Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-10-08
ORRICK OUT OF THE TOLLS.
Grand Jail Delivery.

| Grand Jail Delivery.
The escape of ten men from the st. Louis
City Jail Friday afternoon created an i'm.
mense sensation in the city and throughout
the State. The general opinion so far as the
| facts that we been disclosed are concerned
| is that the delivery was made possible
through collision on the part of those whose
duty it is to look after the prisoners.
| The men who escaped were star occupants
of the Jail. John d. Shea, murderer; John
| Henry Orrlck, murderer; George Logan,
sneak thief; Frank Watson, John Morgan,
Frank Murphy and Matt Jones, bank sneaks
| Dan Casey, assault; Edward Leubert and
Henry Zeep, burglars. They had friends
| who could pay to currupt Jail officials and on
| no other ground does the escape seem to
have been possible. The men got through
two doors by the use of the proper keys and
were stopped by no one.
Who supplied the keys?
THE ESCAPE.
Jail Guard John Fitzgerald carried these,
but occasionally lent them to TRUSTEES.
FITZGERALD gave the keys at last accounts
to George Welker federal prisoner, and
Welker gave them to Guard Rigsby. Rigsby
was to turn them over to Chief Guard joe
Paust, and about 1 O'Clock Friday Rlgsby
finding the chief guard not on duty threw
the keys into a pigeon hole in Paust's desk.
All the prisoners except the TRUSTEES were
in their cells at this time and the te@smen
that escaped were among the TRUSTEES. The
TRUSTEES had :he freedom of the bull-ring,
but even with the Eleventh street door
keys in their possession they could have
accomplished nothing without first getting
outside the buil-ring. The keys of the door
of egress from the bulI-ring were held by
one man only, Guard Fitzgerald. His duty
is to patrol the circle ut the back of the
calls outside the area, and keep guard upon
three doors. One of these doors leads to
the galOws, and Is only opened before an
execution. In explaining the m utter after
wards he said he had scarcely left the door
when he heard the rumbling noise at the
outer door, and he ran back to zee what
was up. He met Reno, the cook, standing
on the stairs leading down into the Jail
yard badly scared, and wanted to know
where the fire was. The door leading from
the bull ring was opened, also the door to
the yard, and he ran into the arena, and,
calling to Guard Armstrong, informed him
that the four bank sneaks and Shea bad es-
capped. Armstrong rushed through the
open door, and passed the kitchen up little
step ladder from the Jail yard to level
with the closets across the hall from the Cor
oner's office, then out the ball past the Cor
oner's office, and out on the street on Elev-
enth street and Clark avenue. Thus the
escape was effected, and Fitzgerald was
unable to say how the fugitives got the
keys.
The police are in possession of a number
of important facts through confession of
one of the prisoners in the Jail which, they
think, will clear up the my stery surround
ing the escape. 1t seems that 1t was ar
ranged to have thirteen men escape, but
three of these we're locked in their cells at
the time and only those in the bull-ring es-
capped. One of the three is Wills. Howard,
the kentucky. bandit, who is under arrest
for the Mc4lichael murder at Vienna, Mo.
The prisoner who has disclosed the inside
facts of the escape to Chief Harrigan and
Chief Desmond said that the escape was
planned by John d. Shea, the celebrated
murderer and Jail breaker, and carried out
through money supplied by the friends of
the quartette of band robbers, who it seems
are men OF means and great influence in the
criminal world. The escape from the jail
was not only arranged for, but their safety
afterward was carefully planned and carried
out The keys were furnished by persons
bribed to do it, but who these are it is not
clear.
Since the delivery no certain trace of any
of the escaped prisoners has been obtained.
Orrick has no doubt taken TO the woods,
and his whereabouts will likely long remain
undiscovered. This is the third time he has
cheated the law by taking French leave of
his keepers, and his experience in such eX
igencies is such that, il he profit by it, the
browning event Of his career, set by the Su-
preme Court TO take place on the lst inst,
will be Indefinitely, if not everlastingly,
postponed. "There's many slip twiXt the
cup ana the lip" is an old adage whose
truthfulness John Henry will do his best to
demonstrate.