Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-12-22
SOME SLICK WORK.
Five Prisoners Make Their Els
cape From Jail.
They Make Keys, Unlock The Cell Door
With But Little Trouble and
Then Skip.

night They were AIRY JON 8, o.
East Saginaw, Michigan Bailey
Winters, of this county William
Lancaster, OF Kentucky; jas. Rine-
hart, of this county, and William
Allen, also OF the county. Harry
Jones was charged with house break
ing, ami had recently been sentenced
to Il term of three years in the peni.
tentiary. This sentence had been
cut iown, however, ~ -ix months on
the chain gang. William Lancaster
was charged and convicted of break.
ing into N. j. Allison's house some
time ago, and had been sentenced to
three years in The penitentiary. Jas.
Rinehart was convicted at the recent
term of the Criminal court for steal
ing a horse, and was under sen.
tence Of three years in the peniten-
tiary. Allen and Winters were
charged with carrying concealed
weapons.
In the same cell with these prison.
ers were g. w. Avant, charged with
wifem. urder; Scott Garrison, charg-
ed with shooting with intent to kill,
and Ed. Hughes, charged with grand
larceny. Notwithstanding the TACT
that there WAS nothing b.tween thee
men and liberty they did not take
the opportunity of escape offered and
are in their cell to-day giving an &C.
count OF the break to all who call on
them.
When a reporter called at the Jail
this morning to get the particulars
OF the escape he was conducted to
the cell in the western wing of the
Jail by Jailer Allison. The cell is on
the upper floor ard is the one in
which the white prisoners have been
confined for several years. 1t is a
large cell in the middle of the room,
and to the spectator it seems good
and safe one. 1t would Lot hOl the
Ave men mentioned above, however,
and the way they made their escape
Is very interesting, and shows some
of them to be geniuses in this ine..,.
From Avant and four other prison
ers reporter learned that this break
for liberty had been contemplated
for several days. The ones who
were engineering it tried to get
Avant and his comrades into the
plot, but they would not ayr, to it.
When they peremptorily refused to
go into the scheme Riuehart and his
comrades told them that If they
mentioned their plans to any one
they would Kill them, and Avant
thinks they would have carried out
their threat. They said nothing. hut
watched the efforts of their compan
ions in crime to get out. The first at
tempt was n'de Tuesday night, but
the plans had not matured and the
escape was put of until last night.
To give an intelligent idea of how
the escape was effected description
OF the cell door is necessary. There
Is no difference in the construction Of
the doora and the other part OF tn cell,
so far as the iron bars are concerned.
The door suggests the inea that the
whole side OF the cell was made and
then place was cut for the door,
using the same bars for the shutter.
This door is about six feet high and
has three locks on ii. The top lock is
nothing more than Jail paddock.
The second is bolt lock, a substan-
tial one, while the bottom is also fas-
tened by paddock. About the GEN.
ter of this shutter Is wicket, about
foot square, used to pass food to the
prisoners without opening the door.
This wicked was not locked at night,
and by passing his arm through the
aperture man could reach the up
per and center locks on the door.
Here was the only chance offered for
an escape.
Harry Jones is a mechanic, and
knows much about locks, while Lam
caster is very good with knife,
carving anything he wanted out of
wood. Jones examined the locks
when the opportunity was offered
and decided that keys could be made
to open all of them. He put Lam
caster to work making wooden key
to unlock the paddock 1T the top of
the door, while he set his wits to
work TO find something that would
make key for the main or
center lock. Lancaster bounced
on the broom handle for his key,
while Jones conclude d that an oyster
can would do him. They set to
work and it was not long before Lam
caster had made key which would
unlock the paddock as well as one
carried by Jaier Allison. Jones was
not quite go successful in his work,
but he managed to make KEY that
would Use The spring, christening
the bolt In the main lock. The holt,
however, could not be- turned back
with this key. Jones, however, got
hold of large nail, and while Lam