highway rObber. Mr.. Peterson saw
that the bars of this cell door were cut
exactly the same way as the bars of
O'COnnOr'S cell. lie hurried out and
told Frank Picha, a deputy sheriff. Mr..
Picha took in the situation and tracked
the prisoners egreSS through the cell
ing OF the cage over the water closet,
thence up in the water tank and out
through the roof. Going out of the
him, he ran around the building
and discovered dangling from one of the
rafters of the cave OF the roof on the
south side of the building, an impro-
viSed rope composed of pieces of ham,
mocks and blankets. Some blood spots
were upon the snow at the hole where
the prisoners had descended, which indi-
Gated that one of the three shippers had
fallen and been hurt. A dispatch was
at once sent to Sheriff Richter. 81
The fact that the holes in both cell
doors are cut alike leaves the Inference
that there must have been a common
understanding between O'COnnor and
Thomas and st. Clair. Three bars, run
ming horizontally across these cage-like
cell doors at the bottom, are rather far
apart. The middle one was taken out
entirely. Then one of the vertical bars
was sawed out, allowing the prisoner to
squeeze through a hole about ten inches
che way and a foot the other. 1t was
| tight squeeze, but this was
nothing to the small size of the hole
through the tin roof. Four bars had
been cut out of the ceiling of the cage
over the water closet at the. rear end of
the building, two bars each way, leay-
ing one hole every bit large enough to
climb through. The prisoners had then
mounted the water tank and cut hole
| through the plastered ceiling and the
| roof. How any man could get himself
| slim enough to squeeze through that
| hole is thing of conjecture. 1t wasn't
| six inches wide, although it was long
enough. The prisoners had
FoREsEEN THE DIFFICULTY
! that would meet them in descending
| from the roof, so they had made rope
out of three hammocks and some blank
| cts. Each hammock has three strong
straps with nickel buckles at each end.
Each hammock was cut into three
strips, and these strips were buekled
end to end until the nine pieces made
quite a long rope. But for fear this
| to the end of it pieces of gray blanket
| in bitches and hard knots. One
end of this rope was tied around the
| end of one of the rafterS under the cave
| OF the roof, and down this rope the
| prisoners descended to the soft snow
| beneath, between the jail and the new
| court house. The blood spots on the
| snow, which were near the hole made
! by the prisoners feet, are mysterious.
! 1t must have been very difficult task
| to tie the rope to the rafter. 1t is posi-
! bic that one of the men, in attempting
| this. had lost his balance and fallen
| from the roof, but the depth of the hole
| in the snow would indicate that the
| prisoners had gone down the rope in
| great haste, and one might have gone
| down too fast. 1t was case where
| they had gone so far and they had to
move fast, for the dread OF being caught
| had put mad haste into every move
ment.
| GOT A GOOD START.
When did all this take part? Charley
| Pepper was on watch Sunday night, and
he heard no unusual noise. Jailer
Peterson locked up an insane man at
10 p. m, and he supposed everything
| was running smoothly 'Dutchy"
Burkhardt, however, says the prisoners
made their escape at z o'clock in the
evening. He says the work Of saving
| bars has been in progress ever since
last Thursday. Why "Dutchy" did
not 60 he explains to Maj. Bracket.
Richard Burkhardt is in for passing
counterfeit money. He did not want to
CO. because he thinks he will
| be acquitted when his trial is
tell, he said. O'Connor gave to
4 Burkhardt his old grip. Slots were cut
in the bottom of this satchel and in
these were two fine steel saws con-
cealed. one lying on the other. One was
an ordinary meat saw, which had been
taken out of the frame, and the other
wasla small key-hole saw, from which
the handle had been taken. By hiding
these saws this way, they had not been
seen when O'COnnor's grip was
searched when he was incarcerated.
was found where the prisoners had de-
scended from the roof.
| This is not the first effort to escape
made by O'Connor. Two weeks ago
he, Prussian Frank, Ed Mcdonald and
another prisoner, who were then locked
up on the first floor on the Fifth street
side, dug the stones up from the floor,
between two cells. These slabs have
not yet been replaced. O'Connor was
promptly removed to cell up stairs. It
is believed that he has been connected
with every attempt to escape for the
last year, and there have been several
| of them. ~