The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1896-10-11
DEATH OF NO. 5,S49
TRAGIC END or THE MISERABLE
LIFE OF A CONVICT.
Found In Missouri Rivera wife
Murderer Tries t. Escape Fron
HIS Mine Prisen-Clinhing Up roo
Feet From the Earthss Interior
Oniy To Meet Death Earlfer-CrIne
Without Any Romance.

a " eoneSaay OF last week the papers
eeltaahec brief account Of the escape OF
cohVicts ass and ass from the Kansas
STATE prison Cne was shot and captured
lae oifser. Charles Pound. wife murderer.
sst away. The men had climbed out OF
the prison coal mime To feet deep.
The or3ef report % Warden Lynch half
seilec. hAlf-dlselosed. one OF the most ca--
ias and desperate escapes ON record. Cruel
VIE slayer that he was Pound seemed al
NEST entitled % liberty. The pages OF adj
venture that almost turn the reader sick
tea the story OF no dsxzier. more desper-
ase feat than Pounds
Last Monday afternoon fisherman row.
ed through thu rank river grasses that In
uscate the shallow shores Of the Missouri
river, opposite Independence. BobbinS
sauggisaly up and down among the weeds
WAS the body OF a man, face downward, He
wore an alpaca coat. His hair was black.
The fisherman turned the body over, ard
saw the blue and purple face OF young
man. Wide open eyes stared from the
osoatsd face. The body was without a
clue except the cuts OF the white shirt,
on which were the initials. G. ]. s. The
coroner OF Independence buried the I'M
known body.
Yesterday afternoon Warden Lynch. Of
the prison. caused this body to be exhumed
and Identified 1t as the body 0f convict No.
6.sAs. Charles Pound. the escaped wife
slayer.
These chapters were told in three brief
items. They link together story or re-
markable crime. escape and retrioution
Six years ago, Charles Pound killed his
wife at Galena. Kan. He went through
all Of the terrors of capture. trial. conyic-
ton and sentence to- hang Try the neck un-
til dead. He was convicted entirely upon
circumstansial evidence. and had always
declared himself innocent. He attempted
To prove an alib,. but failed. Many persons
in Galena and Joplin believed that Pound.
convict No. 5.Si9. was an innocent man.
According TO custom In Kansas. Pound
was not hanged. Instead, he was subject
ed to the living death OF the state prison
coal mine at Leavenworth When Gov.
Morrill, took his seat as governor. ii was
said that he would cause the death sem
tence 10 be executed. The news crept
even into the bowels OF the earth. 720 feet
below daylight, and Pound suffered a new,
slow terror. Those who believe In the Ger.
tainty Of reu.bution will say tha; when
the murdered woman gasped her last
Pound was marked for punishment more
bitter than the gallows- The hand OF fate
closed on Pound last wednesday. He HIM
self became the agent OF retributige justice
upon his own head.
Wi.lia-n Blayloek, under life sentence
for killing City Marshal Dave Gordon, OF
Columbus. Kan. and Pound worked TO-
gether in the mine as track layers. They
were not permitted to nninsle with the
other conric:s; The mine is just outside
the prison walls. There are armed guards
in the mine. In the cage that lifts the
convict miners UP and down and at the
mouth OF the shaft. About the mouth OF
the shaft is a shotgun hne-' Guards.
armed with d'ouble-barreied shotguns and
pistols. patrol a dsa3line. For forty min.
utes, at noon, the shotgun line" alone
holds the prisoners. II. peradyenture, they
should gain possession of the cage and
rise TO the surface. Blayiock, Who now
lies in the hospital, ia dumb on the details
OF the escape. The men, 1t seems. plotted
together that one OF them could escape
as the price OF the Others life. They did
not know which one. II they could ascend
40 feet To daylight they believed that, by
breaking through the shotgun line' in
different directions, one would be Killed
and the other escape.
Their calculations were exact, but they
did not consider the hand Of retribution.
Biayiock fell under the fire and Pound
escaped, but from the first Wild delight OF
freedom he plunged into hours OF torture
and final miserable death.
An airshaft runs UP the 10 feet alongside
the elevator frame ", in climbing up
ward, the men should be at a point where
there was no offset when the cage descend.
ed. they would be crushed TO death. They
had TO take these chances. Up, up they
climbed in the darkness. now almost dc.
spairing OF another footho,d on the tim.
bers, now going on again Twice they es-
capped the crushing cage by miracle. The
dizzy towers OF the Brooklyn bridge. upon
whose top a man looks Exc a fiy, are 30
feet high These men climbed. in tho
darkness. twice 80 feet.
Fortune seemed to favor the pale men.
and weary, trembling and wet with the
cold sweat of srigftful effort they neared
the surface and saw q door in the shaft.
They forced n open and found themselves
in the oil cellar. The cellar led Into the
pen yard" The corsvicts breathe9 fresh
ar and then steahhf9y sought to go around
the slate dump The guards did not see
them. They cleared the slate dunn
Quarts Wilson and Herald saw Them
The time had come
The men separated. running like deer.
A fusilia6e of pistol shots and sluvs sang
after them. They ran on, unhurt Pound
looked back He was unscathed, and be-
Eeved the bullet was not We. nodded 20
lay him low. Tire fire increased Both
men fell. Biaylock was shot through The
body and could not move. Pound scram.
bied up and ran more swiftly than before.
A dense brush surrounds the prison.
Pound. seemingly impervfous to bullets,
plunged into the dense. Wild jungle at
weeds and young timber and was lost
from sight.
AT once all The spare guards OF tho rrfs.
on began beating the brush for the un.
armed. wounded man who iurked there
In prison stripes. They tracked him by
the marks OF his shoes in the mud. He
had made his way 20 a nearby mining
camp where several ex-co1victs are min
ers NO doubt he rushed among these
men and the ex-convicts did not consider
whether ne was wife slayer or innocent.
He was @ convict trying 30 escape. That
was enough. They gave him other Clothes
and shoes.
Three times the guards drove the fugi-
tive from the vicinity OF the mining camp
and cha ed him through the brush. As
he panted through the tfickets. bleeding
and suffering from shot through his leg.
Il TT " ON III