The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1897-01-15
PRISONERS BREAK JAIL
Daring Escape Of Four Men from
Ludlow Street Jail.
ONLY ONE OF THEM REOAPTURED.
Two Of Those stni AZ Large Are Accused
Counterfeiters and the other Confessed
Mail Robber-A Dangerous Leap for Lib
s~rty-sheriT Tamsen's Troubles.

Counterfelter and the other a Confessed
Mail Robber-A Dangerous Leap for Lib
srty-sheriT Tamsen's Troubles.
NEW York, Jan. 15.-Four prisoners
escaped from Ludlow street Jail last night.
They were Peter Masso, accused Of inn
porting French girls for immoral pur-
poses; William Post, n confessed mail
robber, and Michael Egan and George
~Polyennnnys, accused Of counterfeiting.
Masso vas subsequently retaken by the
police, but the others are still at large. A
woman living in q tenement house next
TO the jail found a man in her kitchen
trying to open the window to the fire es-
car Her screams aroused the neighbOr-
hood, and the man fled down the stairs,
to be captured as he stepped into the
street and turned over to the police. At
the police station he was held as a suspi-
cious person. 'TAfter he had been locked
up he admitted that he was Peter Masso.
The top tier Of cells at the east side, the
windows of which look out upon a large
yard which divides the Jail from the Essex
market prison, had until lately been oc-
cupied by United States prisoners. A few
days ago these prisoners were transferred
to other parts of the jail, and the upper
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plumbers for repairs, leaving the cells
empty. The four men, who had the free
dom Of the corridors, made their way in
the s-emi-darkness to the upper tier, twisted
the lock off one of the unoccupied cells,
and then removed the windows from the
cell.
Then one of the men, probably Masso,
took a dangerous leap across an open
space of five feet and landed on the sill of
the outer window. He had a sharp saw,
and he sawed a stout iron bari the upper
frame of the window. After the bar in
the window had been broken the halves
were twisted so that a space about q foot
wide was made n sufficiently long to
permit a body TO squeeze through.
The window sill on which the men
stood when they had clambered outside
was only a little less han sixty feet above
the ground Five feet above them was
the roof of the Jail, with a large, overhang-
ing oornice. How it was done, no one
can tell, but the men in some way swung
themselves from the cornice, with the yard
sixty feet below, and by main strength
lifted themselves to the roof. On the roof
they were safe for a moment, but there
was a sharp spiked fence, ten feet high, be
tween them and the adjoining tenement
house roof. This was scaled and then the
men had access to the stairway of the ten
ement house by way Of the roof. Masso
was the first of the fugitives. While the
scene which ended in his recapture was
enacted his companions seoreted them
selves on the roof, and afterward walked
down stairs.
When Sheriff Tamsen heard the news of
the escape he was acting as host at Del
/ y,or4anfa vrrhava 900 rwrraete ipa1rrHir,rf In
mayor, comptroller, district attorney and
several judges, were enjoying the sherif's
annual dinner. He left the table in hot
haste, saying goodby to no n
Mayor Strong tried hard to look at ease
and sought solace in the company Of Dis
trict Attorney Olcott. Comptroller Fitch
laughed heartily, and Judges Gildersleeve,
Bookstaver, Bisohoff and Macadam tried
hard to suppress their smiles. Then gloom
settled down on the feast. At this juno
ture the following telegram from Speaker
Thomas B. Reed was read:
"With deep regret that 1 am not shar-
ing their pleasure, 1 wish Mr.. Sheriff and
his goodly company the joyous season
they deserve"
A ripple of. laughter followed the read.
ing.
William H. Post, one Of the escaped
prisoners, is tho mail wagon driver who
pleaded guilty to two count of IN indict
ment charging forging a mail lock key
and riding mail matter. He was respon
sible for the package Of plundered letters
which were cast up by the tide a month
ago on Coney Island beach.
Allen, Killoran and Russell, postoffict
safe robbers, held up the keepers of Lud
low street Jail July 4, 1895, with r~evolvers
and, getting the keys, walked out. Tive
Of the trio are now serving terms in Eu
ropean prisons, but KILOGRAMS where
abouts since Is a mystery which the detec
tives have been unable to solve. This es
cape led to Sheriff Tamsen's trial for mis-
conduct in office, but he was exonerateC
by Governor Morton only last month.