The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-07-27

Sherir William J. Maxey Of Mont
rose, was unpleasantly surprised when
he arose yesterday morning, by the
discovery that during the night eight
of the fourteen inmates of the Sus-
quehanna county Jail had made their
| escape, the other four remaining only
because of a disinclination to go.
Those who escaped are: Thomas
Coffey, Charles Parker Jackson Evans
alias r. w. stephens, Frank Harris,
John Myers, James Dawson, Terry
McGovern and John Mack.
All were held on charges of breaking
and entering, and burglary, and their
cases will come before the next grand
jury, which sits in this place on Mon.
day next.
As soon as the escape was discov.
cred Sheriff Maxey wired the police
| authorities of this city, Binghamton,
| Susquehanna and all nearby points,
| and offered a reward of $25 a head
for the capture of the men. A num-
ber of deputies were sworn in and
they are now securing the county in
an effort to find trace of the fugitives,
but up to this writing no tidings have
| been received.
| plainly the manner of the escape. The
men occupied cells on the west side
| of the second floor, two prisoners to
| each cell. They first gained access to
| the corridor, and then going to the
cell formerly occupied by James ].
| Eagan, one of the men executed last
January for the murder of Jackson
Pepper, they took from the wall
large stone which they had previously
| dug around and loosened and careful
| ly let it down to the floor.
LEFT AN OPENING.
This left an opening about twen-
| ty inches wide and ten inches
| high, through which the men later
| squeezed themselves out into the
| open air. One of the men is
by trade a whipmaker, and he had
fashioned a very strong and service
| able rope out of the bed clothing, by
| tearing it in long strips and braiding
| them together in the same manner
| that whip lashes are woven. Three
| long ropes of this description were in
| readiness. Two of them were fastened
| to a bar in the window of a cell near
est the Jail yard; the other rope was
| fastened in a like manner to a bar of
| the window to the cell in which the
| opening had been made, and the rope
| then carried through the opening and
hung to the ground.
| After getting through the hole in
| the wall, it was an easy matter to
slide down the rope to the yard below.
Once down, the men walked to the
other end of the yard where the other
ropes dangled close to the yard wall
Taking the longer rope in a coil over
his shoulder, and climbing up the 9TH
| er rope, hand over hand 1t Is sup
| posed that one of the men reached a
point level with the wall and then,
| throwing the coiled rope over, follow
ed by swinging himself to the top
and then down the rope to liberty.
Such feat would not be an easy
one, but one of the prisoners is much
of an athlete and 1t is believed that
he was the first man to gain his free
dom, and that once on the outside.
he held the rope taut and thus made
| much easier the descent of the others.
The greatest mystery about the
whole affair is as to how the men man.
aged to get out of their cells-that
is, If they were locked in. as they
are supposed to be at night
TURNKEY'S STORY.
The turnkey Is positive in the asser-
tion that the men were locked in as
usual, and that each door was tried
before he left them for the night,
yet this morning the doors were open
but the bolts were shot, as they are
locked, making 1t appear that the
doors were not entirely shut when the
key was turned and so did not fas-
ten. How the men managed to work
this scheme without being detected by
the turnkey is a puzzle. Many ex-
plantations are given, but none seem
entirely satisfactory.
Coffey, Parker and Evans, three of
the tugitives, We're caught red-handed
as they were breaking into the store
of 7. II. Lewis at Great Bend, and
it is believed that they had committed
several burglaries in that vicinity.
When captured, they had in their pos