The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-01-05
FIVE FELLOWS GOT OUT
OF the Lookup and the Hounds From
This City Were Sent For.
WOOSTER WAS WELL PLEASED
That the Fellows Got away and 1t Is Be
neyed That They Had Ample AS
sIstance From the Outside
Sheriff Wanted to See
the Dogs Work.


the Dogs Work.
A thrilling escape of five prisoners
from the Wooster lookup was reported
in this city Wednesday night at 1920
o'clock, by Sheriff Mccoy, of that city,
who requested Mayor Robertson,
through the telephone, to send officers
and the blood hounds over to that place
and assist in the hunt Of the escaped
prisoners. The mayor Immediately
went to the patrol station and detailed
Superintendent Reed and officer Nor
tensen to take the dogs and go to
Wooster on the 1927 o'clock Pennsyl-
vania train. The officers arrived at
Wooster shortly before IL o'clock and
were met by the sheriff and several
men on horse back, who appeared eager
for the chase to commence at once. The
sheriff called the local officers aside
and asked them what assistance they
desired and how they expected to go
about the chase. The officers asked to
be taken at once to the place where the
prisoners had been confined, and this
was done. 1t appears that hundreds
of people had trampled over tn tracks
made by the prisoners as they emerged
from the lookup, and the dogs were
not able to pick up the proper scent,
the footprints of the prisoners not be-
ing distinguished from those made by
the excited citizens, and probably OBJ
liberated altogether. Two prisoners
who were confined in the prison were
found playing cards and they had walk
ed back and forth over the imprints on
the floor which the sheriff believed the
prisoners had made and which would
give the hounds a starting scent. 1t
appears that the place inside and out
side had been tracked up SO much by
outsiders that the hounds were unable
to secure a start. When the local Off
GERS requested information as to the
direction taken by the prisoners, the
Woster authorities were unable to di-
rect them properly, and all trace of the
prisoners was lost and the dogs were
not started over the trail. The fault
was not entirely with the dogs as much
as it was with the authorities in that
city who permitted the only scent OBJ
tainable at the prison to be spoiled or
obliterated by the trampling over of
hundreds of feet of citizens.
From statements made by the officers
who returned to this city Thursday
morning at 2:34 o'clock. it is evident
that the prisoners had outside assist
ance in escaping from the prison. An
iron door leading the pOrriHnr
tains a small wicket through which
food can be handed to those inside
The distance from the small wicket to
the paddock which locked the door is
several feet, and the story related by
the authorities in that city that key
had been handed to the prisoners and
that they had reached the outside and
unlocked the door themselves. seems to
the officers in this city to be preposter-
Gus. They are of the belief that some
one outside unlocked the door and freed
the fellows. Another matter related by
the local officers Is that the Wooster
citizens generally were pretty we'll sat-
isfied to allow the fellows their free
dom If they would only get so far away
from the city as not to bother the town
authorities again. The sheriff in his
conversation with the local officers
stated these made seven prisoners to
escape from his custody and that he
desired to secure them more to satisfy
himself than for the crime with which
they were charged, although the citi-
zens didn't care much whether he ap-
pretended them or not.
There were five prisoners who made
their escape. They were tTamps who
had been arrested last week and in
carcerated in the prison ever since but
against whom no great charge had been
placed. A boy who starts a fire in a
school house near the town discovered
the fellows sleeping in one of the rooms
of the building one morning, and he or
dered them out, but they wouldn't go.
He informed the officials and they soon
had the fellows arrested. 1t is stated
that one of them was wanted for at
tempting to entice little girl away.
The men have been locked up ever
since. When they left posse of Off
cials secured horses and started in var
ious directions after them, but they
could obtain no clue to their where
abouts, 1t was then that the blood
hounds We're sent for. Cine of the Off
GERS who made the trip stated that the
sheriff had told him that he sent for
the dogs, and even though they were
unable to capture the men. he wanted
TO see II they would take up a trail.
30 that he could depend upon them in
the future IL any more escapes occurred
before The new iail was finished. He
paid the officers their expenses in trav-i
cling and treated them to nice sup