Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1902-02-06
THE BIDDLES RECAPTURED
AFTER A BLOODY BATTLE
Fugitives Were Overtaken FRI
day Afternoon on a Road
in Butler County, Pa.
SHOTS FIRED IN THE FRAY
Edward Dying and His Brother
Full of Bullets.


tho Breast When Her Companions Fell,
But Did Not Innict II Fatal Wound.
Butler, Pa, Feb. 1.-The Biddle
brothers, who escaped from the Allie
gheny County Jail, in Pittsburg,
Thursday morning, and Mrs. Kate
Dietrich Sotfel, wife Of Warden Peter
Sofrel, were captured yesterday after
noon near Prospect, about nine miles
west of here, after u bloody conflict,
by Detectives Charles McGovern, John
Roach and Albert III. Swinehart. Ed
ward Biddle is lying in the Butler
County Jail in "a dying condition: Jack
Biddle, his brother, is in an adjoining
cell, riddled with buckshot. His con
dition is not considered serious. Mrs.
Soffel shot heself in the battle. She
placed revolver to her left breast
and drove the hall clear to the back,
but her condition is not serious. She
is now in the Butler County General
Hospital. The detectives are unin-
iured. About 30 shots were exchanged
in the fray. The capture was completed
about Il miles from Prospect.
The Biddle brothers, who were under
sentence of death for the murder of
Thomas ID. Kahney, escaped Thursday
morning, after saving their way
through the bars of their cell, throw
ing one guard over the railing to the
stone floor, 16 feet below. Mrs. Sotfel.
the wife Of the warden, had furnished
them saws and revolvers, and the men
escaped through the warden's house,
which adjoins the Jail. Mrs. Soffel left
with the Biddles. ..--..
The three remained hidden in ALE
gheny during the day and left in the
evening, walking on the plank road
toward Butler Late at night they
stole horse and sleigh from farmer
living near Perrysyille. The fact that
u sleiglrhad been stolen was telephoned
to Pittsburg and the officers We're thus
put on their track. Yesterday word
was telephoned to Pittsburg that u
sleigh containing two men and u
woman, the latter half frozen, had
passed along the road near Prospect.
Detectives John Roach. Albert
Swinehart and Charles McGovern were
ordered out from Pittsburg 10 Butler.
Here they got telephone message say.
ing that the party of fugitives had
been at Cooperstown. IL miles from
Butler. The detectives took two
horse sleigh driven by James Snyder
and started out on the road toward
the Newcastle pike, land at farmhouse
they learned, in an hour, that the
sleigh containing the men and woman
had passed. They got the same in
formation at grist mill further on,
and at Mount Chestnut they learned
that the sleigh had gone through there.
Here they received a telephone
h.,1 NLx l.. 4 Al.
dinner at "a hotel and were hitching
up to depart. The detectives hurried on
and were Joined by sleigh containing
a number of Butler citizens. among
them the chief of police of Butler
Prospect the detectives saw their
quarry on little rise in the road.
The Biddles and the woman drove on
ahead of two horse sleigh that was
ahead of them, while McGovern and
Roach got their rifles ready and Swine
hart pulled his revolver McGovern
recognized the Biddles when the two
sleighs were 100 yards apart, and at
the same moment the desperate fugi
tives saw that they were cornercd and
prepared for a battle 10 the death.
The detectives sprung from their
sleigh and called on the Biddles to
surrender. Ed Biddle rose in his seat
and taking careful and Deliberate aim
with his shotgun fired at McGovern,
hut the load scattered harmlessly on
the road alongside the detective. Nc
Govern and Roach fred Mt the men,
who sat together, while Mrs Soffel sat
on one side. ...... .... ...
Jack Biddle sprang to an upright
position and fired three shots at the
detectives, but Swinehart, stcadying
himself and aiming, fired bullet from u
4j-Colts' revolver that disabled jack $
arm. McGovern rushed forward and
literally shot the two men out of the
sleigh. Ed Biddle stumbled out on
the road, and Jack, who had been try
ing to protect the woman by interpos-
ing his body between her and the rain
of bullets from the officers guns. fell
on top of his brother. Their weapons
fell alongside of them.
Mrs. Sotfel collapsed in the sleigh and
the horse ran away, but was caught by
the men in the other sleigh of pur-
suers, who had come up at the last
moment in time TO fire II volley that
went wild at the Biddles.
The detectives approached the
wounded men cautiously. Roach saw
Ed Biddle reach into his coat pocket,
| where revolver was afterward found.
and shot him again. Then Detective
McGovern ran up within five feet and
| fired his rifle at the brothers. The
Biddles yielded and the detectives,
| Handwriting them and shackling bheir
legs, brought them to Butler Mrs.
Soffel was made as comfortable as pos
sible in the sleigh and was brought to
the hospital here.
1t was reported last night that Mrs.
Soffel had shot at the detectives, in
fact that she ''stood up like a man, -
but the officers say that report is not
true. 1t was only when the Biddles
fell out of the cutter that she fired a
revolver, and then it was into her own
| breast, although more than one of the
bullets fired by the officers are in her
body.
The detectives, while pursuing the
Biddles, were told at farmhouses along
the way that the party they were chas-
ing had passed some time before, and
yet met the fugitives coming toward
them. This is explained by the fact
| that the Biddles had started back to
retrace their way. The officers did
their best not to hit the woman, but
there was little time to take aim and
the shooting soon became general Had
the Biddles recognized the detectives
sooner, John Biddlc said last night,
they would have put Mrs. Sotfel out Of
| the cutter, AS tlpy wpra fullV da.