The herald., 1897-06-10
in THE DARK
Henry Scott Sweated Out
in the Dungeon
he MAKES CONFESSION
AND THOUGH ARRESTED FOR
FELONY rs RELEASED
Charged With Completely in the
Scheme to Liberate "Kid" Thomp-
son-Trusty Kramer

: Young, and, after having his examina'
tion set for June 20, was permitted to de-
part on his own recognizance. To say
this was an unusual proceeding is to bt
well within the mark. To permit de-
fendant, held on a felony charge, to &c
free on his own recognizance is unprece-
dented. But there was a reason for it
and therein lies story.
When kid" Thompson was brought
back from San Quentin to be retired,
there was an attempt to convey to Nun
in the Jail a loaded pistol. One Colonel
Tupper is the scapegoat of that AFFAIR
and will be brought to trial on July lIth.
A Young fellow named Kramer, who
was acting as trusty in the Jail, was
caught passing the pistol, and it might
have been expected that he would have
been degraded to the position of COM
mon prisoner. AS matter of fact after
the trouble over the pistol episode had
blown past, Kramer was reinstated as
a trusty and had the position as waiter
on the private table of jailor Kennedy
But it was said that the whole story
of the pistol business didn't come out al
the time, and that there were others inn
plicated in it. And so 1t would seem, Tor
on Saturday last Con" Mallory, the
detective of the district attorneys Office,
very cleverly made the capture of Harry
Scott-the man who was turned loose
yesterday. Scott was not entered or
the prisoners book at the Jail, but he
was taken there all the same and con-
fined in one of the dungeons.
He was arrested on a complaint sworn
to before Justice Young by Jaior Ken
nedy, on April 18th, wherein it was al
legged that on the day previous, the 18th
instant Henry Scott had committed IA
felony by carrying and sending pis-
tol to and for w. H. Thompson, to facil~
itate his escape" But although arrest
ed on a complaint no entry was made of
the capture anywhere, and when Scott
was incarcerated in the dungeon at the
county Jail he disappeared. practically
from off the face of the earth And there
he remained until yesterday afternoon
when he was taken from the Jail up to
the district attorneys office and, in the
presence of Deputy District Attorney
Willis, made voluntary" statement or
confession. What that statement was
has not been permitted to transpire-
The district attorney and the sheriff
have decided to keep the confession in
allegiance until the trial of Colonel Tup-
per. when it will be used as an aid to his
conviction.
In brief these are the facts in connec-
tion with the capture, the confession
and the release of Henry Scott, and
neither Mr.. Willis nor Sheriff Burr
showed any inclination to deny any
of these facts. But at the same tim.
neither one nor the other would cast
very much light upon the matter. Mr..
Willis explained that the duty of hunt
ing up witnesses devolved upon the
sheriff, and if he chose to keep any
statements made secret then he could
only acquiesce. The sheriff. on the other
hand, didn't believe in keeping the de-
fense in any case informed of what tes-
timony the prosecution might be piling
up; by so doing it would he thought,
give full time and opportunity for de-
fendant to concoct a defense that would
meet the exigencies of the case So far
as the failure to book Scott when taken
to the Jail the sheriff didn't really kno"
why that usual and, in the interests Of
the prisoner, very necessary ceremony
had been omitted; most likely Jailor
Kennedy had a good reason for.it.
Jailer Kennedy. however, stated, upon
being interrogated, that Sheriff Burr was
his superior officer, and what had been
done had been done under orders. That
Scott had been confined in the dungeon
the sheriff frankly conceded. He stated
that to turn Scott loose in the Jail with
Tupper and all the other prisoners would
be tantamount to turning them loose, for
they would then have been able to con-
connive and compare and have story
concocted that would cause endless
trouble in combating. For that rea-
son he had been isolated from the others
in the only way the cramped condition of
the jail permitted. This may be true,
but unfortunately the measure of isola-
tion adopted as precaution in this case
is precisely the method followed when it
is sought to extort Information from a
prisoner. He it put into what is known
in vulgar parlance as the Sweat box
where he, in lesser or greater time, learns
humility, and is ready to open up and tell
what he knows.
So far as the trusty, Kramer, is con-
cerneG he was not rehabilitated in the
esteem CT Jailer Kennedy, and for that
reason reinstated as trusty, for the rea-
son that he never fell from grace He
played the part of "stool-p pigeon" in the
Jail and entered into the plan for freeing
kid" Thompson with the requisite
amount of gusto to win the confidence of
his fellow prisoners, and then gave the
Snap" away.
While conversing with regard to the
matter Sheriff Burr remarked that
Harry Scott was in Jail at the same time
as kid" Thompson, knew him. and
became party to the felonious attempt
to free the KID at that time. Scott
NJ V. B. Briggs, Pasadena man, and
was charged with grand larceny. mas
much as Briggs recovered the team he
refused to prosecute, and, on motion of
District Attorney Williams, the charge
against Scott was dismissed. 1t was
while awaiting his examination on the
above charge. the sheriff explained, that
Scott met the kid" in the jail But the
explanation really does not explain for
Scott was arrested on December IS, 1896
and was arraigned on January g 1897
when the charge was dismissed
and the defendant discharged. kid"
was brought SOUTH and ar
rived here on January 9Th, four days af-
ter Scott had left the Jail. SO it was not