The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-12-27

out and expect to be released some
day.
One Of the most dangerous inmates
of the institution is Mike Brennan.
sent to the prison from Duluth to
serve life sentence for murder. Bren-
nan is criminally insane, and, since he
attempted the life Of a fellow convict
a year ago, he has been kept in the
solitary. Recently an enclosure was
erected west Of the solitary, where
Brennan and another convict of the
same flk are permitted to receive need
Ell exercise, Brennan is treacherous
and is carefully handled and guarded.
He is the fellow who was sent from
the prison to the insane asylum at st.
Peter and managed to escape. He was
recaptured in New Orleans.
Prior to Warden VOTERS arrival at
the prison, number of escapes were
effected, but nearly all of those who
were fortunate to reach the open air
were recaptured, Warden Wolfer has
been in harness for many years and
has seen all phases of prison life, and
when asked by G o b e representa-
tive, few days ago, if he recalled any
desperate attempts at escape from
prisons in which he had labored, he
replied:
do I recall any escapes or attempt
at escapes from prisons that are note
worthy? Yes, several Of them. One of
the best planned and most ingeniously
executed escapes that has ever occurred
during my prison experience is one that
took place in the Illinois State Peni-
tertiary at Joliet, Illinois, in 1876. A
prisoner by the name of James D. Pad
dock was committed to that prison for
eight and one-half years from Chicago
He was a keen, wiry, bright-eyed young
man about thirty years Of age. The
prison was so crowded at that time,
that two prisoners occupied each cell.
This man, together with Edward Bar
rett, another keen Chicago crook, oo-
cupied one of the cells in the largest
dollhouse, which contained six humid
red cells. Each cell corridor contained
fifty cells. They occupied a cell ON the
lower outer corridor, being about ten
cells removed from tower at the low
er end of the cell house. Both prisoners
were working in the shoe shop. Pad
dock, through the use of a small spirit
lamp that he used to heat his FURNISH
ing irons for furnishing the heels and
shanks of shoes, tempered several case
knives that he managed to secure
through different channels. The blades
of the knives were of soft steel With
the assistance of a small file he made
fine saws out of these knives and tenn
pered them over his spirit lamp. After
having prepared his TOOLS he commence
afterwards ascertained that it took him
nearly three months after the time he
commenced before he made his escape
He was assisted by his cell mate The
cell door was painted with black as
phaltum, which closely resembled ma
terial used for Furnishing shoes. After
cutting off bar he would slip piece
of leather into the space made by the
saw and then neatly cover it with shoe
Furnishing material, and thus hide all
trace of the work After cutting off five
bars of his cell door, he waited his OPP
pCrtunity to bride one Of the walters in
the dollhouse to obtain an impression
of the key to a lock on the door lead
ing into the StowergeE BY dint of long
perseverance, he finally got the inn
preston, the tower being used as q
receptacle for soap, mops, brooms. etc.
During all of this time, and whenever
at work, he made use Of an ingeniously
| contrived ratchet containing three small
mirrors, which were adjusted to an arm
with three elbows similar to a gas fix
ture. He would use these small mir
rorS SO as to reflect in each other.
throwing them out from his cell door.
In this way he would be able to look
the whole length of the corridor both
ways, and upwards at the same time
the dollhouse. In this way he was
able to keep track of the movements of
the officers on duty, and whenever the
officer would pass around the block
on the other side, he would work until
he reappeared. When everything was
ready, one dark rainy night, he removed
/ the bars from his door, having first
constructed a, dummy resembling a
man in his bed passed out on the cor
ridor, replaced the bars, slipped down
! to the tower, unlocked the door and
entered. Once in there all that remain
| ed between him and liberty, was to
saw off large iron bar in a small mar
row window. This took him nearly
| three hours, but he accomplished his
work, let himself down to the ground
with a cord which he had procured,
and was once more free man, but
| before leaving the tower, with an evf-
dent desire to impress the authorities
with the fact that he was well equip
ped for the work he had accomplished,
| he stuck up and down the castings of
the window out of which ne escaped,
| six finely made saws which he had not
! found it necessary to use, these having
| been held by him in reserve. He liter
ally cut himself out through a forest OF
iron bars and While good discipline and
careful attelltion do57all conditions OF
50 fety were Observed This Is the only
| prisonerI haVB eKeRnknown in my pris-
| ON experiences to escape under such
difficulties. He had his liberty only