The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-11-23
GOT OUT OF JAIL.
One Case in Early Days Which
Produced Varied Results.

| The recent escape of a large number
| of convicts from the federal prison at
| Leavenworth and the interest of the
/ public in their escap ade, recalls an in
teresting chapter in the history of La
! bette county and how the escape of
prisoners in the county Jail there bore
on the politics of the state. The story
is told by w. F. Schoch as follows:
In the early spring of 1886, there was
confined in the little one-story stone
jail al Oswego, Frank Myers, charged
with having stolen a team of mules.
Myers had been in some way, an at
tache of circus that had wintered at
Chetopa, and spring found him in the
county Jail. He was a very progresses
ing young fellow and a beautiful little
woman claimed him for a husband
She was steadfast and loyal and called
upon him every day of his confinement
A jury had passed upon the question
of his guilt and disagreed. This, with
the beautiful wife and sympathetic
public, tended strongly to the belief
that next time he would be acquitted.
One night he disappeared. How he
got out of that Jail or who assisted
him, is to this day, a mystery. A week
later his body was found in the waters
of the Neosho river, stream that me-
anders through the great broad valley
lying east of the high bluffs looking
down from Oswego. The sheriff and
jailer of course were abused by every
body-the jailer received the most of it
and died few years later, unable to
diSpel the impression in the minds of
large portion of the public that he had
furnished the keys or knowingly per-
mitted the Jail door to swing outward
at the touch of those interested in tax
ing Myers from its silent walls. He
was arrested charged with the offense
of aiding prisoners to escape, but was
discharged from custody. At any rate
Myers was dead. In some way, on that
mis- 10 he
of that little stone Jail, which has long
since been abandoned and replaced with
a more modern structure.
John and Bill Davis at this time were
confined in this same Jail awaiting
transportation to Fort Scott for trial,
having been indicted in the United
States district court for that division
with having introduced intoxicating
liquors into the Indian country John
and Bill were brothers; large portly
men, typical of the outlaws then infest-
ing all the country south of eastern
Kansas in the Indian Territory. They
had been captured near Vinita, and it
was a common thing in those days for
federal prisoners to be brought before
the United States commissioner at Che
tOpa, thence to the Jail at OSwego.
The Davis brothers said they knew
who took Frank Myers from Jail. They
said it was Jake Mclaughlin and Wash
Berkaw. The officers and an eager pub
lie determined to fasten this crime on
their story. Suspicion pointed that way
and the public mind desired but little
to corroborate the story of the two fed
eral prisoners.
Jake Mclaughlin had for years been
a terror to the officers. He seemed to
delight in creating the impression that
he was a bad man. His home was in
Parsons, but ne spent most of his va
cations at Oswego in the little stone
Jail. He owned and operated the Grand
Central hotel in Parsons with all it's ap-
purtenances- It is said that under this
hotel building were caverns, tunnels
and Subterranean paSSa geS of all sizes
and dimensions, suggestive of the river
Styx, and above all this stood the gild-
ed palace, the hotel itself.
Jake Mclaughlin was one of those
who in the early eighties undertook to
swat the prohibitory liquor law, by
engaging in it's persistent violation.
This was why he was SO frequently an
charged with selling liquor.
McLaughlin's partner in crime and
punishment was Wash Berkaw. 1 knew
him personally when he arrived in Kan
sas seven years before; knew him when
he reached the farm of his uncle, a
few miles out from Parsons. a rosy
faced, inoffensive country boy, fresh
from his fathers farm in Illinois. He
came west to get a Start-he got it. In
time he found his way to town, thence
to bad company. The same old story
The city fellow slapped him on the back
and made him think he was a great big
man. He was willing to be slapped on
the back and rather liked it, and in
time became a leader and hero in his
crowd. He developed into just the kind
of an associate Mclaughlin wanted