The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-01-06
DUG THROUGH
PRISON WALLS
Yuma Penitentiary Con-
victs Toll Patiently
to Escape.
Tunnel From the Prison, to Be
Detected When Freedom
Is at Hand.
Scores of Desperate Characters Fail
in a Clever Attempt to
Escape.

YUMA, ARIz., Jan. 5.-The most daring
and best laid plan for escape in the his
tory of the Arizona Territorial peniten-
tiary was discovered last night by acct
dent, and q large number of Arizona s
criminals who were figuring on vacation
will be compelled to hnger while in the
"snake den" and subsist on bread and
water.
The project was shrewdly managed,
and that it was unsuccessful was no fault
of those gambling with fate for their free
dom.
The shop where the convic.s manufac-
tured onyx ornaments stands about thirty
feet from the north wall of the prison in.
closure, and to reach the outside by means
of an underground passage from the shop
was the daring plan concocted by the con-
victs.
Over thirty feet OF an adamantine
cement formation must be dug through,
eight feet of solid rock under the outside
wall must be penetrated, but the reward
for the work was to be liberty, and they
deemed the end justified the means.
In the onyx shop stand number of
chests used for holding the rock the work
men use, and one of these was made to
conceal the mouth of the tunnel and the
men working their way 10 freedom. The
bottom was taken from the box, a convict
hid inside and the cover was closed and
locked. Then the work began, and hole
four or five feet deep and large enough to
admit of man working handily was dug
straight down.
From there the tunnel was started
straight for the north wall of the Enclosure,
slanting slightly upward, so as to strike
the open air outside the prison wall at a
favorable place.
The dirt was removed from the tunnel
by means of -four sack. Whenever the
workman underground had filled the sack
be would tap on the box concealing the
mouth OF the opening, the lid would be
opened and the sack of dirt removed and
concealed in other chests.
Several chests were filed in this way as
a large amount OF excayating was required
to make the tunnel.
The work was carried on so carefully
that the dig ing of the tunnel was COM
pleted. The pushing out OF rock would
have cleared the passageway to freedom,
and perhaps tonight the break would
heve been made.
From thirty TO forty men work in the
onyx shop, and they were probably all en-
gagged in the desperate enterprise. Now
that the tunnel has been found, evidences
OF most carefully and wisely laid plans
are dIscernible on every hand.
On the first favorable night some con-
wet would have tapped the sick" signal
on his cell, and when the guard on duty
in the dollhouse entered, he would have
been knocked senseless or killed, if
necessary, his keys secured and the pris-
oners liberated from their cells.
From the dollhouse a corridor leads to
the dining-hall, on the west end OF which
and near to the onyx house, where the
tunnel started, is a window concealed by
bushes from the eyes of the guards. To
remove the iron bars of this window
would have been short work and egress
could have been made.
From there into the onyx house was
distance of but few steps. Once in the
onyx house the coast would have been
clear, and very few moments would
have sufficed 10 have made the under
ground passage to freedom.
The authorities are reticent as to how
the plan was discovered. but it is not i'm
Bile that a trusty who knew of the
project exposed it. About go convicts
are confined in the penitentiary, and a
large number of exceptionally desperate
men are included among them.