Arizona republican., 1896-02-04
Open Sesame Through
 Steel Cells.
Thos. Kinney Sawed His Way
 to Freedom.
How a County Jail Prisoner Suc- cessfulIy Escaped from the
 Bastile.

pleted with it's steel cages the officials thought that at last the county had a fortress that was absolutely impreg- nalble from within, but it was verified Saturday night in startling manner that steel cages are not always impreg nable, and the new jail has the first escape to record in its brief history.
 Sunday morning the guards in feed ing the prisoners observed a stony si- lence when the name of Thos. Kinney was called. An examination was made of the prisoners cell to ascertain his whereabouts, when the guards were startled at perceiving the cage empty and the bird non est. A super ficial examination of the cell was all that was necessary to show by what manner Kinney had made his exit, for through the ceiling had been cut hole about large enough to admit of full grown person squeezing through with out trouble. The cell was the last one on the lower corridor on the left hand side and the prisoner had with small drill bored hole through the ceiling of the cell and with a small saw cut place large enough to crawl through Directly over the cell occupied by in ney is another cell which was not occu- pied, nor were any of the cells of the upper corridor occupied and conse- quently the doors were wide open.
 After effecting an entrance to the upper corridor Kinney found stack of canvas stretches or cots, from which he cut the ropes, joined them together and had a line about fifty feet in length. He threw one end of the rope over an iron girder above the cage and drew himself up. It was then the work of minute for the prisoner to press back the tin bars of the venti- lator and squeeze through on the roof Here he tied one end of the rope to a. f1ue and slid to the ground after hard
 work, but free man.
 Two small saws were found in Kin ney's cell after his departure, but the officers are satisfied that the imple- ments were passed through to the pris- Oner. About four feet intervenes be tween the cell he occupied and a win dow. The latter works on weights anG it is an easy matter to raise it with a. stick and pass through any small ar ticle that would go through thhe heavy wire screen. The screen was scratched in one place, which was no doubt caused by the saws and drill being passed through to Kinney.
 He must have worked silently, for
 none of the prisoners heard a sound,
 but during the process of saving his way to liberty Kinney used soap lav- ishly to deaden the sound.
 The ceiling of the cell is about :, quarter of an inch in thickness and hs. must have worked assiduously to make, such large hole in the tine it was
 done. The cage was made by the i Pauley steel jail works of St. Louis 1 and the flooring is guaranteed to be made of layer of some soft material with layers of hard composition cov- ering both sides. It is claimed that a saw would have no effect, but the es-- cape of Kinney disproves that asser-, tion.
 As soon as the escape was discov-~ cred Deputies Gibson and George started on the trail. They went to Maricopa Sunday night and after in specting several hobos there returned to Mesa. Deputy George telephoned the sheriff's office yesterday from that place that he had found a clue and was
 satisfied he was the man wanted and expected to capture him in a few hours.
 Kinney was arrested December 26 last for burglarizing the room of Oscar Robbins at the St. Lawrence house He was examined by, Justice Morris and bound over to the grand jury with bail St S1000. Ever since his incar-
 ceration he kept in his cell to himself and held no communication with any of the other prisoners and always sought seclusion, circumstance that
 aroused the suspicion of Sheriff Orme,
 who thought the man might be guilty | of much graver crime than robbery.