The Saint Paul globe., 1900-10-30
NEW YORK JANER killed
MURDERED BY ESCAPING NEGRO
DESPERADoEs IN SEVENTH
DISTRICT PRISON
TWO ARE FATALLY WOUNDED
One of the Murderers Is Himself In
stant1y Killed by n Fall From
the Fourth Story to
the Yard.

NEW YORK, Oct 29.-Two colored
prisoners, in an attempt to escape from
the prison attached to the Seventh dis
trict court in West Fifty-fourth street,
today killed Keeper Hugh McGovern,
f1fty-one years old, and probably injured
George Wilson, fifty-nine years old,
"trusty,'' who had evidently tried to aid
McGovern. One of the prisoners, Ar
thur Flanagan, escaped; the other, Frank
Emerson, fell into the yard adjoining
the prison and was instantly killed.
The prisoners were together in a cell
in the first tier, on a level with the
fourth floor of the prison. They sawed
two bars in the lower part of the cell
door and got into the corridor. They
went to the nearest window, about six
feet from the floor, and sawed one bar
at the bottom, showing it out and getting
through. In doing this, it is supposed
they encountered McGovern and
Wilson, killing one and Woundtng the
other. How this was done is not known,
as Wilson cannot give an account OF
what happened. The escaping prisoners
used their bedding for a rope and swung
from a window. Flanagan succeeded in
swinging to the roof of a car stable adjoin-
ing, but Emerson did not make it, and
fell headlong to a pile of rails, where his
body was found later, with the skull
crushed in.
The men must have left their cell sew
eraI hours before the fact was discov-
cred. At o'clock Keeper John Brady,
who had been in the Office all night,
went, as was his custom, to the male
prison on the fourth floor AS he was
walking around the corridor of Tier No.
l, he came across the body of Keeper
McGovern. 1t lay face downward in Il
pool of blood with great wound in the
head. Nearby lay the prisoner, Wilson,
who was still groaning. A surgeon who
was called in said McCiovern had been
probably die. Wilson is fifty-nine years
old, and for two years has been the
old, and for two years has been in the
prison self-committed, as he had no
home. He acted as a "trusty," and had
the confidence of the officers. They be-
ieve he was hurt while aiding MCCOY
ern.
Emerson was under bail of $4,000 on
two charges of burglary. Flanagan,
who had been employed as a steward in
a fashionable restaurant, also was un-
der heavy bail for burglary.
WOMAN IN THE CASE.
1t is the belief of other attaches of the
prison that a woman is at the bottom
of the whole trouble, and that it was she
who furnished the file with which the
prison bars were sawed through 1t was
said that woman, whose name is not
known, came to the prison Saturday
evening to see the prisoner Emerson, and
it is thought that it was at that time
that She smuggled in the file The same
woman had prior to that time secured a
lawyer for Emerson. When the body
of Keeper McGovern was searched, it
was found that his keyes and revolver
had been taken from him. 1t is the be-
lief of his colleagues that the keys
were taken from him with the intention
upon the part of the desperadoes to
make their escape through the doors.
Their desire being thwarted, they re-
turned and made their way out of the
window, but letting themselves down by
means of the improvised rope.
Neither the keys or the revolver
were found in the pockets of the dead
desperado, which leads to the belief that
they are in the possession of Flanagan.
When Emerson was taken to the police
station house the night of his arrest,
Oct. 13, he removed his shoes and then
called Doorman Coghlin to the CELL The
latter answered the call, and as he
opened the cell door Emerson sprang
at him and brought the heel Of a shoe
down upon his head, cutting it open. In
the struggle which followed it took the
combined efforts of several policemen to
subdue the prisoner.